THE GODDESS ASCENDANT

How India’s worship of the feminine divine unites, and has gone global.

- HINDOL SENGUPTA

Prime Minister Narendra Modi participates in Durga Puja at Kali Bari in Chittaranjan Park, on the occasion of Maha Ashtami. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta also present, in New Delhi, on Tuesday. Narendra Modi Photo Gallery/ANI

(Narendra Modi Photo Gallery/ANI)

The autumnal worship of the Goddess in India, culminating in the grand celebrations of Durga Puja and Navratri, is not a mere folk tradition. It is anchored in a profound and sophisticated theological framework that stretches back to the very dawn of Hindu scripture.

This philosophical bedrock conceives of the Divine Feminine, or Shakti, not as a consort or a secondary deity, but as the supreme, all-pervading cosmic force.

Long before the iconographic depiction of Durga emerged, the concept of a supreme feminine divinity was articulated in one of the most remarkable hymns of the ancient Rig Veda. The Devi Suktam (Mandala 10, Hymn 125) stands as the foundational text of Shaktism, the tradition that venerates the Goddess as the ultimate reality. What makes this hymn radical and foundational is its perspective: it is not a prayer addressed to the Goddess, but a blazing, first-person declaration by the Goddess herself. Speaking through the voice of the seer Vak Ambhrini, who has realized her own identity with the cosmic mother, the Devi reveals her absolute sovereignty over all creation.