Gods of War

It is the season for festivals. A week ago, the festival of nine nights or Navaratri wound down to a close and the festival of lights, Diwali, will soon be upon us. Within these larger circles of celebration, numerous small ones too will make their place as different communities welcome different gods and goddesses. In a country with proverbially 13 festivals in 12 months, the September-December period is more crowded than usual. And, interestingly, most of these festivals are in honour of great warriors.

Durga slays the powerful Asura king, Mahisha, who had begun to wreak destruction on the three worlds. Backed by a formidable army and a power to change form at will, he remained unvanquished. Helpless, the gods turned to the divine trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Durga, according to common lore, was born out of their collective anger. She sprang into being, fully clad in armour and battle-ready, like Athene of the Greek pantheon.

(Image: Rajrishi Singhal)

Durga was created to kill Mahishasura and hence her name, Mahishasurmardini. Although her male counterparts assist her with weapons and protective gear, she was a one-woman army and led the battle into the Asura kingdom. Many scholars believe that she was worshipped as a powerful and mighty warrior in a timeless time. But with the emergence of a paternalistic social structure, the Durga-Mahishasur myth had to be incorporated within the Vedic framework where the divine trinity was supreme and goddesses were defined by their relationship to the three gods. According to E W Hopkins (Epic Mythology), "Durga is a late adoption of Visnuism; originally a goddess worshipped by savages (Savaras, Barbaras, Pulindas)." Whatever the story of her origin and her position in the pantheon, there is no dispute that Durga is a fierce goddess and was feared by her male counterparts. "Durga is a warrior goddess, unapproachable by suitors and invincible in battle." (World Mythology, edited by Roy Willis, Simon & Schuster, UK) And just as Athene became daughter of Zeus when the male gods became dominant in all societies, Durga became Shiva's wife.

Sekhmet and Anat are similar warrior goddesses in Egyptian mythology. Anat - imported into the Egyptian pantheon from Syria and Palestine - is shown carrying a shield, a spear and an axe. Sekhmet is a terrifying lioness goddess and is often depicted with a lion's head in sculptures. She was deputed by sun god Ra to quell his rebellious human subjects. The lion is Durga's vahana too. Another Egyptian war goddess, Qudshu, is depicted in paintings and sculptures as a naked woman standing on a lion's back. The lion is a common symbol among war deities and is believed to stand in for the sun. (The Dictionary of Symbols, J E Cirlot, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London)

Warrior goddesses were common to many ancient civilisations and their worship perhaps predates that of male warriors. These goddesses were ferocious, a far cry from the fecund profile of a mother goddess, also a powerful mythical-religious figure. According to scholar Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, these goddesses are not compassionate; "they are generally a pretty bloodthirsty lot." (http://goo.gl/DEMMBY). When goddesses took to battle, the lines between good and bad were blurred and often had to be reined in (Kali, Sekhmet are examples) to save humanity from complete annihilation.

The narrative changes when it comes to the male warrior gods. Indra, for instance, fights Vritra the demon for the good of man. Vritra assumed control over water and refused to release it for the gods and humans; Indra slays him with his thunderbolt and cuts a channel for the rivers to flow.

Another thing about recent male warrior gods - they are presaged to deliver mankind from evil. Rama, who will be worshipped during the upcoming Diwali celebrations, fights a moral battle and is worshipped as an ideal man rather than an inspiring warrior. He goes into battle, not because he seeks the blood of his enemy but because his hand is forced when Ravana kidnaps his wife. Ravana's death has been destined at Rama's hands. When the gods had approached Brahma for deliverance from Ravana, he tells them that Rama will be born to vanquish Ravana.

The era of male warrior gods is far from over. The last of Vishnu's ten incarnations is Kalki, the horse-warrior who is yet to grace this world with his presence and is preordained to restore order to a chaotic modern world. 

(This was published in Business Standard Weekend, 25 October 2013)