The Goddess in India: The Five Faces of the Eternal Feminine

by Devdutt Pattanaik

The first exhaustive collection of goddess mythologies from India.

•Explores the evolution of goddess worship in India over 4,000 years.

•Stunning color photographs illustrate many stories of goddess lore never before available in one collection.

In India it is said that there is a goddess in every village, a nymph in every lake. Demonesses stand guard on village frontiers, ogresses howl on crossroads, and untamed forests resound with the laughter of celestial virgins. It is a land of mysterious Apsaras and seductive Yakshinis, of terrifying Dakinis and wise Yoginis--each with a story to tell.

In this wide-reaching exploration of ancient Hindu lore and legends, author Devdutt Pattanaik discovers how earth, women and goddesses have been perceived over 4,000 years. Some of the tales recounted are revered classics, others are common and folklorish, often held in disdain by priests. Until now, most have remained hidden, isolated in distant hamlets or languishing in forgotten libraries, overwhelmed by the din of masculine sagas.

As the tales come to light through word and stunning color imagery, the author identifies the five faces given to the eternal feminine as man sought to unlock the mysteries of the female half of existence is at first identified with Nature, gradually deified and eventually objectified. She comes to be seen as the primal mother, fountainhead of life and nurturance. The all-giving mother then transforms into the dancing nymph, a seductress offering worldly pleasures that bind man in the cycle of life. As this nymph is domesticated, the dominant image of woman becomes the chaste wife with miraculous powers. Finally the submissive consort redefines herself as the wild and terrifying goddess who does battle, drinks blood, and demands appeasement.

Exploring mysteries of gender and biology, and shedding light on the roots of taboos and traditions practiced in India today, the author shows how the image of the Mother Goddess can be both worshipped and feared when she carries the face of mortal woman.

Genres: Mythology, Religion, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Hinduism, Feminism, India

176 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik (born December 11, 1970) is an Indian physician turned leadership consultant, mythologist and author whose works focus largely on the areas of myth, mythology, and also management. He has written a number of books related to Hindu mythology, including Myth = Mithya: A Handbook of Hindu Mythology, a novel, The Pregnant King, and Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata (2010).
He is the Chief Belief Officer of Future Group, one of India’s largest retailers, bringing the wisdom of Indian mythology into Indian business, especifically in human resource management. He also writes a column for the newspaper MID DAY.
He has also written a novel based on a tale from the Mahabharata titled 'The Pregnant King' published by Penguin Books India

Reviews

[Kaśyap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads more like a loose collection of fascinating myths rather than a cohesive work.

[Rahul Yadav · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting loose collection of folk tales from all over the Indian subcontinent shedding light on how the feminine image was viewed and how it changed - as is clear from the change of religious and mythological narrative about women as they're first identified with nature, gradually deified, and eventually objectified as things which needed domestication - to adapt to the rise of the patriarchal society so that it can justify itself.

There are no hard conclusions in the book, which I liked as it leaves that to the reader to ponder over.

[N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many an interesting story that I didn't know and had me nodding along with wonder and curiosity, but as is the frustrating thing about Hindu mythology, is never the complete or exhaustive telling, inference, or source of modern day beliefs, meaning that extending the interesting story beyond to parallels, phenomenology, or socio-anthropology is a dangerous and misleading exercise. If this were not the case, this would be a 5-star book, fascinating despite the poor editing, hopelessly muddled organization, lack of compelling narrative flow or structure. Pages are packed with cool stories, little-known facets of well-known myths, and endless food for thought about human behavior abstracted to larger forces of evolutionary psychology and the collective unconscious. A breezy and never-boring read for someone already interested in this sort of thing. The fact that I picked it up for insight into the transcendental feminine archetype that has survived over millennia in our culture was quickly forgotten and subsumed by the fun of reading like Amar Chitra Katha.

Extracts

1. Reaction of male head to female body. 2. Woman, earth, goddess are same and to be worshipped. 3. Transforms into seductress binding man to cycles of life. 4. Domestication into chaste wives. 5. Wild terrifying war goddess drinking blood

Women menstruate. Men shed seed and then do nothing so women seem closer to nature, creation and man has no role. Man sees woman as nature and either flight (transcend into heaven) or fight (suppress, conquer, exploit nature) against women.

Sages entered and shiva didn't stop copulating. So cursed to be worshipped as linga, while Parvati covered face with lotus out of embarrassment, lajja-gauri.

Lotus as creation because converts slime of marsh into life and beauty

Evolution of sex: why is one the receptacle, why not exchange genetic material and both individuals give birth. Wasted womb? Why did genders become more successful than sexually reproductive hermaphrodites?

