Devi (the Goddess[es]): the embodiment of shakti (divine energy), prakrti (material nature), and maya (the divine power of fashioning forms or illusions), which, in union with the divine soul (purusha, brahman), gives rise to the experienced universe and human beings in it.  In this process, soul (God) remains inactive and blissfully still (as always) while energy-matter begins to evolve and differentiate into manifold forms and qualities, giving rise to diversity--diversity that is neither ultimate nor eternal, but always in flux, and a veil of confusion that obscures the true nature of the soul (of God and of everyone).  Mythologically speaking, the world is created by the sexual union of God and Goddess.  Thus, deities are sometimes shown as androgynes (figs. 57 [the Half-Woman Shiva] and 95 [Lakshmi-Narayanan]).
     The Goddess takes innumerable forms, which are often divided into two basic groups:
     1. Consort goddesses: Lakshmi (Shri), Parvati (Gauri, Uma), Radha--who, while not without an independent will, are represented as auspicious, gentle, wifely in a conventional sense, beautiful, nurturing, vegetarian.  Devotees often pray to the Goddess as mediator between humans and God, being more approachable, tender, and linked to “the world” that God Himself.
     2. Fierce goddesses: Durga, Kali, Candi (Camunda), innumerable village goddesses--who are fierce, wrathful, raging, hard to control and thus dangerous, frightful in appearance; often receive meat offerings.  Even when paired (usu. with Shiva), they dominate their mate.
   > REVIEW stories of the origin of Durga and Kali (in Hindu Myths and Coburn in DEVI).
     1/2. Yet both types can be worshiped independently, or as the Supreme Power of the universe, and all are called "mother", for they are the source of all beings.
     Goddesses are more likely than gods to possess their priests and devotees.
     The Shri Vaishnava sect regards Shri and Vishnu as inseparable, and their mutual love gives rise to creation as part of their love play (lila).  Vedanta Deshika taught that Shri mediates between God and the soul, which she leads to salvation, by her special nature as both distinct yet inseparable from Vishnu. >> REVIEW chapter by Narayanan in DEVI.  The idea of creation through divine union also is represented in the Shiva-Parvati pair or androgyne, and in the linga-yoni image.
     Tantric movements regard the Goddess herself as the cause of creation (and thus spiritual bondage in the world), and look to her for salvation, since only she can undo this bondage.
     RADHA: Unlike Parvati or Lakshmi, she is usually Krishna's adulterous mistress, "who inspires devotees by the strength of her feeling."  Caitanya of Bengal and Rupa Gosvami of Brindavan (early 1500s) developed a theology (Gaudiya Vaishnavism) that identifies 5 modes of cultivating devotion (bhakti): shanta (contemplative adoration), dasya (humble servitude), sakhya (intimate companionship), vatsalya (parental affection), madhurya (erotic passion).  Radha exemplifies the fifth: Radha’s consuming and irrepressible love is taken as a metaphor for a powerful devotion.  Radha and Krishna unite in a union so close their identities switch.  He worships her, too.  Radha abandoned feels despair, longing, anger, pain of separation, elation at prospect of reunion.  All the gopis are Radha.  All devotees are Radha.  Gaudiya doctrine sees her as the essential, highest form of Krishna’s energy: hladini shakti (blissful energy); thus she is part of Him. >> REVIEW  Wulff in DEVI.

Iconography

Important examples of how to recognize deities in their images:
     Vishnu: carries conch, discus, lotus, and club, and wears a tall crown, accompanied by the bird Garuda; reclining on the primordial serpent on the cosmic waters between cycles of creation.
     Krishna: blue or black in color, with flute, perhaps lifting Mt. Govardhan, surrounded by gopis, or embracing Radha.
     Shiva: color variable, dressed as ascetic with deerskin, bowl, and trident, smeared with ashes, hair matted or braided, loose or piled high, with a crescent moon in it and the Ganges river flowing from it; wears cobras (naga) and skull-necklace, has a vertical third eye, may be naked or sexually erect; accompanied by the bull Nandi; dancing wildly in a circle of fire; holding rattle-drum and fire.  As a linga.
     Ganesha (Ganapati): elephant-headed, fat, holding a sweet.
     Skanda: with spear, often six-headed, youthful.
     Brahma: four-headed, emerging from a lotus out of Vishnu's navel.
     Durga: killing the buffalo demon, carrying sword or trident.
     Kali: black, naked, with skull-necklace, lolling tongue, wild hair, trident, standing on supine Shiva.
     Lakshmi: sometimes showered by elephants, seated or standing in a lotus.
Mudras (hand-gestures): palm outward, fingers upward: "fear not"; palm upward and outward: granting favors.

In the rest of the course, we will be focusing more on the way Hindus encounter God and respond to God in their daily lives, and how they worship, in particular.  That is, using this familiarity with mythic pictures of divinity as a background, we will look more closely at the experience of being a Hindu.

