Goddess Durga

Goddess Durga

Vijayanagar Empire,15th Century CE,Chennai Museum

This is one of the masterpieces of the Chennai Museum.  Carved out of a solid block of granite, one of the hardest stone to work with, the detailing if the jewellery is mind boggling.  The dexterity of the sculptor is clearly established.  In South Indian sculptures the complexity of the sculpture increases as the century rolled by. Thus, the Pallava artists were beginning to learn how to carve in granite. Their sculptures are plain and simple. The Chola sculptors were more apt in dealing with granite. Their sculptures are more detailed than Pallava ones. The Vijayanagar artist was at home with granite. Their sculptures are most elaborately carved than either the Pallava or Chola ones. 

Another unique feature about this piece is that though she is called Goddess Durga, she carries a conch and a disk in her hands, both weapons of Lord Vishnu.  Though She is part of the Shakti cult ( a cult of Hinduism which believed in faminine    divine), yet she carries weapons associated with Vaishnavism. Thus, She appears to be a fusion of Shaivism and Vaishnavism.  

Durga is the eternal Mother Goddess. She protects and promotes us; She destroys and annihilates what is evil. She is our inner mind.  Like her, we must learn to destroy what is bad in us. We must nurture what is good in us. This is equally  true of society. The society should protect the good and destroy the bad. This is, in fact, the very basis of Rule of Law in any nation. Goddess Durga, like other Gods and Goddesses, re - establish the Rule of Law in the world at large. That is why we always pray, " from darkness take me to light; from death take me to immortality." Those who preserve and promote and observe the Rule of Law continue to live in light and achieve immortality.