Brahma thought up the saptarishi or prajapati, progenitors of the world. Marichi thought up kashyap. He was spirit that desired embodiment. Seed into 13 wombs created all the different species. Wise should see through differences to prajapati unity. Wombs as environments that drive different natural selection/speciation?

Nothing gendered about purusha (unmanifest intelligence) prakriti (manifest energy), Shakti (source of power), Maya , Brahman but writers bestowed gender and created prejudice and gendered thinking.

Yama refuses to mate with yami his sister, so does not procreate, not reborn, so stranded in land of the dead. Again, man reasonably anti incest, fwd looking, while woman follows biological urges.

Shive curses Brahma to not have any temples because he populates world by copulating with own daughter Sandhya, goddess of dawn (ushas).

Shiva, means pure, pure consciousness prefers entropy and pure spirit rather than matter/universe so lord of destruction. Always shown as unwilling husband.

Sages, angered by erect shiva, castrate him. Lingam becomes fiery missile that will destroy 3 world's. They create Shakti to receive the lingam and tame it.

Woman/goddess always sits on left. Why. Maybe to leave man's strong hand free for sword/offerings. Maybe because heart is in left of body. Maybe because right is controlled by logical left brain so man.

2: earth mother
Rape: padmavati raped, tried to abort, doesn't work, curses the child - kamsa. Ravana rapes rambha, cursed if he ever does it again (hence sita left chaste). Also rapes vedavati who self immolates promising revenge, reborn to ravanas wife mandodara prophesied to kill him so abandoned and adopted by janaka, sita.
Abortion: Womb no say in accepting unwanted seed. Cursed for aborting unborn child. Vali tried to abort Hanuman, missile turned into earrings, and he was cursed to be killed while helpless. Fate of man who tries to halt cycle of life is neverending agony - ashvathama cursed never to heal because tried to kill child in uttaras womb

Women as key to species: after parashurama eradicated Kshatriyas, one sole survivor who had hidden in female quarters (can't kill woman) - nari-kavacha or armor of woman, repopulates Kshatriyas singledickedly. Woman as earth: bhudevi the nourishing earth-cow brings famine when annoyed, gets promise from Vishnu for protection when hurt by humans - sacred cow

Sex interrupted: Pandu cursed by kindama who turned into deer so as to fk openly. Krishna's son interrupts and cursed by viraja to turn into ocean that never quenches thirst. Only the devas are childless because no need after nectar of immortality.

Woman as receptacle, altar to man's priest. But how possible if she only chooses mate, and most men remain unchosen.

Gandhavati means smelly one because fisherwoman. Parasara has sex with her but her virginity was immediately restored, along with b.o turned to erotic fragrance that seduced Shantanu - transformative knowledge of sex?

Tambaku ugly woman who died lonely. Next birth all men would desire her, reborn as tobacco plant. Pan is aphrodisiac and women can only offer/accept to husbands. Makes lips red.

Women's enjoyment of sex vital for healthy child - hence blind dhritarashtra, pale Pandu and healthy vidura.

Man's responsibility when wife is ovulating. Uttanka sleeps with master Veda's wife because he's away. Veda comes back and says that was correct. Ulupi abducts arjuna and demands seed, duty of man to offer, hence was born aravan. Women use this right to demand seed from most powerful, kaikesi goes to vaishrava who cannot deny her, hence born ravana. Arjuna rejects urvashi, cursed to become eunuch.

Parting hair and putting vermilion done in 7th month of pregnancy, signifies parting of vagina and blood stained fluids gushing out.

Pot as symbol of womb. Akshaya Patra or celestial womb. Bharadvaja turned on by naked gritachi, seeds into a pot whence is born drona or pot-born.

3: seductress binding man to samsara
Ravishing unattainable nymph, gives man a good time but leaves, leaving him distraught and incapable of pleasure with mortal women. Urvashi and pururava

Reversal of Cronus: Ganga kills her 7 children while Shantanu who only got her on condition on nonquestioningness, looks on. Says fie witch on 8th kid and she returns to heaven. 8 vasus had asked her to be reborn as their mother and kill them so they can return to heaven. 8th kid never takes wife, has no kids, cursed by ancestors, bhishma

Inevitable evolution of male gender to mate with female: Brahma creates shatarupa who doesn't want to commit incest so she keeps running away changing form to some female animal with Brahma changing to the male equivalent,.through all the species. Unworthy of worship because this was primal karma binding soul to matter

Shiva hates being bound and turns ascetic to burn off karma, escaping samsara. Brahma can't have this so again used woman - Sati, daughter of his son daksha. He insults shiva, Sati self immolates and shiva kills him and dances to destroy universe until Vishnu scatters her corpse which calms him down.

