Major Myths

In the form of Durga, Devi is a warrior goddess charged with protecting the gods and the world from powerful demons. The gods used their combined strength to create Durga when they were unable to overpower a terrible buffalo demon named Mahisha (pronounced muh-HEE-shuh). They gave Durga ten arms—so she could hold many weapons—and a tiger to carry her into battle. Durga and Mahisha fought a long, terrible, and bloody battle in which the two opponents changed shape many times. Durga finally managed to kill the demon by piercing his heart with a trident and cutting off his head.

Devi also takes gentler forms. As Sati (pronounced suh-TEE), a loyal wife to Shiva, she burned herself alive to defend his honor and prove her love. When Shiva refused to let go of Sati’s burning body, the god Vishnu (pronounced VISH-noo) had to cut her body out of his arms. Her remains were then cut into fifty pieces and scattered to different places that became shrines. As Parvati (pronounced PAR-vuh-tee), Devi is a gentle and loving wife who went through great sacrifice to win Shiva’s love. Parvati has a softening influence on the harsh god and is often portrayed as an idealized beauty or pictured with Shiva in domestic scenes.

Another, and quite different, form of Devi is the fierce Kali (pronounced KAH-lee). Like Durga, Kali defends the world from demons, but she can go into a rage and lose control. When she blindly begins to kill innocent people, the gods have to intervene. On one occasion, Shiva threw himself among the bodies she was trampling to bring her out of her madness. Images of Kali show her with black skin, three eyes, fangs, and four arms. She wears a necklace ofskulls and carries weapons and a severed head. She is usually portrayed with her tongue hanging out in recognition of her victory over the demon Raktavira (pronounced rahk-tah-VEER-uh). To make sure that Raktavira was truly dead, Kali had to suck the blood out of his body because any drop that fell to the ground would produce a duplicate of him.

There are numerous other forms of Devi. As Uma (pronounced OO-ma), she appears as the golden goddess, personifying light and beauty. As Hariti (pronounced huh-REE-tee), she is the goddess of childbirth. As Gauri (pronounced GAH-ree), she represents the harvest or fertility, and as Manasa (pronounced mah-NAH-sah), she is the goddess of snakes. When she takes the role of mother of the world, Devi is known as Jaganmata (pronounced jahg-ahn-MAH-tah).