With special thank and gratitude to
Mrs. Chandra Sen - Anthropologist (PhD from Delhi University)
Mr. Shantanu Dey - Professor ( History, Delhi University)
Ms. Mouli Gupta - Professor ( Philosophy, JNU)

The social-anthropologists could never ascertain exactly when, where and why primitive men started imagining the existence of a “Great-Mother”. It is almost impossible to find an answer to these questions except the third one. From the oldest archaeological relics that have been discovered so far, only this much can be ascertained that long before the advent of the New-Stone Age, towards the middle or the closing part of the Old Stone Age, the concept and worship of the Great-Mother had made its impact on human-psyche. While searching for the latent reason behind this idea, one encounters a controversy.

Some experts suggest that after the discovery of agriculture, when the concept of Fertility evolved as a part of religious-belief ---from then onwards this universe was being considered as “Mother” and this led to the establishment and expansion of the worship of this “Great Mother”. Others are of the opinion that there are ample evidences that even during the pre-agriculture days, Mother-worship was in vogue. The tiny sculptures of the Old Stone Age discovered so far, point out that they had been created many a thousand year before the advent of agriculture and all these were female figurines where their femininity had so prominently been sculpted that most of the models depict images of pregnant mothers.

These are called “Venus Figurines” and they date back to not less than 25,000yrs—i.e. penultimate part of the Old Stone Age!

But the main question still remains unanswered! Why all over the world right from the pre-historic times the Mother-Cult evolved? Why primitive men started worshipping a “Great Mother”?

Most of the sociologists have agreed that in the social structure of the primitive men the position and the right of the mothers were higher than the fathers. With the institution of marriage still not in practice, father’s name of a newborn baby could not be made certain. But because of the imminent biological changes in a pregnant female, a baby could always be bestowed with the definite name of the mother much before she gives birth to it. So, naturally in this kind of social set-up mothers commanded more importance. And this paved the way for the emergence of the Mother-Cult in ancient mind.

This particular importance of mothers in the primitive hunting and gathering stage of human history remained unchanged till the early parts of the agriculture-period. Since fertility was an indispensable part of agriculture, therefore nature became synonymous with the woman (Mother-Cult) and the fertilization-process of agriculture found its parallel in the human fertility-process leading to childbirth. In those societies where agriculture was the main source of livelihood, the matriarchal structure of the society remained dominant initially .But the cattle-breeding kind of social-structure, who unlike the farmers was nomads, became patriarchal due to the obvious natural and biological reason of men being physically stronger and bigger than women.

Gradually when the conflict between the farmers and the cattle breeders got resolved, the social set-up also adapted the economic, religious and cultural aspects of the both .The concepts of personal property and relations evolved accordingly; the existence of the Mother-cult remained, though that was not all-pervading like before; and a Father-principle intertwined with the Mother-principle started being worshipped too. Thus the concept of the “Purush” and “Prakriti” came into existence. But still the idea of a Magna-Marta was not displaced from the human-psyche.

Ever since the Mother-cult got amalgamated with the idea of fertility, from then onwards the rituals connected to her worship started incorporating sex-oriented features. The “Great-Mother” created the “Primeval Father” from her own body and they together created the Universe. This concept is found in almost all the primitive myths of the world, which once again signifies the importance and dominance of the “Mother”.

With the advent of time, almost all the religions of the world have undergone modifications excepting in our country. Often the Hindus still cling on to their age-old religious practices very ardently – the “Sanatan Dharma”.

 As a result the Mother-cult is still alive in the Hindu religious concept along with the worship of the “Great-Mother”, and it is interesting to note that this continuum of religious tradition has been maintained by the tribal people of the country .Subsequently the tribal deities have found their place in the Hindu religious platform-------the common examples being Manasa (Shiva’s daughter--- Aryanised version of the Dravidian Snake-goddess Monchamma and the tree-goddess Chemmurhu) and Chandi (Shiva’s wife---Aryanised version of the lizard-riding tribal goddess of the Oraons called Chaandi).

