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18. SAKTISM
These objects found in Indus Valley suggests some form of fertility pre-saivite cult. However we cannot say whether they are indeed religious artifacts or not.
This is what John Marshal the Indus Valley archeologist has to say:
"Now of Saktism there is no direct evidence at Mohen-Jodaro or Harappa. Let me be clear on that point. What evidence there is, is merely suggestive. Sakthi worship was of great antiquity in India; it originated out of the cult of the Mother Goddess, and it is closely connected with the cult of Siva. Moreover, it exhibits features that bear so striking resemblance to those of certain prehistoric cults in West Asia, that we cannot pass it by in silence or ignore the likelihood of its existence among the Indus Valley people. The underlying principle of Saktism is a sexual dualism which has been aptly described as "duality in unity". In this development of the primitive mother worship, the goddess was transformed into a personification of female energy (Sakti) and, as the eternal productive principle (Prakriti), united with the eternal male principle (Purusha) and became the creator and Mother of the Universe (Jaganmata or Jagad-amba)"
Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilization - John Marshal
Whatever the echoes of the past may be, Saktism in its present form is an off shoot of medieval India most probably from among the agricultural people rather than of the Aryan immigrants. They eventually absorbed it around the 5th C AD because of the confusion in the war between the gods which we had discussed earlier as a compromise escape. Sakthi came as a strong solution to the problem which was essentially supported by the Advaitist monism of Sankara in the gth century. It saved the day for the Brahmins.
We can try to locate the Shakthi worship to vedic texts like Rig , Yajur ans Sama Vedas in the protions written after the Christian Era.
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