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96-519: A retelling of the story of the Hindu goddess, Durga again in the form of Chandi ; it again glorifies the feminine with her fighting the war between good and evil, and in this section she slays the buffalo-demon Mahisha , all his associates and supporters thus bringing an end to the demonic violence and war. This composition deals with themes of battle and war. Its authorship is generally and traditionally attributed to Guru Gobind Singh . This composition

192-487: A rishi (sage) and his family of students. Within each collection, the hymns are arranged in descending order of the number of stanzas per hymn. If two hymns in the same collection have equal numbers of stanzas then they are arranged so that the number of syllables in the metre are in descending order. The second to seventh mandalas have a uniform format. The eighth and ninth mandalas, comprising hymns of mixed age, account for 15% and 9%, respectively. The ninth mandala

288-402: A collection of compositions by many authors. The first mandala is the largest, with 191 hymns and 2006 verses, and it was added to the text after Books 2 through 9. The last, or the 10th Book, also has 191 hymns but 1754 verses, making it the second largest. The language analytics suggest the 10th Book, chronologically, was composed and added last. The content of the 10th Book also suggest that

384-456: A demon-slaying goddess was likely well established by the time the classic Hindu text called Devi Mahatmya was composed, which scholars variously estimate to between 400 and 600 CE. The Devi Mahatmya and other mythologies describe the nature of demonic forces symbolised by Mahishasura as shape-shifting and adapting in nature, form and strategy to create difficulties and achieve their evil ends, while Durga calmly understands and counters

480-496: A few verses. The following information is known about the shakhas other than Śākala and Bāṣkala: The Rigveda hymns were composed and preserved by oral tradition . They were memorized and verbally transmitted with "unparalleled fidelity" across generations for many centuries. According to Barbara West, it was probably first written down about the 3rd-century BCE. The manuscripts were made from birch bark or palm leaves , which decompose and therefore were routinely copied over

576-601: A fire-like flickering tongue, before the text begins presenting its thesis that one must seek self-knowledge and the knowledge of the eternal Brahman . Durga, in her various forms, appears as an independent deity in the Epics period of ancient India, that is the centuries around the start of the common era. Both Yudhisthira and Arjuna characters of the Mahabharata invoke hymns to Durga . She appears in Harivamsa in

672-436: A garland of lemons. The goddess announced that Kamsa's slayer had already been born, before vanishing. Durga is often conceptualised in this role as a sister of Vishnu. Durga is a warrior goddess, and she is depicted to express her martial skills. Her iconography typically resonates with these attributes, where she rides a lion or a tiger, has between eight and eighteen hands, each holding a weapon to destroy and create. She

768-600: A granite cave in Mamallapuram , Tamil Nadu there is a large relief of Durga slaying Mahisasura, carved around 630–674 CE. Durga iconography in some temples appears as part of Mahavidyas or Saptamatrkas (seven mothers considered forms of Durga). Her icons in major Hindu temples such as in Varanasi include relief artworks that show scenes from the Devi Mahatmya . In Vaishnavism , Durga and her mount of

864-590: A lion, is considered one of the three aspects or forms of Goddess Lakshmi , the other two being Sri and Bhu, in place of Niladevi . According to professor Tracy Pintchman, "When the Lord Vishnu created the gunas of prakriti , there arose Lakshmi in her three forms, Sri , Bhu and Durga . Sri consisted of sattva , Bhu as rajas and Durga as tamas ". Durga appears in Hindu traditions in numerous forms and names, but ultimately all these are different aspects and manifestations of one goddess. She

960-447: A lion. Rigveda Divisions Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas The Rigveda or Rig Veda ( Sanskrit : ऋग्वेद , IAST : ṛgveda , from ऋच् , "praise" and वेद , "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns ( sūktas ). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ( śruti ) known as

