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Shakti

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See also: Devi and Mahadevi
For other uses, see Shakti (disambiguation).

Shakti, the feminine power, is often personified as an aspect of Devi
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Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, IAST: Śakti; lit. 'energy, ability, strength, effort, power, might, capability')[1] in Hinduism, is the "Universal Power" that underlies and sustains all existence. Conceived as feminine in essence, Shakti refers to the personified energy or power of a male deity and, more specifically, is often identified as the consort of the god Shiva.[2][3]

In Tantric Shaktism, Shakti is the foremost deity, akin to Brahman.[4][4] In Puranic Hinduism, Shiva and Shakti are the masculine and feminine principles that are complementary to each other. The male deity is purusha, pure consciousness, which creates the universe through the female creative energy of Shakti, which is prakriti, 'nature'.[5][6]

The term Shakta is used for the description of people associated with Shakti worship. The Shakta pithas are shrines, which are believed to be the sacred seats of Shakti.

Etymology

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According to the Monier-Williams dictionary, Shakti (Śakti) is the Sanskrit feminine term meaning "energy, ability, strength, effort, power, might, capability", and "capacity for" or "power over".[1][7]

Though the term Shakti has broad implications, it mostly denotes "power or energy".[7] Metaphysically, Shakti refers to the "energetic principle" of the fundamental reality, ideated as "primordial power".[7]

Shakti, is principally identified with the feminine, and with the numerous Hindu goddesses, who are seen as "tangible" expressions-visible personifications of the intangible Shakti.[7] The formulation of such an idea for Shakti took place over many centuries.[7]

Relatedly, the term Shakta (Sanskrit: शक्त, Śakta) is used for people and customs associated with Shakti worship.[8] The term Shakta became popular from the ninth-century onwards, before that the term Kula or Kaula, which referred to clans of female ancestry, besides to the menstrual and sexual fluids of females, was used to describe Shakti followers.[8]

Origins and development

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Pre-Vedic Goddess-worship

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The origins of Shakti concept are prevedic.[9] Sites related to worship of Mother goddess or Shakti were found in Paleolithic context at the Son River valley, where a triangular stone known as the Baghor stone, estimated to have been created around 9,000–8,000 BCE was found.[10] The excavation team, which included Kenoyer, considered it is highly probable that the stone was associated with Shakti or the female principle.[11] The representation of Shakti in a stone is considered an early example of yantra.[12]

Scholars assume goddess worship was prevalent in the Indus Valley Civilisation (3300–1300 BCE) as many terracotta female figurines with smoke-blacked headgears, suggesting their use in rituals, had been found in almost all the houses of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.[13] Numerous artefacts that appear to portray female deities were also found.[14] This development however is not assumed to be the earliest precursor of goddess worship in India; it has evolved for over a long period of time before.[14]

In the Vedic era

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The Veda Samhitas are the oldest scriptures that specified the Hindu goddesses. The Rigveda and the Atharvaveda are the main sources of knowledge about various goddesses from the Vedic period.[14] Ushas, the goddess of dawn was the most praised. Though male deities such as Indra and Agni have been more popular in the Vedic era, female deities were represented as personifications of important aspects like Earth (Prithvi), Mother of Gods (Aditi), Night (Ratri), and Speech (Vāc/Vāk).[14]

The Devīsūkta in the Rigveda, addressed to the goddess Vāc, became the progenitor of goddess theology that evolved later.[14] Here, Vāc states: "I bend the bow for Rudra that his arrow may strike and slay the hater of devotion. I rouse and order battle for the people, and I have penetrated Earth and Heaven".[14] This hymn presented the goddess as an all powerful pervasive being, who is both "immanent and transcendent", and is bestower of power to both gods and humans.[14] The prominent characteristics of goddess Vāc were later incorporated into the identity of Saraswati, who was a minor river goddess in the Vedas, but later became the goddess of knowledge and the "Mother of the Vedas".[14]

Most of the goddesses in the Vedic era were presented as wives of the gods.[14] They had no special powers nor an individual name either, rather they took their respective husband's name with feminine suffixes, as with Indrani, the wife of Indra.[14] Though the goddesses had no power, one Rigvedic hymn (10.159) addressed Indrani as Śacī Poulomī and presented her as the "deification" of Indra's power. The term Śacī meant "the rendering of powerful or mighty help, assistance, aid, especially of the 'deeds of Indra'."[14] This use of the term Śacī is seen as a major step in the later conception of Śakti as the divine power that is separate from a deity and something which is not inherently present within it.[14]

