Durga

India

One of the major goddesses of India, much venerated especially in Bengal. Her worship was and is so widespread and manifold, that she is sometimes seen as an individual goddess, at other times as "merely" a name for, or an aspect of, Shakti and/or Kali.

Durga is a very complex goddess venerated in a great number of sects and schools. The earliest mention of this deity can be found in the Mahabharata where she is a virgin delighting in wine, flesh and animal sacrifice, a fierce goddess who slays the terrible demon Mahisha. In another passage she is regarded as "the wife of Shiva" and as such is addressed as Uma. Durga-worship became more widespread between the 4th and 7th century, when many more texts begin to mention her. This development mirrors the resurgence of goddess-worship in general and the early beginnings of what is now called Shakta.

Like many other Great Goddesses in India and the world over, Durga knows a number of multiple manifestations, very similar to what we encounter in the cases of the Middle-Eastern Ishtar, or with Kali. One of such groups is known by the collective name of Nayikas, and another and very different group are the nine Navadurgas.

Apart from these groups, Durga is further involved with and connected to a variety of other goddesses, and she also has a number of different individual names, epitaphs and aspects.

She is approached as Ambika (Skt., "Little Mother", "Mother Dear") when the worshipper wants to emphasize that aspect of her. The name Uma is used when one wants to point out her role as lover/Shakti of the male god Shiva and there's also the name Ghanti which is used to speak of her in yet another aspect.

That Durga is one of the very Great Goddesses of India can be judged by the fact that she is the only female deity after whom an entire Upanishad has been named. The text can be found as part of the so called Atharvasiras Upanishad, a late 7th-century collection of five Upanishads each dedicated to one specific deity; i.e. Durga and the four gods Vishnu, Shiva, Surya and Ganesha.

A further indication to Durga's importance in the Indian pantheon comes from the group of the ten most exalted Mahavidyas. Two of these ten manifestations of Shakti are very often identified with Durga. These are Bhuvanesvari and Chinnamasta.

Durga is also known as, or connected to, the following names:
Amba, Amber, Ambika, Aparajita, Bhadra, Bhattarika, Dasabhuja, Ekanamsa (moon), Iravati (river), Isana, Jagadgauri (also Parvati), Kirata (also Ganga), Kokamukha, Kotavi (magic, ritual energy), Ksama (a Yogini), Madira (drugs), Mahasveta (mother earth), Mahisasuramardini, Malini, Mari, Muktakasi, Taleju, Uma (the mountaingoddess), Yogamaya.