Except for the local colours most of these deities are worshipped as Shiva’s wife as per rituals and beliefs of the Hindu Puranas. It will not be out of place to mention here thatthe “Primeval Father” created by the “Great Mother” was called “Shiva”—the name unanimously accepted by both sociologists and religious theoreticians. Therefore Bonbibi, Sarbamangala, Jogadya, Kankali, Bashuli-------have kept alive the popular and indigenous primitive concept of the Mother-cult in the Hindu society alongside the classical concept  of the major  Hindu goddesses like Chandi, Durga, Kalika et-al.

This “Mahamatrika”(Great-Mother)has been bestowed with such multiple names in the Puranas  much after the advent of Hindu religious practice .But the first reference of this “Mother” was available in the pre-Aryan Indus-civilization and it is also a proven fact that  this “Great-Mother” eventually was transformed to the Mahashakti or the Jagadamba who later came to be known as Chandi, Durga etc. in Hindu religion.

Durga is the most popular goddess worshipped by the Bengalis. She is generally identified with Devi Chandika of the Markandeya Purana.. Yet social anthropologists confirm that Durga is primarily a Mother-Goddess worshipped by the pre-Aryan Dravidians or the Austric-sects  and she symbolized crop, wealth, child ,success etc. So the source of Durga has to be searched not in the classical but the primitive socio-cultural traditions of our country.

It may be noted that the preliminary form of Mahishasura Mardini was found inscribed in a set of Indus-valley seals, which depict a female figure which is half- god and half- tiger. So was found the first inscribed form of the archetypal Shiva. In a similar seal an inscription of a female figurine has been found where it could be noted that a bunch of crop is seen protruding out of the uterus through her spread-out thighs. Scholars have concluded that this seal proves that the Mother-Goddess worshipped by the Indus-people was the goddess of crop who was better known as “Shakambhari”. It is worth mentioning that the Puranic Chandika (who was often identified with Durga) had introduced herself as “Shakambhari”in the Markandeya Purana.

Keeping this particular reference in mind presently Goddess Durga is visualized as holding 10 kinds of “Shak”(vegetation)in her 10 palms. These Shaks are Patra(leaf), Mul(root), Karir(a kind of desert plant), Agro(tip of the tree branch), Phala(fruit), Phool(flower) etc. This signifies that Durga was originated as the goddess of crop in ancient times.

Durga was originally worshipped at the end of winter, in spring, the season of burgeoning of new leaves ,fruits and flowers, though presently the Akal-Bodhan (untimely invocation) of the Devi is in practice  at the end of autumn. One may remember that Durga Puja has as a part of its ritual the worship of “Nabapatrika”(nine items of vegetation  like  turmeric, banana, paddy etc). This is to be noted that conceiving Durga’s image as “Shakambhari”or making “Nabapatrika” worship an integral part of  Durga-worship indicate that this goddess initially originated in the primitive forest-based economical set-up, since our forefathers used to gather flora and fauna from forests for their livelihood. Animal-offering for slaughter in front of the goddess (or sacrifice) also is carrying the traces of the hunter-stage of our forefathers.

Many of the birds, reptiles, animals perhaps symbolized the totems of several primitive tribal groups. Thus lion(or tiger),elephant, snake, owl, swan, peacock, mouse ,lotus, and “Nabapatrika”---together  constituted the image of Durga that is worshipped along  with her children today. This is also indicative of the totemic unification of the  different  primitive tribes. That Durga originally was a forest-dwelling goddess gets its further testimony from her name “Kokamukha” found in Mahabharata meaning tiger-faced; in another opinion wild dog or jackal. This “Kokamukha”Devi lived in the Bindhya forest, it is believed!

 Whatever her lineage is, after her elevation to the upper stratum of the society she has been worshipped as Durga –Mahisasura Mardini who rides a lion and therefore is also called Singha- bahini.

This brings us to yet another controversy!