1056-688: A millennium by oral tradition alone. In order to achieve this the oral tradition prescribed very structured enunciation, involving breaking down the Sanskrit compounds into stems and inflections, as well as certain permutations. This interplay with sounds gave rise to a scholarly tradition of morphology and phonetics . It is unclear as to when the Rigveda was first written down. The oldest surviving manuscripts have been discovered in Nepal and date to c.  1040 CE . According to Witzel,

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1152-400: A noose. These weapons are considered symbolic by Shakta Hindus, representing self-discipline, selfless service to others, self-examination, prayer, devotion, remembering her mantras, cheerfulness and meditation. Durga herself is viewed as the "Self" within and the divine mother of all creation. She has been revered by warriors, blessing their new weapons. Durga iconography has been flexible in

1248-400: A possibly lost Central Asian language. The linguistic sharing provides clear indications, states Michael Witzel, that the people who spoke Rigvedic Sanskrit already knew and interacted with Munda and Dravidian speakers. The "family books" (2–7) are associated with various clans and chieftains, containing hymns by members of the same clan in each book; but other clans are also represented in

1344-718: A sage, and one who knows Brahman. I bend the bow for Rudra, that his arrow may strike, and slay the hater of devotion.      I rouse and order battle for the people, I created Earth and Heaven and reside as their Inner Controller. On the world's summit I bring forth sky the Father: my home is in the waters, in the ocean as Mother.      Thence I pervade all existing creatures, as their Inner Supreme Self, and manifest them with my body. I created all worlds at my will, without any higher being, and permeate and dwell within them.      The eternal and infinite consciousness

1440-716: A social ideal rather than a social reality. The society was semi-nomadic and pastoral with evidence of agriculture since hymns mention plow and celebrate agricultural divinities. There was division of labor and a complementary relationship between kings and poet-priests but no discussion of a relative status of social classes. Women in the Rigveda appear disproportionately as speakers in dialogue hymns, both as mythical or divine Indrani , Apsaras Urvasi , or Yami , as well as Apāla Ātreyī (RV 8.91), Godhā (RV 10.134.6), Ghoṣā Kākṣīvatī (RV 10.39.40), Romaśā (RV 1.126.7), Lopāmudrā (RV 1.179.1–2), Viśvavārā Ātreyī (RV 5.28), Śacī Paulomī (RV 10.159), Śaśvatī Āṅgirasī (RV 8.1.34). The women of

1536-572: A total of 1025 regular hymns for this śākhā. In addition, the Bāṣkala recension has its own appendix of 98 hymns, the Khilani . In the 1877 edition of Aufrecht, the 1028 hymns of the Rigveda contain a total of 10,552 ṛc s, or 39,831 padas. The Shatapatha Brahmana gives the number of syllables to be 432,000, while the metrical text of van Nooten and Holland (1994) has a total of 395,563 syllables (or an average of 9.93 syllables per pada); counting

1632-461: A warrior woman with many arms. Himavan , the personification of the Himalayas, gifted a lion as her mount. Durga, on her lion, appeared before Mahishasura where the demon took on different forms and attacked the goddess. Each time, Durga would destroy his forms. At last, Durga slew Mahishasura with her trident when he was transforming as a buffalo demon. According to Vaishnava tradition, Durga

1728-421: A while and asked a boon that only a woman could be able to kill him. Brahma granted the boon and disappeared. Mahishasura started to torture innocent people. He captured Svarga and was not in any kind of fear, as he thought women to be powerless and weak. The devas were worried and they went to Trimurti . The Trimurti combined their power, and gave a physical form to the sum of their divine energy, Adi Shakti ,

1824-531: Is I, it is my greatness dwelling in everything. – Devi Sukta, Rigveda 10.125.3 – 10.125.8 , Devi's epithets synonymous with Durga appear in Upanishadic literature, such as Kali in verse 1.2.4 of the Mundaka Upanishad dated to about the 5th century BCE. This single mention describes Kali as "terrible yet swift as thought", very red and smoky coloured manifestation of the divine with

