Durga: Her Origin and History

Author(s): B. C. Mazumdar
Source: The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, urnal of the
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (Apr., 1906), pp. 355-362
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25210252
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 355

XIII.
DURGA: HEB ORIGIN AND HISTORY.
By B. C. MAZUMDAR, M.R.A.S.

"PiURGA is a mighty Pauranic goddess; and of all the

forms of Siva's wife or &akti she is the most popular
and greatly honoured in the province of Bengal. It is in
the province of Bengal only that her Puja (worship) is
celebrated with great pomp and idol-exhibition. By ' PGja'
the Anglo-Indian means now the Durga-Piija festival of
Bengal, during which all Government offices remain closed
for ono month. A new clay image of the goddess is made
for the occasion, and it is enthroned on the sixth day of the
light fortnight of tho month Asvina. She is worshipped
during the three days next following, and is then immersed
in water on the DasamI day. These arc all very widely
known facts, but I mention them with a distinct purpose in
view, as will be shown later on.

I.

I need hardly point out that neither the Vedas nor the
old Vedic literature knew the name of this mighty goddess.
Dr. A. A. Macdonell has shown in his excellent edition of
the Bfhaddcvata that one solitary, meaningless mention of
her name in that book (ii, 77) is an interpolation.1 Leaving
aside the Mahabharata Samhita, we do not find any trace of
her in any literature or epigraphic writings down to at least
the fifth century a.d. It is necessary, therefore, to examine
critically the chapters of the Mahabharata where Durga
appears.
1 The name Durga does not seem to be mentioned either in the Ramayana or
in Manu.

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 356 durga: her origin and history.

There are two chapters in the Bombay edition of the

Mahabhiirata Samhita containing prayers to the goddess
Durgii;l they are the sixth of the Virata Parvan and the
twenty-third of the Bhisma Parvan. Tho Bardwan Raj
family Mahabharata does not contain any chapter in the
Virata Parvan devoted to a prayer to Durgii; a very careful
Bengali translation of this Mahiibhiirata has been published
by the proprietor of a journal named Vangaviisl. It is to
be noted that excepting these chapters there is no mention
even of her name elsewhere in the Samhita. The goddess,
whose mythology is not given at all in the Mahabharata,
either independently or in connection with the worship
of Siva or Skanda, is made the recipient of two stray
prayers very loosely connected with the preceding and
subsequent chapters. This circumstance is alone sufficient
to throw doubt on the genuineness of these prayer chapters.
But I have bettor proofs to offer to show that they are very
late interpolations.
Referring first to the Durga-stotra in the Virata Parvan,
we find the goddess described as daughter of Yasodii, the
wife of Nanda of tho Cowherd tribe (iv, 6, 2), sister of
Viisudeva (iv, 6, 4), living permanently on the Vindhya
hills (iv, 6, 17), and wearing a peacock's tail for her armlet
(iv, 6, 8). She is very dark in colour (iv, 6, 9), and
possesses four heads and four arms (iv, 6, 8). She is
a maiden, or Kumiirl Brahmaciirinl (iv, 6, 7), and sways
the worlds by remaining a maiden for ever (iv, 6, 14). It
is also stated that it was she who killed the demon
Mahisasura (iv, 6, 15), and that, as Kali, is fond of wine,
flesh, and animals. She dwells on the Vindhya mountain
(iv,6, 17).
Now, first of all, she is not described as Ptirvati, wife of
Mahiideva, in this chapter. To make her a wife of any
god would also havo been inconsistent with her character as
Kumiirl for ever. In the eighth sloka she is compared to
' Padmii, wife of Niirayana,' but her own condition is given

1 See Fausbbll, " Iudiaa Mythology," p. 159.

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 DURGA : HER ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 357