Puja

Puja is an outward expression of bhakti (the attitude of humble and loving devotion), esp. worship of a god manifested in some visible form, which is treated as a condensation of divine omnipresence into a particular time and place. Puja typically involves:
    darshana: visual contact, believed to be mutual
    pranama: a gesture of obeisance (bowing) before the image
    snapana: bathing the image with pure fluids such as milk, water, ghee; image may then be dressed & garlanded with flowers
    naivedya: the offering of food before the image; flowers may also be offered (transformed into prasada)
    kirtana: hymn-singing, praising God's deeds or names, often performed during:
    satsanga: a congregational worship service
        a bell may be rung upon entering a temple, and during arati or kirtana
    arati: ceremonial waving of lamps or incense for the pleasure of the god
    prasada: a portion of the offering received back as a gesture of divine grace
        Sometimes worship may also entail:
    homa: offerings of ghee ladled into a fire, performed by a priest (a pujari), usu. a brahmin
    yatra: pilgrimage to visit holy sites (tirtha); also, a procession accompanying the deity when it is carried by palanquin or
            "chariot" (ratha) outside the temple during a festival
    lila: reenactments of episodes from the life (e.g., of Rama or Krishna)
    vrata: a voluntary commitment to fast and perform special worship or pilgrimage meditation
    charismatic inspiration: in some (non-Brahmanical) traditions, the deity can enter and speak through certain devotees

Puja may be performed at home, at a small shrine, or at a temple served by one or more priests.
    - An everyday domestic image is a body of the deity only during worship: at the start, the god is invoked to be present in the image; at the end, he or she is dismissed.
    - At festival-time, devotees install a temporary image in a place in the home set aside for this purpose; performs a rite to instill divine life and sense-faculties by transferring his own into the image. At the end of the festival, the images are carried in procession to the water, where they are "released" to dissolve into the material universe again.
    - Temple images, once ritually consecrated by a priest, become a long-term body for the deity. Temple images may be: "immovable" (the main one in the sanctum of the temple), or "movable" (to be carried in festival processions; they include shalagramas, dark fossil stones used in home worship).

Temple

Temples may be    Shaiva (devoted to Shiva, Ganesha, or Murugan primarily)
                                 Vaishnava (devoted primarily to Vishnu or one of his avatars, Krishna or Rama)
                            or Shakta (devoted primarily to a goddess)
                but any temple may house shrines to a variety of deities.
Many regionally popular deities do not fall clearly into any of the first three categories.
- Temples often have priests, and may cater to certain castes. Temples with brahmin priests sometimes restrict access to higher castes.
- Consecrated temple images are regarded as living embodiments of the deity so long as the temple is active. The god must be invoked (prayed to be present) for the duration of the worship in the case of most images in home shrines, although some images are regarded as natural "bodies" of God.
- Gurus are often viewed as incarnations of divinity, and so receive puja in person, or, after death, as an image or memorial in a shrine.

In form:
Hindu temples range in form from simple, cube-shaped shrines with pillared porches (e.g., Hindu Art, p. 198), to more elaborate formats integrating:
a. GARBHA-GRIHA ("womb-chamber" or sanctum) in which the image is housed, and to which access is often restricted to priests.
- Larger temples such as Kandariya Mahadeo (Shiva) temple at Khajuraho (HA, p. 211), included an aisle that permits CIRCUMAMBULATION of the womb-chamber inside the temple.
- The MURTI (image in the sanctum) is thus positioned at the center of the temple, and represents the "axis mundi" (the axis about which the world is oriented, and which connects heaven and earth).
b. SHIKHARA ("spire"), which rises above the sanctum, pyramidal in shape, often said to represent the mountain home of the gods (e.g., Shiva's Kailasa), with the world of heaven on its slopes (e.g., Vishnu's Vaikuntha on Mt. Meru)
c. MANDAPA ("pavillion"), an elaboration of the simple porch, and a columned space where singing and dancing may take place (e.g., GoF/GoS, p. 158).
d. The "tank" or pool, where worshipers may perform ritual ablutions before proceeding into the temple (see the plan on p. 197, and photo, p. 65).
e. GOPURAM (ceremonial gateway), the pyramidal and richly adorned towers rising over the entrances to the massive temple complexes of SOUTH INDIA (a small example, p. 63; larger but ruined ones on p. 58).
- Such temples are often set at the center of a set of concentric enclosing walls (schematic drawing, p. 45), full of temple offices, priests' quarters, shops, and spaces for such accessories as the temple elephant and a ceremonial CHARIOT, on which the FESTIVAL IMAGE (pp. 59, 60 and 210; GoF/GoS, pp. 8, 16, and 87, and in the film) of the deities are pulled during the annual festival down the CHARIOT ROAD extending through the city to another shrine.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