1920-466: Is also celebrated and the goddess is dressed each day as a different Devi, all considered equivalent but another aspect of Durga. In Bangladesh , the four-day-long Sharadiya Durga Puja is the most important religious festival for the Hindus and celebrated across the country with Vijayadashami being a national holiday. In Sri Lanka, Durga in the form of Vaishnavi, bearing Vishnu's iconographic symbolism

2016-441: Is among the various epithets and avatars of Yogamaya , the personification of the illusory power of Vishnu. Vishnu offers Durga the task of transferring the seventh child of Devaki into the womb of Rohini , as well as being born on earth as the infant daughter of Yashoda and Nanda , so that she could be swapped with Krishna . When Kamsa attempted to slay her, she manifested her true form of an eighteen-armed goddess, wearing

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2112-452: Is called as Sharadiya Durga Puja or Akal-Bodhan to differentiate it from the one celebrated originally in spring. The festival is celebrated by communities by making special colourful images of Durga out of clay, recitations of Devi Mahatmya text, prayers and revelry for nine days, after which it is taken out in procession with singing and dancing, then immersed in water. The Durga puja is an occasion of major private and public festivities in

2208-591: Is celebrated. This tradition has been continued by Sri Lankan diaspora. The Tantric Buddhist Vajrayana traditions adopted several Hindu deities into its fold, including Durga. Numerous depictions of Durgā Mahiṣāsuramardinī (Durgā slaying the buffalo demon) have been found at Buddhist temple sites (c. 8th–11th century) in Afghanistan , Indonesia and northeastern India. Durga statues have also been found in major Buddhist sites like Nalanda and Vikramashila . In Bengal , late Indian Mahayana Buddhists during

2304-669: Is commonly known as Mahishasura-mardini for slaying the half-buffalo demon Mahishasura. She is also known as Vindhyavasini (she who dwells in the Vindhya Mountains). Her other epithets include Mahamoha (great delusion), Mahasuri (the great demoness), Tamasi (the great night, the night of delusion). There are many epithets for Durga in Shaktism and her nine appellations are ( Navadurga ): Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayini, Kalaratri, Mahagauri and Siddhidatri. A list of 108 names of

2400-512: Is comparatively slight. There is also a certain amount of material peculiar to each of them. The Kaushitaka is, upon the whole, far more concise in its style and more systematic in its arrangement features which would lead one to infer that it is probably the more modern work of the two. It consists of 30 chapters ( adhyaya ); while the Aitareya has 40, divided into eight books (or pentads, pancaka ), of five chapters each. The last 10 adhyayas of

2496-470: Is entirely dedicated to Soma and the Soma ritual . The hymns in the ninth mandala are arranged by both their prosody structure ( chanda ) and by their length. The first and the tenth mandalas are the youngest; they are also the longest books, of 191 suktas each, accounting for 37% of the text. Nevertheless, some of the hymns in mandalas 8, 1 and 10 may still belong to an earlier period and may be as old as

2592-523: Is imagined to be terrifying and destructive when she has to be, but benevolent and nurturing when she needs to be. While anthropomorphic icons of her, such as those showing her riding a lion and holding weapons, are common, the Hindu traditions use aniconic forms and geometric designs ( yantra ) to remember and revere what she symbolises. Durga is worshipped in Hindu temples across India and Nepal by Shakta Hindus. The Vedic Texts concluded Durga alone to be

2688-576: Is isolated in pausa form and is used for just one way of memorization; and the Samhitapatha , which combines words according to the rules of sandhi (the process being described in the Pratisakhya ) and is the memorized text used for recitation. The Padapatha and the Pratisakhya anchor the text's true meaning, and the fixed text was preserved with unparalleled fidelity for more than