In later Hindu texts, the idea of Shakti as divine feminine energy became more pronounced as wives of the gods began to personify the powers of their husbands.[14] Despite arriving at this stage, it was only later, after a lot of philosophical speculation and understanding the connecting factor underlying the universe that the idea of Shakti as being the feminine unity pervading all existence was developed.[15]

Late Vedic-Upanishad era

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The Upanishads did not feature goddesses notably. However, the ideas devised during this period became significant in later conceptions of Shakti.[15] The theory of Shakti advocated in Shakta Upanishads was predicated on the concept of Brahman, a gender-neutral Absolute. Brahman's all-encompassing nature gave rise to the idea of a connecting factor, called Atman, between the absolute and human.[15] The early Upanishads postulated a transcendental absolute that cannot be depicted or understood, but be known only through Jñāna (insight, intuition).[15] The later Upanishads however presented the idea of Saguna Brahman (manifest absolute), thus giving it an accessible form. The Shvetashvatara Upanishad portrayed Brahman as "manifest Lord or Īśvara", thereby enabling a "theistic relationship" between the deity and devotee.[15]

In the classical period

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The complete identification of the goddess with Shakti was not fully realised until the classical period of Hinduism.[15] This period saw the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata including the Bhagavad Gita. They were largely complemented by Puranas, a body of literature that built upon the ideas of Upanishads but were primarily made up of myth and legend that proclaimed the supremacy of a particular deity and equated their nirguna (unmanifest) form with the Brahman. Most of these Puranas were dedicated to the male deities, particularly Vishnu and Shiva, the later Shakta puranas were allotted to the goddess.[15] Shakti worship that receded in the Vedic period became prominent from the classical period during which she was personified as Devi—a goddess.[9]

Majority of the Puranas presented the goddesses as consorts of the gods. The Kurma Purana depicted the goddess Śrī or Lakshmi as a being lower to her husband, the god Vishnu, who "takes possession" of her when she appears at the churning of milk.[15] Nevertheless, Lakshmi is later described as the impetus of Vishnu, who calls her "that great Śakti (potency) of my form".[15] An association between feminine divinity and the creative power of god was established when the goddess was projected as an embodiment of three important principles — "śakti (energy), prakṛti (primordial or primary matter) and māyā (illusion)".[16] In the puranic era, even though the goddess was considered the source behind manifest creation, she was nevertheless a personification of her consort's energy and was referred to as prakṛti, who is still subordinated to her consort's will. Though there was an individual goddess named śakti, the term referred to a quality held by both male and female deities. An apparent identity between feminine divinity and cosmic energy was not yet vouched.[16]

Development of metaphysical Shakti

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The perception of the divine feminine was radically altered by two texts: the earlier Devi Mahatmya and the later Devi Bhagavata Purana.[16] The Devi Mahatmya, which was initially part of the Markandeya Purana, is the most prominent goddess-centric text that clarified the concept of an all-encompassing goddess or the Mahadevi (great goddess).[16] Allegorically, through the mythical warring deeds of the goddess, it was asserted, rather by a deduction than by plain words that she's the "ultimate reality".[16] When the asuras (demons) endangered the existence of the devas (gods), the gods created an all-powerful goddess from their combined anger by channelling their essential powers that took the form of a feminine being, which was assented as the Mahadevi, the supreme goddess fully independent of the gods, and considered the embodiment of śakti with additional powers of her own. Here when she finishes her work, she doesn't return to her source, the gods, but instead vanishes.[16]

The Devi Mahatmya bolstered the concept of the Mahadevi or the great goddess, an amalgamate of manifold powers, with numerous epithets.[16] Besides the term Devi, the most general name of the goddess is Chandi or Caṇḍikā, meaning "violent and impetuous one", this was the first instance of the use of this term in a Sanskrit text and was probably conceived for this distinct incarnation, represented in aggressive and often unorthodox mode, with an affinity for drink and approval of blood offerings.[16]

The idea of independence and not confirming to widely held notions of the goddess has been an intriguing trait in the character of Devi in the Devi Mahatmya. The goddess here, primarily identified as Durga, is not dependent on a male consort and she successfully handles male roles herself. In battles, she fights without a male ally, and when needed aide, creates female peers from herself like Kali.[16] Also the ideation of the goddess as a personification of Shakti varies, instead of providing power to a male consort like other puranic era goddesses, here she takes powers from the gods–who all "surrender their potency to her" at the time of her manifestation.[16]