1. The earliest Hindu temples were probably wooden structures, more elaborate forms of the simple shrines consisting of fenced-in sacred objects depicted in early sculpted reliefs (p. 80). Early stone constructions clearly mimicked the standard post-and-beam structures in their shape and carved forms.
2. The Buddhists seem to have been the innovators who began building temples in stone (from ca. 2nd. c. BCE). The earliest surviving Hindu temples date only to the 4th c. CE, when the Gupta kings promoted themselves as the human agents of the Hindu gods by sponsoring building programs, making donations to brahmin priestly groups, and striking coin being the names and images of Hindu deities (the 1st-2nd c. CE Kushan kings also issued such coins; see p. 84).
3. Rather than being built up out of cut stone, many early temples were sculpted out of solid rock to create a cave-like temple (e.g., p. 53 [Elephanta], pp. 207 and 186 [Badami]) or a free-standing structure such as those at Mammalapuram or Ellora (p. 213).
4. In any case, most of the densely sculpted decoration is found covering the outside of the structure; the interior is dark, close, and comparatively plain, aside from the sanctum and any secondary shrines.
5. The plan of the temple site is meant to represent the whole universe in miniature (microcosm); the temple becomes a focus of the divine presence, and thus one of the many "centers" of the world.
6. Doorways into the temple and sanctum are often guarded by DOOR-GUARDIANS (p. 66), and adorned with images of RIVER GODDESSES. One also often meets GANESHA in a niche on the outer part of the temple (e.g., p. 199). Ornament may include semi-divine figures such as YAKSHAs (tree-spirits) and NAGAs (cobra-deities); or the APSARAs (celestial dancing girls) and GANDHARVAs (celestial musicians), who had their human counterparts in the DEVA-DASIs (also called "mahari" at the Jagannath temple in Puri [film]) who performed for the deities in the pavilion space (see p. 220).

BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS EXAMPLES FROM THE READINGS IN GoF/GoS and Devi

Note especially:

A. The unusual wooden images of Jagannath, Balabhadra, and Subhadra in Puri, the chariot festival there, and the tradition of Devadasis or Maharis (temple dancers), as depicted in the film "Given to Dance."
- 12th c. Ganga kings amalgamated tribal, Vaishnava, Shaiva, and Shakta elements into a threefold cult
- Images made and consecrated by non-Brahmin, Shudra Daitas (former tribals) said to be relatives of Jagannath, in secret, to loud music, in darkness
- only they can transfer the brahma-padartha (divine life-substance) from the old images to the new
- destruction of old images is treated like the death of a clansman
- the Daitas are heirs to temple moneys and relics
- Daita Mahapatras give the images flesh and blood (p. 20); Painters paint images (except for the eyes)
-Brahmins then purify the living images (having supplied lids for the life-substance).
- The temporary festival images, and their display: By sponsoring pandals...
                bureaucrats establish their legitimacy as powerful patrons
                merchants advertise their business
                neighborhood associations proclaim their corporate identity (cross-caste!)
                public service groups get across their message: "Drugs Kill"

B. The Shri-Vaishnava tradition in south India
- preserves the inspired devotional poetry in Tamil composed in 6th-9th c. by a group of mystics called the Alvars (those "immersed" in love of God).
- a distinctive theology developed by Ramanuja (11th c.) and Vedanta Deshika (1268-1368), emphasizing the indivisible unity of Shri and Vishnu.
- arca-avatara: the temple-image, the primary form in which the deity is worshiped
- God's descent into image form makes possible the devotee's ascent to Vaikuntha, the heaven over which Vishnu presides; God seems to compromise His omnipotence and omniscience to receive the affection of His devotees in the temple and in the home.
- image considered a "real" body of transcendental substance.
- also present in the heart of the devotee: outer + inner presence.
        Vishnu exists in various modes:
1. all-pervasive presence: His body is the whole universe, animated by His soul.
2. the "divine auspicious form," which has 5 manifestations:
    a. para, the "supreme," eternal, heavenly form (often shown seated);
    b. vyuha, his divine "emanations," which create, preserve, and destroy the world--this aspect represented in the image of Vishnu reclining on the serpent Shesha amidst the cosmic ocean;
    c. vibhava or avatara, earthly manifestations of Vishnu (as the striding Vamana, Rama, Krishna, etc.);
    d. harda, a subtle form standing "in the heart" as the Inner Controller;
    e. arca, the permanent image through which He is encountered in worship.
         The movable festival image at Melkote: "Precious Son"

Retrieved from the Muslim king in Delhi after He came to Ramanuja in a dream in this form. R. found Him being worshiped by the king's daughter. The image leapt up and jumped into R.'s lap, so the king let R. take it back. The Muslim princess, unable to bear separation from Vishnu, followed them back to Tamil Nadu, where she is still honored at Melkote, receiving offerings of north Indian bread!  Images are believed to consist of an "immaterial," divine substance, shuddha-sattva, that is purer than any (ordinary) matter, capable of being shaped according to God's will--a bit of heaven on earth.