2784-586: Is known as Chandi Charitar Ustat (ਅਥ ਚੰਡੀ ਚਰਿਤ੍ਰ ਉਸਤਤ) where it praises the goddess. Other related compositions include Chandi Charitar Ukti Bilas, Chandi Di Vaar, and Uggardanti. Durga Traditional Durga ( Sanskrit : दुर्गा , IAST : Durgā ) is a major Hindu goddess , worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi . She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around combating evils and demonic forces that threaten peace, prosperity, and dharma , representing

2880-511: Is likely to remain a matter of contention and reconsideration". The dating proposals so far are all inferred from the style and the content within the hymns themselves. Philological estimates tend to date the bulk of the text to the second half of the second millennium BCE. Being composed in an early Indo-Aryan language, the hymns must post-date the Indo-Iranian separation, dated to roughly 2000 BCE. A reasonable date close to that of

2976-436: Is often shown in the midst of her war with Mahishasura, the buffalo demon, at the time she victoriously kills the demonic force. Her icon shows her in action, yet her face is calm and serene. In Hindu arts, this tranquil attribute of Durga's face is traditionally derived from the belief that she is protective and violent not because of her hatred, egotism or getting pleasure in violence, but because she acts out of necessity, for

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3072-449: Is organized in ten "books", or maṇḍalas ("circles"), of varying age and length. The "family books", mandalas 2–7, are the oldest part of the Rigveda and the shortest books; they are arranged by length (decreasing length of hymns per book) and account for 38% of the text. The hymns are arranged in collections each dealing with a particular deity: Agni comes first, Indra comes second, and so on. They are attributed and dedicated to

3168-567: Is the core text and is a collection of 10 books ( maṇḍala s) with 1,028 hymns ( sūkta s) in about 10,600 verses (called ṛc , eponymous of the name Rigveda ). In the eight books – Books 2 through 9 – that were composed the earliest, the hymns predominantly discuss cosmology , rites required to earn the favour of the gods , as well as praise them. The more recent books (Books 1 and 10) in part also deal with philosophical or speculative questions, virtues such as dāna (charity) in society, questions about

3264-402: Is uncertain. The surviving padapāṭha version of the Rigveda text is ascribed to Śākalya. The Śākala recension has 1,017 regular hymns, and an appendix of 11 vālakhilya hymns which are now customarily included in the 8th mandala (as 8.49–8.59), for a total of 1028 hymns. The Bāṣkala recension includes eight of these vālakhilya hymns among its regular hymns, making

3360-527: The ṛc s. The codification of the Rigveda took place late in the Rigvedic or rather in the early post-Rigvedic period at c.  1200 BCE , by members of the early Kuru tribe, when the center of Vedic culture moved east from the Punjab into what is now Uttar Pradesh . The Rigveda was codified by compiling the hymns, including the arrangement of the individual hymns in ten books, coeval with

3456-530: The Lakshmi Tantra , Lakshmi has Durga as one of her forms and acquires the name Durga after killing the demon Durgamasura. These texts identify Durga as Vishnu's māyā ". The Mahishasura Mardini Stotra by Adi Shankara was written in her praise. The historian Ramaprasad Chanda stated in 1916 that Durga evolved over time in the Indian subcontinent. A primitive form of Durga, according to Chanda,

3552-601: The Mahabharata and section 4.27.16 of the Ramayana . These usages are in different contexts. For example, Durg is the name of an Asura who had become invincible to gods, and Durga is the goddess who intervenes and slays him. Durga and its derivatives are found in sections 4.1.99 and 6.3.63 of the Ashtadhyayi by Pāṇini , the ancient Sanskrit grammarian, and in the commentary of Nirukta by Yaska . Durga

3648-682: The Durga Saptashati . He could not ascertain whether principles of Sikhism were actually imbibed in Chandi Charitras or if they had a flavor of Hinduism is still in it. It differs from Chandi Charitar Ukti Bilas in that it does not reference the chapters within the Markandeya Purana, but still tells the same story. The work contains 262 verses in total. The 8th and last chapter of the Chandi Charitar II