The Indus seals(one of which shows the preliminary form of Mahishasura Mardini) have all kinds of animals inscribed on them except lion .It was  probably rather natural for the Indus artists to portray the real picture of the area in the inscribed seals which thus authenticate that there were no lions in that area at that time. It has already been mentioned that one seal has been discovered which shows an amalgamated form of a goddess and a tiger! This particular theme may be considered as the archetype of Durga, with the tiger first becoming her vehicle and finally it was replaced by a lion.

Indus-specialists like Dr. H. Mode, Malati Sendge are of the opinion that extreme deforestation had led to topographical changes in Indus-valley region making it barren. As a result the tigers habituated to dwelling in swampy forests chose to leave that belt. Another explanation goes to say with the emergence  of  the Brahmanical Aryan culture, the impression  about tigers as bearer of goddess started taking a downward slope with harsh comments like “Thief “ etc. being used for them in the different Upanishads. Therefore the tiger got replaced by the lion which symbolized the power and class-privilege of the higher Brahmanical society. One should keep in mind here that Durga had eventually become a classical goddess by virtue of being identified with Chandika  and as  a  consequence was worshipped by the people  belonging to the upper stratum of the society.

But due to her indigenous folk-lineage, the tiger–riding form of the Goddess remained intact in the traditional folk-deities like Bonbibi, Baghaidevi, Bhandani, Sarbamangala, all of whom were synonymous with the Mother-cult of which Durga is also an inseparable part.

Some other Indus seals explain the significance of the slaughter of the “Mahisha” (Buffalo) by the Goddess. It is believed by the scholars that there were different groups in Indus-valley social polity each of which used to worship different animals. These groups were named ‘cults’ according to the animals they worshipped; the most prominent among them being the matriarchal tiger-worshipping-cult and the patriarchal buffalo-worshipping –cult. Mutual rivalry led to a fierce battle between the two cults ending up in the defeat of the Buffalo-cult in the hands of the Tiger-cult. This is portrayed in three Indus-valley seal-engravings:

i)a figure which looks half-goddess and half-tiger (archetype of Mahishasura Mardini as referred to earlier).

ii)fight between   buffalo and  Devi

iii)killing of the buffalo by the Devi with a spear .

Thus it can be logically derived that the Tiger-cult (symbolized by seal-i) clearly overrides the buffalo-cult thereby announcing the victory of the “Great-Mother” once again. This concept in our times has assumed the very popular image of Mahishasura (lord of the buffaloes) being slaughtered by Durga---the Goddess riding the lion (it has already been explained why tiger was replaced by the lion).

Now Durga Puja, held in autumn is the biggest festival of the Bengalis where Durga is considered as the married daughter of the family who comes to meet her parents with her children only once a year. And her Mahishasura Mardini image gives her the title of “Durga Durgotinashini”--- or Durga  the saviour, thereby reminding one  the”Great Mother” of primitive ages.

This Mahishasura Mardini is Durga ----the deity we worship today. It is interesting to note that it is  due to the unison of classical Chandi with the  daughter of Himalaya---- Uma alias Parvati alias Durga ---- Mahishasura  Mardini Devi is being worshipped with the entire family of Durga ( namely her  children:Ganesha,Kartikeya,Lakshmi,Saraswati, and Ganesha’s wife named ‘Kala-bou’-- the banana-bride, and Durga’s  husband  Shiva) though all of them are deities with separate identities.

So this is how the primitive forest goddess after centuries of modification first became the classical deity and ultimately settled down being the next door girl, an identity which neither her  classical nor her ‘saviour’ image could supercede at least in the  domestic Bengali mind!!

This article may be concluded by drawing attention to a strange belief associated with Durga’s home-coming. According to the ‘Panjika’(almanac)  Durga comes to Earth and goes back to Kailas  by four different modes of transport, each of which has an effect on the lives of people. These are: Boat ride, elephant ride, horse ride and palanquin ride. They indicate growth of cultivation, rainfall and abundant harvest, large scale disruption, famine and epidemic respectively.

However, if Durga comes to Earth to meet her parents only once in a year and being “Mahamatrika” to the mortal human being - why would she wish to bring in famine, epidemic and large-scale disruption along with her

The LOGIC-----social, religious, psychological----- remains silent here!!!

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