Nahta Bandhu Abhinandan Granth

Author(s): Dashrath Sharma
Publisher: Agarchand Nahta Abhinandan Granth Prakashan Samiti

Page 573

Eastern India only. Sädhakas have appeared on the scene almost everywhere, and the Maithila Sadhakas and Panditas, like those of Bengal and other places, have "only prepared compendia and developed the practical side of it to a considerable extent" for the benefit of humanity at large.1
It is interesting to note that the sakti devatā (the Mother-Goddess) is worshipped and reverenced and the Saktipīthas (the seat of the Mother-Goddess) are established in almost all parts of India : Kāmakhyā is worshipped at Kāmarūpa; Vindhyavāsini on the Vindhya hills; Yogamāyā and Pūrņamāsī at Vịndāvana; Annapūrnā, Sankață. Tripurābhairavi, sixtyfour Yoginis, Kālabhairavi, Durgā, Sitala, Mangalā and other Devis at Kāśi; Guhyesvari in Nepal; Gayatri and Sāvitri in Rajputana; Lalitā at Prayāga; Ugratārā in Mithilā (Tirhut; Jayakāli in Calcutta;
vālāmukhia and Chinnamastā in and near Jalandhar; Kşirabhavāni near Kashmir and other Devis in almost all parts of India. Vimalā, Sarasvati, Bhuvanesvarī, Kali and Lakşmi are worshipped and paid obeisance to in Utkala, the seat of Lord Jagannātha.3 To say that Raghunandana Bhattācārya of Bengal was the first to prescribe for the worship of Durgā, as provided for in the Tantra, would be quite wrong and misleading, for we know that previous to him many other thinkers in Mithilā, Bengal and elsewhere had done so. Vidyāpati. Sridatta, Harinātha Upad hyāya, Vidyādhara, Ratnākara, Bhojadeva, Jimātavāhana, Halāyudha, Vācaspati Miśra, Mādhavācārya and even Sankarācārya had admitted the authority of the Tantra while explaining philosophical doctrines. Vācaspati Miśra, the celebrated Maithila thinker and commentator on the six Darśanas, has in his commentary on the Patañjali-Darśana recommended Dhyāna of Devatās as prescribed in the Tantras.4 Moreover, many well-known books written in Mithilā and elsewhere, before the age of Raghunandana, contain provisions for Durga-Pūjā, such as the Durga-bhakti-tarangini, Samvatsarapradipa, Kalakaumudi, Jpotisānava, Smytisāgara, Kalpa-taru, Kętya-masārņava, Kytyaratnākara, Kytyatattvārnava, Durgabhaktiprakāśa, Kala-nirnaya, Pūjā-ratnākara and others pertaining to the worship of Durgā and Kāli.5
The Bengali practice of worshipping earthen images of Durga or Kāli with great pomp and ceremony is followed all over eastern India. It is true that this practice does not receive the same favour, as in Mithilā and Bengal, in other parts of India but it is also true that She is everywhere worshipped in ghatas (earthen
1. Bhattacharya, 7, Avalon. 5 ff, Also, C. S. B. Dasgupta, Obscure Religious .ults,
13ff. 2. Jvälāmukhi, Caņdi. Tārā, Kāli, Durgā etc. are also worshipped in Mithila at
different places. (Vide-U. Thakur, op cit, p. 31 fn 5). 3. For further details, see Avalon, 63-54, U. Thakur, Op. cit, pp. 31-32 4. Cf. Avalon, 67. 5. For other details, see Ibid., 65ff, U-Thakur, pp. 31-32.
८४ : अगरचन्द नाहटा अभिनन्दन-ग्रन्थ