3744-475: The Helmand or Arghandab ). Other evidence also points to a composition date close to 1400 BCE. The earliest texts were composed in the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent, and the more philosophical later texts were most likely composed in or around the region that is the modern era state of Haryana . The Rigveda ' s core is accepted to date to the late Bronze Age , making it one of

3840-767: The Indian independence movement . The city of Kolkata is famous for Durga puja. In Nepal , the festival dedicated to Durga is called Dashain (sometimes spelled as Dasain), which literally means "the ten". Dashain is the longest national holiday of Nepal, and is a public holiday in Sikkim and Bhutan . During Dashain, Durga is worshipped in ten forms ( Shailaputri , Brahmacharini , Chandraghanta , Kushmanda , Skandamata , Katyayani , Kalaratri , Mahagauri , Mahakali and Durga) with one form for each day in Nepal. The festival includes animal sacrifice in some communities, as well as

3936-785: The Indus Valley civilisation . According to Asko Parpola , a cylindrical seal from Kalibangan shows "a Durgā-like goddess of war, who is associated with the tiger". Reverence for Devi , the feminine nature of God, first appears in the 10th Maṇḍala of Rig Veda , one of the scriptures of Hinduism. This hymn is also called the Devi Suktam hymn (abridged): I am the Queen, the gatherer-up of treasures, most thoughtful, first of those who merit worship.      Thus gods have established me in many places with many homes to enter and abide in. Through me alone all eat

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4032-541: The Rigveda are in different poetic metres in Vedic Sanskrit. The meters most used in the ṛcas are the gayatri (3 verses of 8 syllables), anushtubh (4×8), trishtubh (4×11) and jagati (4×12). The trishtubh meter (40%) and gayatri meter (25%) dominate in the Rigveda . As with the other Vedas, the redacted text has been handed down in several versions, including the Padapatha , in which each word

4128-407: The Rigveda are quite outspoken and appear more sexually confident than men, in the text. Elaborate and aesthetic hymns on wedding suggest rites of passage had developed during the Rigvedic period. There is little evidence of dowry and no evidence of sati in it or related Vedic texts. The Rigvedic hymns mention rice and porridge, in hymns such as 8.83, 8.70, 8.77 and 1.61 in some versions of

4224-470: The Rigveda . The family books are associated with specific regions, and mention prominent Bharata and Pūru kings. Tradition associates a rishi (the composer) with each ṛc (verse) of the Rigveda . Most sūktas are attributed to single composers; for each of them the Rigveda includes a lineage-specific āprī hymn (a special sūkta of rigidly formulaic structure, used for rituals). In all, 10 families of rishis account for more than 95 per cent of

4320-713: The Sapta Sindhu , and the Sarasvati River ). The Adityas , Vasus, Rudras, Sadhyas, Ashvins , Maruts , Rbhus , and the Vishvadevas ("all-gods") as well as the "thirty-three gods" are the groups of deities mentioned. Of the Brahmanas that were handed down in the schools of the Bahvṛcas (i.e. "possessed of many verses"), as the followers of the Rigveda are called, two have come down to us, namely those of

4416-846: The Sharada and Devanagari scripts, written on birch bark and paper. The oldest of the Pune collection is dated to 1464 CE. The 30 manuscripts of Rigveda preserved at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute , Pune were added to UNESCO 's Memory of the World Register in 2007. Of these thirty manuscripts, nine contain the samhita text, five have the padapatha in addition. Thirteen contain Sayana's commentary. At least five manuscripts (MS. no. 1/A1879-80, 1/A1881-82, 331/1883-84 and 5/Viś I) have preserved

4512-470: The Vedas . Only one Shakha of the many survive today, namely the Śakalya Shakha. Much of the contents contained in the remaining Shakhas are now lost or are not available in the public forum. The Rigveda is the oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text. Its early layers are among the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language . The sounds and texts of the Rigveda have been orally transmitted since