Rejection of woman (pleasure, responsibility) is rejection of samsara. Nemi walks away from his wedding because so many animals being slaughtered. Tirthankara (pathfinder) or Jina, he who triumphs over samsara, Jainism.

Immortal soul from seed. Mortal from menstrual fluid. Those born or two men, like sabarimalai ayappa where Vishnu took form of mohini and seduced shiva, are transcendental

Hanuman not born or vayu but of shivas seed (again thanks to mohini) collected by vayu. Celibate vira like ayappa. But in Balinese Hinduism he has a lot of sexual prowess used on many women.

There are no women in heaven. Men can deny earthly bonds but women menstruate and therefore cannot..

Karaikal ammaiyars spirituality scares away her husband, then she asks to be converted to an ugly crone so no men will find her attractive and she can devote fully to shiva..

Narada asks kamsa how do u know she hasn't had 7 miscarriages so passing off 8th child as 1st.. so kamsa decides to kill every child

Parvati, mother Goddess, tempers shivas asceticism while saraswati, knowledge arts, tempers brahmas carnality

Society represented as square (manmade sharp boundaries) inside a circle (wheel of nature flowing)

Son if semen stronger than menstrual fluid. Daughter if not. Homosexual or hermaphrodite if equal.

Woman with more than 4 men is prostitute. So in marriage ritual, first given to soma, then vishvavasu then Agni then finally husband, hence using up 4 quote and forbidden to remarry

Gandhari asks duryodhana to come before her naked to bestow invincibility but Krishna shames him into covering up genitals. She opens blindfold and weeps foolish boy, he is duly cocksmashed by bhima.

Damayanti so chaste her would be rapist burst into flame. Thus if rapist didn't, victim is a hoe. Burden of proof on the woman, trial by fire like sita.. she still isn't believed. Then defeats rakshasa that only chaste woman can defeat. Still not believed, asked to go through another trial. She asks earth goddess to swallow her if chaste. Bye bye.

Putana nursing poison to kill kamsaslayer babies

Without role as mother, goddess turns cray. Parvati is maternal, Durga or Kumari which means virgin but also just unattached is bloodthirsty.

Parvati made to engage shiva sexually to sustain the universe. But prevented from conceiving, fearing her child. She gets really mad. Curses galore. Also makes Vinayak (without any man) when shiva says nah I ain't want no responsibility.

Unbridled destructive energy of goddess is Deus ex machina more than even Vishnu, shiva. But once achieved goals, need to be transformed into creative power. Kali runs amok, then shiva has sex with her. Becomes demure consort.

Shiva given fruits. Vishnu given sweets. Only goddess given blood sacrifice, that too only males.

Domestication through marriage/childbirth harnesses feminine energy. So like charging a battery this needs to be reversed before doing it again. Hence crazy hysterical fit type rituals full of sex and violence, throwing off mental repression and male suppression to regain power, that can then be domesticated once more.

[Vishal Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Hindu Mythology earlier there were only Wild goddesses later we domesticated them to become Laxmi and Saraswati.

[Savita Ramsumair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative

This book was very informative on different aspects not the Divine Mother. I learned a lot from this informative book.

[Saravana Sastha Kumar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nowhere near the initial great works of Devdutt. Too much repetition for regular readers of his books and overemphasis on the fringe interpretations, generalisation and eroticising of the motifs. Glad it was not a long book.

[madwhimsy (Madelyn) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book!

[Dr. DB Singh · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you compare this to the older work of the same author, you will be disappointed. Somehow I feel that the author has stressed too much on things that he thinks sell, example erotica, menstruation, fringe interpretations etc. He goes on to generalize things that should have been particular. Overall not too bad if you are new to the genre.

[sunwinewanderlust · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s informative, if you’re interested in Hindu mythology. But the ‘story’ could have been better if the concepts had been woven together more cohesively. Felt more like a collection of myths and facts rather than a well put together book.

[Nikhita Salian · Rating 3 out of 5]

a

[Deepthi Kanithi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is extremely interesting but struggles to find its place - is it for the coffeetable or a bookshelf?

[Ila · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF

[Mridula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read.Some parts good, some not. Some hard to accept, some easy to feel proud. Some debatable, some acceptable.

[Bishakha Mookherjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

How vabriant and interesting are our mythology, our epic. The book is a view to that.