The Devi Mahatmya elucidated the goddess so meticulously that it clarifies the changeableness of her character and makes it clear that she cannot be classified readily as she is the embodiment of all facets of energy, which are described as concurrently "creative, preservative and destructive".[17] The text described the all-pervasive Mahadevi as being both devi (goddess) and asuri (demoness), for she represents positive as well as negative aspects of power and energy.[18] Here, the ultimate reality was completely equated with Devi, who is presented as the power enabling the trimurti—Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma—to engage in the "preservation, dissolution and creation" of the universe respectively.[18] Devi appeared at the emergence of cosmic crisis, accordingly her role is assumed to be identical to that of Vishnu, who in his various avatars, vowed to manifest himself at the time of crisis. Devi, also, vows to manifest whenever her help is needed.[18]

Shakti and the Devi-Bhagavata Purana

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The largest and possibly the most exhaustive Shakta purana, considered as "justification or vindication of the Goddess tradition, as well as an elaboration of it" is the Devi Bhagavata Purana.[18] Compiled some five to ten centuries after the Devi Mahatmya, the Devi Bhagavata Purana presents a Shakta reply to the various puranic ideals. The Devi Gita, which forms skandha (book) 7, chapters 30–40 of the Devi Bhagavata Purana, is modeled after the Bhagavad Gita, but with a Shakta outlook.[18] The Devi Bhagavata Purana is metaphysically more coherent than the earlier Devi Mahatmya and includes a rendition of the later, with a retelling of the many pauranic myths. The Devi Bhagavata Purana repeatedly extols the goddess as the "Eternal" and "Ever Constant Primordial Force" who is also "the power behind all other deities".[18] Of noteworthy, is the fact that the goddess of the Devi Bhagavata Purana is invariably presented as being "independent of any male authority and control". It is rather the gods who are completely subdued to the will of Devi, and are entirely dependent on her power.[18]

The Devi Bhagavata Purana repeatedly describes the goddess as being "eternal, the basis of everything and identical with Brahman".[18] The goddess here, addressed as "Ādya or Primordial Śakti", is unambiguously presented as "the source of all goddesses, from the highest to the lowest forms", with higher forms presenting prominent aspects of her energy or power and conform with the three traits or the gunas in all life, namely: "sattva (purity, goodness, the illuminating principle), rajas (activity, passion, the energetic principle) and tamas (darkness, inertia, dullness)".[18] Corresponding with sattva, she is Maha-Lakshmi; with rajas, she is Maha-Saraswati; and with tamas, she is Maha-kali. However, Devi is still characterized as "being beyond all form", and is declared as nirguna (not having gunas or unmanifest), thus making her incomprehensible. But, to liberate her devotees, Devi "becomes saguna (with gunas or manifest) in a form that can be known and appreciated" by humans.[18]

The intrinsic nature of the Mahadevi in the Devi Bhagavata Purana comprises the twofold realities of Samkhya philosophy — "prakṛti (material nature), in its unmanifest and manifest forms, and puruṣa (pure consciousness)".[18] The Devi Bhagavata Purana, differing from Samkhya and other traditions, specifically Advaita Vedanta, presents prakṛti in a more favourable manner as an intrinsic aspect of the goddess' power.[18] Also, the concept of Maya is treated with respect instead of disdain and is presented as a necessary factor in the creation. The Devi Bhagavata Purana significantly differs in the conception of maya from the Bhagavata Purana, wherein Vishnu is the "controller and possessor of māyā", while in the Devi Bhagavata Purana, the goddess apart from being the wielder of "the power of māyā, actually is māyā".[19] In the Devi Bhagavata Purana, the workings of the universe appear way more deeply related with the goddess, for Devi recourses to none but herself, whereas Vishnu and Shiva seek assistance of their respective Shaktis.[20]

Personification of Shakti by pan-Indian goddesses

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The personification of the various goddesses represent the "most visible expression of Śakti".[20] The numerous Hindu goddesses can be categorized into about two groups: "pan-Indian goddesses" or "local goddesses".[20] The goddesses referred to as "pan-Indian" are known widely across India and are chiefly "Brahminical and consequently orthodox", though some of them tend to be unorthodox. These goddesses usually have fully developed mythologies, with assurance from textual sources and are highly found in temples, both large and small, where they are represented anthropomorphically.[20] While goddesses like Lakshmi, associated with prosperity and luck, and Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, have become known outside India; the most popular Hindu goddess happens to be Kali, who is frequently mistaken to be the "goddess of death and destruction". Despite being associated with death and although having destructive qualities, Kali, represents a greater power embodying liberation and protection.[20] Evidently, the personifications of bengin aspects of Shakti, like goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati, differ from goddesses Kali and Durga, who personify the terrible aspects of Shakti.[20]