4608-521: The 16th century. The 11th or 12th century Jainism text Yasatilaka by Somadeva mentions a festival and annual dates dedicated to a warrior goddess, celebrated by the king and his armed forces, and the description mirrors attributes of a Durga puja. The prominence of Durga puja increased during the British Raj in Bengal. After the Hindu reformists identified Durga with India, she became an icon for

4704-742: The 17th century worshiped Durga during traditional Yogini Puja celebrations, and some traces of these Mahayana Durga rites survive today, even though the Bengalis who perform them are no longer Buddhist. Images of the Buddhist Durga have also been found in Bali (surrounded with images of Buddhas and bodhisattvas) and date from the 10th and 11th centuries. Durga also appears in the Sarvadurgatipariśodhana tantra , though in this text, she appears not in her demon slaying form, but mounted on

4800-583: The 2nd millennium BCE. Philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the bulk of the Rigveda Samhita was composed in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent (see Rigvedic rivers ), most likely between c. 1500 and 1000 BCE, although a wider approximation of c. 1900–1200 BCE has also been given. The text is layered, consisting of the Samhita , Brahmanas , Aranyakas and Upanishads . The Rigveda Samhita

4896-579: The Aitareyins and the Kaushitakins. The Aitareya-brahmana and the Kaushitaki- (or Sankhayana- ) brahmana evidently have for their groundwork the same stock of traditional exegetic matter. They differ, however, considerably as regards both the arrangement of this matter and their stylistic handling of it, with the exception of the numerous legends common to both, in which the discrepancy

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4992-678: The Brahmanas are referred to as the "Rigveda Brahmanas" (etc.). Technically speaking, however, "the Rigveda" refers to the entire body of texts transmitted along with the Samhita portion. Different bodies of commentary were transmitted in the different shakhas or "schools". Only a small portion of these texts has been preserved: The texts of only two out of five shakhas mentioned by the Rigveda Pratishakhya have survived. The late (15th or 16th century) Shri Guru Charitra even claims

5088-410: The Hindu traditions, where for example some intellectuals place a pen or other writing implements in her hand since they consider their stylus as their weapon. Archeological discoveries suggest that these iconographic features of Durga became common throughout India by about the 4th century CE, states David Kinsley – a professor of religious studies specialising on Hindu goddesses. In the north wall of

5184-614: The Kaushitaki-brahmana) of Shunahshepa , whom his father Ajigarta sells and offers to slay, the recital of which formed part of the inauguration of kings. While the Aitareya deals almost exclusively with the Soma sacrifice, the Kaushitaka, in its first six chapters, treats of the several kinds of haviryajna , or offerings of rice, milk, ghee, etc., whereupon follows the Soma sacrifice in this way, that chapters 7–10 contain

5280-522: The Markandeya Purana, Durga Puja can be performed either for 9 days or 4 days (last four in sequence). The four-day-long Durga Puja is a major annual festival in Bengal , Odisha , Assam , Jharkhand and Bihar . It is scheduled per the Hindu luni-solar calendar in the month of Ashvina , and typically falls in September or October. Since it is celebrated during Sharad (literally, season of weeds), it

5376-573: The Paippalada Samhita tradition points to written manuscripts c.  800 –1000 CE. The Upanishads were likely in the written form earlier, about mid-1st millennium CE ( Gupta Empire period). Attempts to write the Vedas may have been made "towards the end of the 1st millennium BCE". The early attempts may have been unsuccessful given the Smriti rules that forbade the writing down

5472-623: The Supreme and the Absolute facet of Brahman, as stated in the Devi-Atharvashirsha यस्याः परतरं नास्ति सैषा दुर्गा प्रकीर्तिता ॥२४॥ She who is renowned by the name "Durga" is the being superior to whom, no one exists. – Devi Atharvashirhsa Upanishad , 24. Her temples, worship and festivals are particularly popular in eastern and northeastern parts of Indian subcontinent during Durga puja, Dashain and Navaratri. As per

