Jignasa Journal Of History Of Ideas And Culture Part 02

Author(s): Vibha Upadhyaya and Others
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

Page 89

Encapsulated as Material Artistic Response / 305
Saciyadevi was actually in the form of Mahiṣāsuramardini, and even now the installed deity in the garbhagṛha of Saciyāmātā is the image of Mahiṣāsuramardini." Further any doubts about the transformation of Saciyämätä's identity from either the Candika, or the Camunda or the Kṣemankari have been quelled by the argument which holds them as the different manifestations of Durgā Mahiṣāsuramardini." But certainly the tale evinces the investment of 'ease' in transformation with which the woman could be subjected too, apart from the material advances the Jaina religion continued to make in medieval Rajasthan.
During the early medieval period the worship of Śakti was evident in the growth of its affiliated rituals and iconography, and the various forms of Sakti which were sculpted in all regions. These Śaktis were endowed from the mother-goddess worship, and saw her manifestation and sought identification with the various goddesses and with the female forms of many gods worshipped in different parts of India, and though an early list can be traced from Mahābhārata, yet a comprehensive list is found in Matsya Purana.72 The northern India saw the popularity of Śakta worship especially during the period of the Gurjara-Patihāras and during their reign from the eighth to the eleventh century many temples of the Devi flourished. Of the Pratihāra monarchs, Nagabhața II, Bhoja I and Mahendrapala I describe themselves as Bhagavatibhaktas, while Haribhadra mentions of mahākālīvidya, and mentions aṣṭami, navami and chaturdasi as the special days on which Chandika was to be worshipped and propitiated."
Durga as a synonym of Ambika has been described in the Vājasaneyi Samhita and the Taittiriya Brāhamana as Rudra's sister, her name as Durgā Vairocanī appears alongwith Katyāyani and KanyāKumārī for the first time in the Taittiriya Aranyaka as Rudra's consort, even as the Agamas and the Purānas refer to her nine manifestations (nava Durga) and describe her iconographic features in details. 74 While Kuvalayamāla refers to mariners who in the hour of their need and distress promise to offer pasus to Chaṇḍikā, and in another instance a ruler desirous of getting a son proposes to offer his head to the Mahiṣāsuramardinī Kātyāyanī, another text Upamitibhavaprapanchakathā refers to a royal party which is shown proceeding to the temple of Chandika on the occasion of the spring festival, where they offer wine to the goddess and begin their "bacchanal revelries" in the extensive grounds of her temple.75 The Samaraichchakahā also presents a description of a Chandika temple, which "shows that the century that had intervened between Baṇa and Haribhadra had not mellowed the ferocity of the rites with which the goddess has always been worshipped by many of her votaries, specially the Śabaras, Bhillas and the other ādivāsīs of India."76
There are numerous places in Rajasthan where Durga's presence and her visual representation appears in various forms, such as, Sakrāi or Sankarāmātā, at a temple built by the local gosthikas in A.D. 692, at Mount Arbuda was considered a Śakta pitha, an eighth century image of Mahiṣāsuramardini was found at Narhad, the shrine of Dhadhimati that existed even earlier, at Vasantgarh considered to be a Saradăpitha an inscription of A.D. 625 invokes the blessings of Durgā, as Valayakṣini was worshipped by Indraraja Chauhan. His Pratabgarh inscription eulogies the goddess as Mahişäsuramardini, Durgā, Katyayani, Varada, while at Mandor the astamātṛkās, namely Durga and her Saktis are found evidenced."
It is important at this juncture to gather some details about the notion of the Sakta Pithas which are "the places where the pieces of Sati's dead body fell are said to have become the Pithas, i.e., holy seats or resorts of the mother-goddess, in all of which she is represented to be constantly living in