In much of Hindu thought, there is no concept of a singular benignant god or goddess and a distinct evil power. All the deities are facets of the one Brahman, the progenitor of everything, including both positive and negative aspects of life. However may the many goddesses appear on the outside, they are essentially embodiments of Shakti. In this regard, the pan-Indian goddesses personify both positive and negative, or benign and terrible aspects of Shakti.[20] There are goddesses who personify benign aspects of Shakti - "the power of devotion, wisdom, love or compassion, etc", and then there are goddesses who are described as "essentially fierce", they personify the more active powers of protection and destruction, and need their worshippers to confront their fears to receive the goddess's grace. A significant fact to be considered here is that the "goddesses are essentially benign and essentially fierce". Those goddesses who are benign are not completely so, as they may have a fierce side to their personalities. Similarly, the fierce goddesses may have a benign aspect to their characters.[20] This dualistic nature of the goddesses emphasize the contradictory nature of divine power or any power or energy. Evidently, the power of fire, needed to sustain life, can and does decimate it. Likewise, the power responsible for creation is the same power that will destroy it regularly, or more accurately dematerialize life, transmuting it into unmanifest state again.[20]

Beliefs and traditions

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Puranic Hinduism

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In Puranic Hinduism, Shakti is the "energizing material power" of the Hindu Gods.[21] "The God and his Shakti together represent the Absolute, the god being nonactivated Eternity, the goddess being activated Time."[22] Shakti is generally personified as the wife of a specific Hindu god, particularly Shiva, for whom she took forms as Durga, Kali, and Parvati,[23][24] forming complementary principles.[25] "As the manifestation of the divine energy corresponding with Vishnu, she is Lakshmi."[21] In Hindu custom, the wife of a man is considered his Shakti. In the Ramayana, Sita, the wife of Rama was his Shakti; in the Mahabharata, Draupadi was the Shakti of the Pandavas.[22]

In the Puranas Shakti gains in imprortance. The Markandeya Purana conceives Shakti as "pure consciousness" overseeing creation, preservation, and destruction; and identifies Shakti with nature or prakriti.[9] It potrays he feminine (shakti) in various roles, such as the feminine lover to experience the "lila" (divine play) of her divine consciousness.[25]

The Devi Bhagavata Purana presents Brahman as containing both male and female, purusha and prakriti, Shiva and Devi.[5] The Devi Bhagavata Purana considers the nature of Shakti as being made up of three existential qualities, similar to prakriti in Samkhya: Sattva (calm and balanced), Rajas (passionate and active), and Tamas (lethargic and inactive).[9]

Scriptural texts such as Devi Bhagavata Purana, Kalika Purana, Markandeya Purana, and Mahabhagavata Purana held Shakti as the supreme over all deities and promoted her worship.[9]

Tantric Shaktism

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Main article: Shaktism

As the Goddess, or Devi, Shakti is "Universal Power".[22] Shaktism regards Shakti as the Supreme Brahman.[26] The Shakta Upanishads and the Shakta Tantras equated Brahman with Shakti, and held them as inseparable.[9] According to V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar (Professor of Indian history), in Shakta theology: "Brahman is static Shakti and Shakti is dynamic Brahman."[27] Brahman is "the formless ultimate or Turiya Brahman," which is united with Mula Prakriti, 'nature'; shakti is a synonym for this unity of Turiya Brahman and Mula Prakriti.[4]

In the details of its philosophy and practice, Shaktism resembles Shaivism. However Shaktas focus most or all worship on Shakti as the dynamic feminine aspect of the Supreme Divine.[28] According to this tradition, all Hindu goddesses are manifestations of the same goddess, Mahadevi, also referred to as Adi Parashakti, Adi Shakti, and Abhaya Shakti. Vaishnavas consider her to be Lakshmi; whereas Shaivas consider her to be Parvati, Durga, Lalita and Kali; while Shaktas believe her to be Durga, Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshvari, and Kali.[29]

In the Hindu tantric view, Shakti correlates with the Kundalini energy.[30] Shakti is considered the "creative dynamic energy" that permeates and "animates" all existence.[31][32] In the Brihannila Tantra, the God Shiva says: "O Goddess I am the body (deha) and you are the conscious spirit within the body (dehin)".[33] "Shiva without Shakti is but a corpse, it is said."[34][35]

Animated and inanimated objects like rivers, stones, trees, mountains are worshipped as embodiments of shakti.[34] Women are believed to be inherently divine; coalescence of the menstrual cycle with the moon's lunar cycle is held important.[34] The menstrual blood (Kula) is revered and is offered in rituals to propitiate the deities. In some cases, Animal sacrifices have replaced menstrual blood offerings, however female animals are not sacrificed.[34]

The Shakta pithas, located across the Indian subcontinent, are believed to be the sacred seats of Shakti. At the altars in these shrines, Shakti is often worshipped in the form of a stone, which is painted red, considered the colour of Shakti, and is decorated with anthropomorphic features like eyes.[36]

From Devi-Mahatmya:

By you this universe is borne,
By you this world is created,
Oh Devi, by you it is protected.[37]

From Shaktisangama Tantra:

Woman is the creator of the universe,
the universe is her form;
woman is the foundation of the world,
she is the true form of the body.

