Durga

"In Bengal, again, the worship of Durga is accompanied by wearisome puerilities and gross idolatry. The cult of Kalı Devı is also associated with the horrors of Thagi."

"The major Bengali Hindu goddesses—Kali, Durga, Tara, Lakshmi, Saraswati— are generally shown as young and attractive. Even Kali, whose images in other regions of India are emaciated and ugly, is frequently shown as beautiful."

"Sometimes the goddess is offered blood at ritual times, such as on Durga Puja, in her role as Durga/Kali/Chandika. It is rarely seen today, but was important in the nineteenth century"

"The yantra of Nava-Durga (Durga surrounded by nine shaktis) hung by a thread around the arm or neck prevents diseases, whereas a yantra of Lakshmi brings fame and wealth, and keeps away danger and anxiety."

"The goddess Kundalini is sometimes portrayed in the form of Durga, as a beautiful woman who rides a lion, as a symbol ofstrength, courage, and virtue. When kundalini energy is aroused in a person, the goddess rides the lion of yoga."

"By 1905, Kali and Durga became the goddesses of revolution, and devotees worshiped them for strength to fight the British rulers. Secret societies were organized by revolutionaries, who laid their weapons at the altars of Kali temples, and ..."

"There are homa fire sacrifices twice a day, with vegetables and milkproducts, and large yearly pujas for Durga and Kali, with high attendance. There are offerings of bananas, vermilion, rice, and sweets, and on Durga Puja there isimmolation."

"Durga is a goddess with several important aspects: the folk dimension offertility and threat, a military and royal aspect, a Sanskritic side, and an ethical dimension. There are many types of devotion associated with Durga. In her modern and urban aspect, Durga is the Goddess of courage annstrength, who remained pure when tempted by demons and was able to conquer them resorting to the power and dominion of the Hindu gods."

"Accompanied by these goddesses, she conquers the demon army (which is exclusively male). The story of Durga in the Devi Mahatmya revolves around three battles: Durga fought with Madhu and Kaitabha, with Mahishasura and his armies."

"Ambika/Durga responded that she could only marry the man who conquered her in battle. The demon kings sent their armies, which she conquered, and then sent Chanda and Munda. When Durga saw them, her skin became black with anger, and Kali emerged from her forehead. Kali devoured elephants and riders, ate weapons and killed Chanda and Munda (Durga then gave her the name Chamunda, as conqueror of Chanda and Munda). The demon kings and their remaining armies came out and surrounded Durga. At that moment, the creative energies (Shaktis) of the various gods came forth in female form, as an army to fight the demons. When drops of blood from the demon Raktabija fell to earth and created new demons, Kali drank all of the blood so that no new demons would arise, and Raktabija was conquered. When Shumba accused Durga of being dependent on her female army to win the battle, she absorbed them back into herself, saying that they were only her own powers. Both demons kings were slain in the battle."

"When Ravana kidnapped Sita (who was one of the incarnations of the goddess), Durga became angry with him, and she shifted her loyalties toward Rama. When Rama and his armies came to rescue Sita, Rama was terrified, and Brahma suggested that he would worship the goddess who would give him courage."

"Durga Puja also involves home worship, in which wealthier houses can afford their own statues, and Durga is welcomed in a more personal manner as the daughter of the household who has come for a visit. Because a daughter would often leave have her natal family at a very early age in an arranged marriage in which she went to live with her husband’s family there was a great sense of loss on the part of both the daughter and the parents. Durga Puja represents the time that the daughter could return to her parent’s house and was a time for happiness and reunion. Families welcome their own married daughters by honouring and worshipping Durga. When Durga (and daughter] leave, at the end of the festival, the married women of the family or neighbourhood typically gather in the household and walk around the goddess in a circle making the noise of ululation (a thrilling sound of farewell), and then wipe of the goddess’s tears with betel leaves (she cries because she is leaving her loving household). She is offered consecrated food and red kumkum powder, symbolizing her return to married life."

"Kali's origin is described traditionally as an emanation from the goddess Durga in the Chandi section of the Markandeya Purana: Thereupon Amibika [Durga] became terribly angry with those foes, the great bhakti goddesses of w:West BengalWest Bengal"

"The Puja celebrations of Durga and Kali are the largest Shakta festivals of urban West Bengal. They reflect the importance of the Bengali bhakti or devotional tradition, but incorporate historical change: Durga in a British bonnet,..."

"There are well-known goddesses such as Durga and Kali who are richly endowed in many brahmanic temples and have acquired a plethora of textual references, yet these goddesses still carry with them explicittribal associations. Over many centuries Durga and Kali were transformed dramatically as they were successively associated with devotes of tribal, agricultural, warrior, priestly and modern urban orientations."

"A wife who is dedicated to her husband is often referred to as Sita, or a woman who exhibits a fighting spirit to make things right is referred to asKali or Durga. Feminist movements have started to use this traditional understanding to empower women."

"Contemporary Iterations of Hindu Deities on the Move. Resentations of her appear. She has obviously been well integrated into the official iconographic traditions of South India by the mid-seventh century. Durga is also prominent ..."

"Durga is a very old divinity known in prototype as Vac, the goddessof victory. Suggestive references can also be found to a similar goddess onIndus valley seals, and even among early Mesopotamian artifacts. There are also strong hints of a “Durga-like” presence in early Indus Valley settlements. The first known sculpture of Durga asMahishasuramardhini in Indian art dates from the first century BC. The same female power is also mentioned in the early Sangam literature from Tamilnadu, where she is named Kirravai. Again in these ancient sources, she is portrayed as the goddess who kills the buffalo demon Mahisaura. Durga is also very prominent in the famous stone carvings at w:MahabalipuramMahabalipuram, in Tamilnadu, where several sculpted representations of her appear. She has obviously been well integrated into the official iconographic traditions of South India by the mid-seventh century."

"In 1639, Kantirava Narasimharaja made the transition from local hill goddess to Puranic deity by referring to the protector Godess of the Mysore kingdom as both Chamundi and as the slayer of the buffalo demon (Mahishasuramardhini), clearly associating Mysore and the myth of Durga slaying the bufflow-demon Mahishasura. As such he also explicitly reconfigured his realm with the Puranic landscape. The hill was no longer just important to the inhabitants of Mysore, but it acquired pan-Indian significance, and its influence reached farther. It is at this point that the goddess of the hill was clearly associated with Chamunda and Durga and with the Puranic narrative of Mahadevi, signaling a period of greater imperial aspirations."