as that of a Kumar!. This shows clearly that Durga had

not become Parvat! when this chapter was composed. There
is no hint thrown out that she had any relationship with
the Himalaya, but, on the other hand, her origin is distinctly
given as from the family of the Cowherds, and the Vindhya
is described as her place of abode. She is associated here
with the worship of Krsna, and is shown rather to be the
tribal goddess of the Gopas or Abhiras.
Tho goddess Durga of the Puranas is tapta-kaficanu
varnabha' Gaurl, and not dark in colour, and she has ten
arms and not four. Neither Durga nor any other form of
Siva's Sakti carries four heads on the shoulder. It is also
to be noted that Durga is not included in the Dasa Mahii
vidyas or the ten glorious forms of the Sakti. The assertion
in the stotra that Durgil killed Mahisasura is false according
to tho Mahabharata mythology, for it is distinctly mentioned
in the Vana Parvan that Skanda, son of Agni, whom
Mahiideva and Uraa worshipped for nascent glory, dis
tinguished himself specially by having killed the demon
Mahisasura (iii, 230).
Now I shall consider another important character of
Durga, that she is Vindhyavasin! Kali and is very fond of
wine and blood. During the early years of the seventh
century a.d. we find it often mentioned by Biinabhatta and
others that the non-Aryans worshipped horrible goddesses
in the Vindhya region by offerings of wine and blood. Till
then, it seems, the Vindhyavasini had not obtained admission
into the temples of the Hindus. Either towards the end of
tho sovonth or by the beginning of the eighth century a.d.
tho poet Viikpati composed his Gaiidavaho kiivya. In thin
book the goddess Vindhya vasini appears in double character;
she is called in clear terms non-Aryan Kali, and at tho
same time declared to be a form of Parvat! herself.1 Her
worshippers till then are the Koli women and the Savaras
wearing turmeric leaves for their garment. Offerings made

1 In tho Kudambari sho is mentioned as the wife of Siva, see Miss Ridding**,
translation, pu. 49-50.

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 358 durga: her origin and history.

to her are wine and human blood (vide slokas 270 to 338
in the Bombay Sanskrit Series edition).
This gives us some idea as to the time when, as a hymn
in honour of Durgii as Vindhyaviisinf, the sixth chapter of
the Virata Parvan was composed. The twenty-third chapter
of the Bhlsma Parvan is hopelessly confused. All that has
been said of Durgii in the sixth chapter of the Virata Parvan
is fully repeated here, and still she is called the mother of
Skanda (vi, 23, 11), which is inconsistent with her character
as Kumiirl (vi, 23, 4). Though in tho seventh sloka she is
said to have her origin in the family of Nanda Gopa, yet
Kiiuslki, or born in the family of Kusika, is another adjective
given her in the eighth sloka.
It appears that when Durgii was merely a non-Aryan
tribal goddess her non-Sanskritic name was also either
Durgii or something which had a similar sound. The
reason for this supposition is that for want of some orthodox
grammatical derivation of tho word a now and defective
grammatical explanation had to be thought out. Derivation
of the name has been given in the following words:
41 Durgiit tarayaso Durge tat tvam Durgii smrtii janaih"
(iv, 6, 20).
"Whether Durgii had an independent existence as a tribal
goddess and only later became one and the samo with
Vindhyaviisinl, or whether the goddess Vindhyaviisini in
the process of evolution at the fusion of tribes .became
Durgii, is not easy to ascertain.1 But that there wras once
a Kumiirl Durgii, not belonging to the household of Siva,
is borne out by the interpolated stotras in the Mahabharata.

II.

I shall now give some account of a hitherto unnoticed

Kumiirl worship prevalent amongst the non-Aryan Sudra
castes in the Oriya-speaking hill tracts in the District of

1 See Bengal Census Report, 1901, vol. i, pp. 181-2.

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 durga: her origin and history. 359

Sambalpur, lying on the south-western border of Bengal.

In this out-of-the-way place, only recently opened out by
a railway line, all the different tribes retain to this day
their old manners and customs, unaffected by Brahmanie
influence. The place is extremely interesting on that account
for ethnographic researches.
Kuliii, Dumitl, and Sud are the Sudra castes of Sambalpur
that celebrate tho festival of Ktimsiri-Oaa in the lunar month
Asvina, from the eighth day of its dark fortnight to the
ninth day of tho light fortnight. Though the Brahman
priests officiate in all the religious and domestic ceremonies
of these people, the worship of the goddess Kumar! during
this festival is wholly and solely performed by the unmarried
girls of these Sudra people. It is a festival of the maidens
for a maiden goddess. The word Osa seems to be a con
traction of the Oriya term Upas (Sanskrit Upavasa). On
tho Krsna Astami day the maidens, singing special songs,
go out in large companies from the villages in quest of good
clay for making an image of the goddess Kumiiri. They
themselves fashion the idol in a rude form and besmear it
with vermilion. They sing and dance every day in honour
of the goddess, and that is the only thing they do to
worship her.
In some villages, owing very likely to the Brahmanie
influence, the figures of Hara-Piirvati and Laksml are
painted by tho girls on the walls, in addition to the figure
of Kumiiri. But this shows more unmistakably that this
Kumiiri is separate from, and has no connection with, the
renowned consort of Mahadova.
Somo of the songs chanted for worshipping the goddess
are interesting as giving some clue to tho history of the
festival. I notice here particularly two lines of one song;
they are?
"ASvine Kumar! janam
Gopinl-kule pujan."