5568-513: The Vedas, states Witzel. The oral tradition continued as a means of transmission until modern times. Several shakhas (from skt. śākhā f. "branch", i. e. "recension") of the Rig Veda are known to have existed in the past. Of these, Śākala Śākhā (named after the scholar Śākalya ) is the only one to have survived in its entirety. Another śākhā that may have survived is the Bāṣkala, although this

5664-709: The Vedic literature, such as in the Rigveda hymns 4.28, 5.34, 8.27, 8.47, 8.93 and 10.127, and in sections 10.1 and 12.4 of the Atharvaveda . A deity named Durge appears in section 10.1.7 of the Taittiriya Aranyaka . While the Vedic literature uses the word Durga , the description therein lacks the legendary details about her that is found in later Hindu literature. The word is also found in ancient post-Vedic Sanskrit texts such as in section 2.451 of

5760-496: The authors knew and relied on the contents of the first nine books. The Rigveda is the largest of the four Vedas, and many of its verses appear in the other Vedas. Almost all of the 1875 verses found in Samaveda are taken from different parts of the Rigveda , either once or as repetition, and rewritten in a chant song form. Books 8 and 9 of the Rigveda are by far the largest source of verses for Sama Veda. Book 10 contributes

5856-637: The complete text of the Rigveda . MS no. 5/1875-76, written on birch bark in bold Sharada, was only in part used by Max Müller for his edition of the Rigveda with Sayana's commentary. Müller used 24 manuscripts then available to him in Europe, while the Pune Edition used over five dozen manuscripts, but the editors of Pune Edition could not procure many manuscripts used by Müller and by the Bombay Edition, as well as from some other sources; hence

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5952-513: The composition of the core of the Rigveda is that of the Mitanni documents of northern Syria and Iraq ( c.  1450 –1350 BCE), which also mention the Vedic gods such as Varuna, Mitra and Indra. Some scholars have suggested that the Rig Veda was composed on the banks of a river in Haraxvaiti province in southern Afghanistan ( Persian : Harahvati; Sanskrit : Sarasvati; possibly

6048-693: The composition of the younger Veda Samhitas. According to Witzel, the initial collection took place after the Bharata victory in the Battle of the Ten Kings , under king Sudās , over other Puru kings. This collection was an effort to reconcile various factions in the clans which were united in the Kuru kingdom under a Bharata king. This collection was re-arranged and expanded in the Kuru Kingdom , reflecting

6144-448: The core 'family books' (mandalas 2 – 7 , ordered by author, deity and meter ) and a later redaction, coeval with the redaction of the other Vedas , dating several centuries after the hymns were composed. This redaction also included some additions (contradicting the strict ordering scheme) and orthoepic changes to the Vedic Sanskrit such as the regularization of sandhi (termed orthoepische Diaskeuase by Oldenberg, 1888). The text

6240-490: The early Andronovo culture of c.  2000 BCE . The Rigveda offers no direct evidence of social or political systems in the Vedic era, whether ordinary or elite. Only hints such as cattle raising and horse racing are discernible, and the text offers very general ideas about the ancient Indian society. There is no evidence, state Jamison and Brereton, of any elaborate, pervasive or structured caste system . Social stratification seems embryonic, then and later

6336-411: The eastern and northeastern (Assamese) region of India, with roots in Austroasiatic languages . The others in the list of 300 – such as mleccha and nir  – have Dravidian roots found in the southern region of India, or are of Tibeto-Burman origins. A few non-Indo-European words in the Rigveda  – such as for camel, mustard and donkey – belong to

6432-560: The eastern and northeastern states of India. The day of Durga's victory is celebrated as Vijayadashami (Bijoya in Bengali), Dashain (Nepali) or Dussehra (in Hindi) – these words literally mean "the victory on the Tenth (day)". This festival is an old tradition of Hinduism, though it is unclear how and in which century the festival began. Surviving manuscripts from the 14th century provide guidelines for Durga puja, while historical records suggest royalty and wealthy families were sponsoring major Durga puja public festivities since at least

