The Indian Mother Goddess (Third Enlarged Edition)
The cult of the Great Mother Goddess, Mother Earth, is still widespread in non-Aryan circles in India. Each South Indian village is characterised by a specific set of so-called amma or "mothers" whose cult forms the basis of the religious practice of the village community. Often one of the "mothers" appears as the eldest of the sisters, while the younger ones are worshipped as local deities who manifest certain supernatural powers or exercise control over limited spheres. The priests of these goddesses, unlike the priests who perform the cult of Parvati in its other aspects in the large temples, are not Brahmans but belong to the lower castes, which indicates the pre-Aryan or at any rate non-Aryan nature of the cult of these goddesses. The cult of the Mother Goddess is also popular in the north. Sculptural images of "mothers" appear in India in the Middle Ages. Gradually the deities of this kind, and first of all the Mother Goddesses, find their way into Brahmanical Hinduism and are most firmly rooted in the Tantric literature. However, the sacred texts connected with the veneration of these 'goddesses and Parvati in the role of the Great Mother are considered 'agamiche', i.e. non-Vedic, and are opposed to the Vedic, 'nigamic' texts. In Brahmanical circles, attitudes towards the concept of the Great Mother remain fluctuating to this day. It is difficult to say exactly which aspects of Parvati's complex image are a development of her original character
as the merciful Mother-Goddess, and which belong to mythological characters who stood outside this concept. Par-vati has her intimidating hypostasis: Ambika, created from the most powerful properties of all the gods; by her the hitherto invulnerable buffalo demon Mahishasura was destroyed. Another form of Parvati is Chamunda, who slayed the demons Shum-bhu and Nishumbha. Another of her forms is Kali, on the occasion of her slaying demons dancing for joy until the earth trembled and the gods in fear of themselves have nominated his intercessor Shiva. He lay down at Kali's feet, and she continued her dance on his body until she stood still, horrified at what she had done. In these guises, the goddess is depicted riding a monstrous lion and clutching an incredible number of different weapons in her many hands. These aspects of her divine essence require bloody sacrifices. The sacrifice is usually a goat, but legends also tell of human sacrifice. It is difficult to reconcile these ferocious images with the meek, benevolent elements of the Parvati complex. From the myths of Parvati we also learn that through austere asceticism she got Shiva, the deity of male productive power, as her consort. Having his hand, she always remained faithful to him, but has not always been as true to the ideal of a homely wife, caring for her two sons and leading the family farm, although it is precisely in this light she is sometimes depicted in paintings and legends. Not unlike some European Griselda*, she embodies the character of a capricious and stubborn wife who is always ready to respond with an angry outburst to any real or imagined display of neglect on the part of her husband or to make him jealous of one of the other ladies of his heart; the latter include Sandhya, the goddess of twilight, and the celestial river Ganga (Ganges) dwelling in Shiva's hair; he lured her there at the moment when Ganga was descending from heaven to earth, threatening to devastate the whole world. The last stage in the development of the mythology of Parvati was Griselda, the heroine of a medieval European legend whose plot was used by Chaucer, Bocaccio, Petrarch and some other Renaissance writers. A commoner who became the wife of Walter, Marquis of Saluzzo, Griselda endured with unparalleled gentleness the ordeal of her husband.
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