Durga-A Contradiction to the Perception of Women
Most of us are familiar with the story praising the goddess Durga in Hindu mythology. When the demon Mahishasura ran rampant and disrupted the peace and balance between Heaven and Earth, it was Maa Durga who managed to stop him in the end. This sets the stage for Durga being portrayed as a warrior goddess, one of immense power and strength. However, while worshipping her, have we thought about the implications of such a deity?
This patriarchal society slams women down and considers them fit to run the household and look after their families alone. It is not desired that women have opinions or lives of their own, and all of these attributes to an “ideal” lady. Contrasting this popular belief is the figure that Durga maintains, going out into the battlefield and taking the fight to the men instead. She is described by David Kinsley as “an independent warrior” who is capable of holding her own, and thereby reversing the roles for females everywhere, standing outside the “normal society.” Imagine any woman of today having a shred of bravery and fearlessness, and the way society would reject her for her “outwardness” and “arrogance”, to say the very least. Heinous crimes against women are being justified on the basis that they “asked for it”, and yet ironically the same society shows no qualms while worshipping Durga throughout Navratri. This merely indicates blind worship, neglecting, and not even caring about what she truly stands for.
However, there is another aspect to Durga’s life that completes the picture, and that is of a homemaker, where her ferocious side is calmed down. She takes on the role of an obedient wife, looking after her children. Some people have argued that this means that, even for Durga, there is no escape from maternal duties. This leads to the belief that there is a contradiction as far as her identity is concerned, for she appears to stand by society’s norms in this sense. There is another way to look at this, which I personally think is more representative of women. Durga is both a mother and a warrior, capable of holding a family together and fighting her own. Does she not then stand for working women all around the world, who take care of their families as well as earn, and are independent? This construct is yet to be widely accepted by our narrow-minded society and merely adds to Durga’s challenge of the norm.
In an ideal world, each individual would be given the amount of respect they deserve, whether mortal or divine, based on their potential and not their gender. The term “goddess” might also cause an image of “weakness,” which justifies all the more the need for a power-wielding one like that of Durga’s. She is intimidating in her postures, most famously the one where she stands atop a lion with a gesture of the Abhaya Mudra. We can truly celebrate the occasion of Navratri by opening our minds to the embodiment of fearlessness and strength that Durga is, and all she stands for.
Credits: Ankita Radhakrishnan