It was in the month ASvina that the goddess Kumar! was

born, and in this month she is worshipped by the females

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 360 durga: her origin and history.

of the tribe of the Cowherds. Is not, thon, this Kumiirl

the same whom we meet with in the interpolated chaj)ters
of the Mohiibhiiriita as ' Nanda-gopa-kule jiita' P
Sukla Astami. is the principal day of the whole festival;
and the maidens sing and dance that day almost un
ceasingly, on the village green, till late at night. It is
worth noting that that is the very da)' regarded as very
important and holy in Bengal during tho Durgii - Pfi jii;
and special fasting is observed by tho Bengali Hindus on
that day called Maha-Astami (great Astami). I should
further notice that it is even now a custom in many villages
in the District of 24 Parganas in Bengal, that on this
Mahii-Astami day a Brahman maiden is to be worshipped
by other maidens by offering her new cloth, vermilion, and
flowers.
Again, on tho day next following, that is, on the Navamf
day, the non-Aryan maidens of Sambalpur sing some hardly
decent songs in honour of their maiden goddess. For this
reason the songs of the girls in general during the Kumiirl
Osii (called Diilkhiii songs bjr many people) aro unfortunately
believed by outsiders to bo wholly indecent. I may draw tho
attention of readers to the fact that tho custom of singing
obscene songs on the Navaml day during the Durgii-PGja
in Bengal was very widely prevalent throughout the lower
province of Bengal some twenty years ago, and even now
this custom is in full forco in many villages far away from
civilised centres. The Bengali phrase " Navamir Kheiid "
(obscene songs of Navami daj') is well known throughout
Bengal proper.
After the completion of worship on the &ukla Navaml
day the non-Aryan maidens of Sambalpur throw the Kumiirl
idol into water, singing songs meanwhile. I have stated
already that the goddess Durgii is also immersed in water
on the DasamI day (called Vijayii Dasanii) in Bengal.
As the Brahmans and other high - caste Hindus of
Sambalpur do not take any part in the Kumiirl-Osa of
the Sudras, and as the Diirgii-Pfijii in Bengal style is wholly
unknown to the people of Sambalpur, no one will venture to

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 durga: her origin and history. 361

say that the lower-caste ?udras in those inaccessible hilly

tracts imitated the Durga-Puja of Bengal. Since the Durga
Puja is celebrated in Bengal alone in a form and style which
strongly resemble the Kuraarl-Osa of Sambalpur in many
very important particulars, I may venture to think that it
was from some non-Aryan tribes of Bengal (who were once
akin to the Sfidras of Sambalpur and had great influence
all over the province of lower Bengal) that the Durga-Puja
was borrowed by the Hindus.
The influence of Brahmanism is nowadays so very supreme
in the province of Bengal that even those low-caste people
who allow widows to remarry, eat fowls, and drink wine,
elsewhere consider those acts as degrading and defiling.
Consequently it is impossible now to get any evidence in
this direction from the customs of any lower-class people in
Bengal proper.
I mention another fact in connection with the Durga
Puja rituals in Bengal. A plantain-tree is covered with
a piece of cloth and is posted on the right side of the
idol Durgii. This plantain-tree is regarded as the goddess
Vana Durga (Durgil who resides in forests), and she is
worshipped duly and carefully along with Durgii and other
deities associated with her and represented there in the
idol exhibition. As to whence this Vana Durgii came the
Puriinas aro silent, and the priests offer no satisfactory
explanation. That this Vana Durgii was a goddess of some
wild tribes seems pretty certain in the light of the facts
already detailed. That in addition to the image of Durga
a Vana Durgii has to be set up and propitiated, shows that
there was something in the origin of the Pfija which
recognised a goddess other than the consort of Siva.
The reward for which the non-Aryan maidens of Sambalpur
hope by worshipping their Kumiiri goddess is that their
brothers may obtain a long life. Hence Kumiirl-Osii is known
by another name, called Bhiii-JHitia. Bhai means brother,
and Jliitia means that which gives long life. There is also
a ceremony called Bhiii-Dvitia in Bengal, which is per
formed by sisters for the longevity of their brothers, nearly

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362 durga: her origin and history.

twenty days after the Durgii-Pfija. I strongly suspect that

it is the Bhai'-Jiutia which has been transformed into Bhiii
Dvitiii in Bengal, since the latter as a Hindu ceremony is
unknown in any other province of India.
As the Kumari-Pujii of the Tantric cult is a medley of
many things and requires a separate critical study, I have
made no reference to it in this paper.

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