Devi

Nationality/Culture

Hindu

Pronunciation

DEY-vee

Alternate Names

Mahadevi, Kali, Durga, Parvati

Appears In

The Vedas

Lineage

Wife of Shiva

Character Overview

Devi is the major goddess in the Hindu pantheon, or collection of gods. Known both as Devi (which in Sanskrit means “goddess”) and Mahadevi (”great goddess”), she takes many different forms and is worshipped both as a kind goddess and as a fierce one. In all of her forms, she is the wife of the Shiva (pronounced SHEE-vuh), the god of destruction.

Major Myths

In the form of Durga, Devi is a warrior goddess charged with protecting the gods and the world from powerful demons. The gods used their combined strength to create Durga when they were unable to overpower a terrible buffalo demon named Mahisha (pronounced muh-HEE-shuh). They gave Durga ten arms—so she could hold many weapons—and a tiger to carry her into battle. Durga and Mahisha fought a long, terrible, and bloody battle in which the two opponents changed shape many times. Durga finally managed to kill the demon by piercing his heart with a trident and cutting off his head.

Devi also takes gender forms. As Sati (pronounced suh-TEE), a loyal wife to Shiva, she burned herself alive to defend his honor and prove her love. When Shiva refused to let go of Sati's burning body, the god Vishnu (pronounced VISH-noo) had to cut her body out of his arms. Her remains were then cut into fifty pieces and scattered to different places that became shrines. As Parvati (pronounced PAR-vuh-tee), Devi is a gentle and loving wife who went through great sacrifice to win Shiva's love. Parvati has a softening influence on the harsh god and is often portrayed as an idealized beauty or pictured with Shiva in domestic scenes.

Another, and quite different, form of Devi is the fierce Kali (pronounced KAH-lee). Like Durga, Kali defends the world from demons, but she can go into a rage and lose control. When she blindly begins to kill innocent people, the gods have to intervene. On one occasion, Shiva threw himself among the bodies she was trampling to bring her out of her madness. Images of Kali show her with black skin, three eyes, fangs, and four arms. She wears a necklace of skulls and carries weapons and a severed head. She is usually portrayed with her tongue hanging out in recognition of her victory over the demon Raktavira (pronounced rahk-tah-VEER-uh). To make sure that Raktavira was truly dead, Kali had to suck the blood out of his body because any drop that fell to the ground would produce a duplicate of him.

There are numerous other forms of Devi. As Uma (pronounced OO-ma), she appears as the golden goddess, personifying light and beauty. As Hariti (pronounced huh-REE-tee), she is the goddess of childbirth. As Gauri (pronounced GAH-ree), she represents the harvest or fertility, and as Manasa (pronounced mah-NAH-sah), she is the goddess of snakes. When she takes the role of mother of the world, Devi is known as Jaganmata (pronounced jahg-ahn-MAH-tah).

Devi in Context

It is not uncommon in Hinduism for one god or goddess to have many different forms. For example, the god Shiva is known as Rudra (pronounced ROOD-ruh) in his fierce and wild form, and Bhairava (bah-ee-RAH-vah) in one of his more destructive forms. Sankara (pronounced SAHN-kah-rah) and Sambhu (pronounced sahm-BOO) are two of the god's more helpful or beneficent representations.

In the case of Devi, the one single goddess can serve a great number of functions to those who worship her, depending upon the form of Devi they praise. This makes her one of the most important figures in the Hindu religion.

Devi and her many forms probably date back to the mother goddess worshipped in India in prehistoric times. Ancient civilizations around the world, including India, worshipped mother goddesses because in human fertility they saw a parallel to the fertility of the earth around them—the growth of plants and abundance of wild and domesticated animals they relied on for survival. While these mother goddesses eventually became secondary to male gods in much of the world, Devi has retained a place of great stature in India.

Key Themes and Symbols

Because Devi can be found in so many different forms, she may symbolize many different things. For example, Sati and Parvati symbolize love and loyalty. The goddess Saraswati (pronounced sah-rah-SWAH-tee) symbolizes knowledge, art, and science. Durga and Kali both can represent strength and vengeance. In addition, Kali often symbolizes uncontrollable violence and rage. Most often, however, Devi symbolizes motherhood, fertility, and beauty.

The image of the goddess as Kali is perhaps the depiction best known to those outside the Hindu culture, and her fierce wild image can be bewildering to Western eyes, to whom she resembles a black, fanged, bloodthirsty beast. But in the Hindu faith, she represents the unformed, terrifying, true chaotic beginning of all things—the origin, the mother, but also death and destruction. Her blackness symbolizes the void, the beginning of everything, including space and time. Her nakedness represents her freedom from illusions. Her breasts represent her motherhood of all.

Devi in Art, Literature, and Everyday Life

Devi appears throughout ancient Hindu literature in her many forms. Some of these forms were once considered separate goddesses, such as Kali. Each of these different forms is depicted differendy in Hindu art. For example, Kali is often depicted as having four arms, blue skin, and wearing a necklace of human heads. Saraswati is shown with yellow skin and wearing white.

Kali is also often pictured standing or trampling on Shiva, her husband, which also presents some confusion. Scholars debate the symbolic meaning of these images. Is she trampling her own husband because she wants to destroy the world? Is she just asserting her dominance? There is no single, accepted interpretation.

Read, Write, Think, Discuss

In Hindu mythology, the goddess Devi has many different forms, only some of which are mentioned here. Using your library, the Internet, or other resources, find at least two other forms of the goddess Devi that have not already been mentioned. Write a description of each form, and explain why you think that form is important to Hindu mythology.

SEE ALSO Hinduism and Mythology; Shiva; Vishnu