In woman is the form of all things,
of all that lives and moves in the world.
There is no jewel rarer than woman,
no condition superior to that of a woman.[38]

Smarta Advaita

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Main article: Smarta

In the Smarta Advaita tradition, Shakti is one of the five equal personal forms of God, as in the panchadeva system, advocated by Adi Shankara.[39] The Smarta tradition, also called Smartism, developed and expanded with the Purana genre of literature. It reflects a synthesis of four philosophical strands: Mimamsa, Advaita, Yoga, and theism. The Smarta tradition rejects theistic sectarianism, and is notable for the domestic worship of five shrines with five deities, all treated as equal—Ganesha, Shiva, Adi Parashakti, Vishnu and Surya. The Smarta tradition contrasted with the older Shrauta tradition, which was based on elaborate rituals and rites. There has been a considerable overlap in the ideas and practices of the Smarta tradition with other denominations within Hinduism, namely Shaivism, Brahmanism, Vaishnavism, and Shaktism.[40][41][42]

See also

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  • Ammavaru – Hindu goddess
  • Iccha-shakti – Sanskrit term for willpower
  • Mariamman – Hindu goddess of weather
  • Mohini – Hindu goddess of enchantment, the only female avatar of Vishnu
  • Tridevi – Trinity of chief goddesses in Hinduism

References

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  1. ^ a b Monier-Williams 2017.
  2. ^ Jones, Constance; Ryan, James D. (2006). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8160-7564-5.
  3. ^ Chandra, Suresh (1998). Encyclopaedia of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Sarup & Sons. ISBN 978-81-7625-039-9.
  4. ^ a b c Vanamali 2008, p. "Brahman is static Shakti".
  5. ^ a b Vanamali 2008, p. "The Devi herself is both Shakti and Prakriti".
  6. ^ EB.
  7. ^ a b c d e Foulston 2008, p. 725.
  8. ^ a b Jones & Ryan 2007, p. 397.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Jones & Ryan 2007, p. 399.
  10. ^ Insoll 2002, p. 36.
  11. ^ Kenoyer et al. 1983, p. 93.
  12. ^ Harper & Brown 2012, p. 39.
  13. ^ Foulston 2008, pp. 725–726.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Foulston 2008, p. 726.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Foulston 2008, p. 727.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Foulston 2008, p. 728.
  17. ^ Foulston 2008, pp. 728–729.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Foulston 2008, p. 729.
  19. ^ Foulston 2008, pp. 729–730.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i Foulston 2008, p. 730.
  21. ^ a b Leeming 2014, p. 1646.
  22. ^ a b c Leeming 2014, p. 1647.
  23. ^ Rosen 2006, p. 166.
  24. ^ Leeming 2014, p. 1646-1647.
  25. ^ a b Jones & Ryan 2007, pp. 398–399.
  26. ^ Subramuniyaswami, p. 1211[full citation needed]
  27. ^ Dikshitar 1999, pp. 77–78.
  28. ^ Subramuniyaswami, p. 1211[full citation needed]
  29. ^ Boursier 2021, p. 30.
  30. ^ Leeming 2014, p. 1777.
  31. ^ Leeming 2014, p. 546.
  32. ^ Datta & Lowitz 2005, p. 111.
  33. ^ Biernacki 2006, p. 202.
  34. ^ a b c d Jones & Ryan 2007, p. 398.
  35. ^ Biernacki 2007, p. 87.
  36. ^ Jones & Ryan 2007, p. 401.
  37. ^ Klostermaier 1989, pp. 261, 473 footnote [1].
  38. ^ Bose 2000, p. 115.
  39. ^ Smarta 2008.
  40. ^ Flood 1996, pp. 113, 134, 155–161, 167–168.
  41. ^ Sanderson 2009, pp. 276–277.
  42. ^ Shephard 2009, p. 186.

Sources

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Further reading

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Wikiquote has quotations related to Shakti.
  • "Shakti". VedaBase. Listing of usage in Puranic literature. Archived from the original on 15 April 2009.
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