6528-623: The eighth mandala, for a total of 1028 metrical hymns. The Bāṣakala version of Rigveda includes eight of these vālakhilya hymns among its regular hymns, making a total of 1025 hymns in the main text for this śākhā. The Bāṣakala text also has an appendix of 98 hymns, called the Khilani , bringing the total to 1,123 hymns. The manuscripts of Śākala recension of the Rigveda have about 10,600 verses, organized into ten Books ( Mandalas ). Books 2 through 7 are internally homogeneous in style, while Books 1, 8 and 10 are compilation of verses of internally different styles suggesting that these books are likely

6624-406: The establishment of a new Bharata-Puru lineage and new srauta rituals. The fixing of the Vedic chant (by enforcing regular application of sandhi ) and of the padapatha (by dissolving Sandhi out of the earlier metrical text), occurred during the later Brahmana period, in roughly the 6th century BCE. The surviving form of the Rigveda is based on an early Iron Age collection that established

6720-459: The evil in order to achieve her solemn goals. The most popular legend associated with the goddess is of her killing of Mahishasura . Mahishasura was a half-buffalo demon who did severe penance in order to please Brahma , the creator. After several years, Brahma, pleased with his devotion, appeared before him. The demon opened his eyes and asked the god for immortality. Brahma refused, stating that all must die one day. Mahishasura then thought for

6816-822: The existence of twelve Rigvedic shakhas. The two surviving Rigvedic corpora are those of the Śākala and the Bāṣkala shakhas. The Rigvedic hymns are dedicated to various deities, chief of whom are Indra , a heroic god praised for having slain his enemy Vrtra ; Agni , the sacrificial fire; and Soma , the sacred potion or the plant it is made from. Equally prominent gods are the Adityas or Asura gods Mitra – Varuna and Ushas (the dawn). Also invoked are Savitr , Vishnu , Rudra , Pushan , Brihaspati or Brahmanaspati , as well as deified natural phenomena such as Dyaus Pita (the shining sky, Father Heaven), Prithivi (the earth, Mother Earth), Surya (the sun god), Vayu or Vata (the wind), Apas (the waters), Parjanya (the thunder and rain), Vac (the word), many rivers (notably

6912-586: The festivals of Durga Puja , Durga Ashtami , Vijayadashami , Deepavali , and Navaratri . The word Durga (दुर्गा) literally means "impassable", "invincible, unassailable". It is related to the word Durg (दुर्ग) which means "fortress, something difficult to defeat or pass". According to Monier Monier-Williams , Durga is derived from the roots dur (difficult) and gam (pass, go through). According to Indologist Alain Daniélou , Durga means "beyond defeat". The word Durga and related terms appear in

7008-406: The few examples with an unbroken tradition. Its composition is usually dated to roughly between c.  1500 and 1000 BCE. According to Michael Witzel , the codification of the Rigveda took place at the end of the Rigvedic period between c.  1200 and 1000 BCE, in the early Kuru kingdom. Asko Parpola argues that the Rigveda was systematized around 1000 BCE, at

7104-460: The food that feeds them, – each man who sees, breathes, hears the word outspoken.      They know it not, yet I reside in the essence of the Universe. Hear, one and all, the truth as I declare it. I, verily, myself announce and utter the word that gods and men alike shall welcome.      I make the man I love exceedingly mighty, make him nourished,

7200-614: The form of Vishnu's eulogy, and in Pradyumna prayer. Various Puranas from the early to late 1st millennium CE dedicate chapters of inconsistent legends associated with Durga . Of these, the Markandeya Purana and the Devi-Bhagavata Purana are the most significant texts on Durga . The Devi Upanishad and other Shakta Upanishads , mostly dated to have been composed in or after the 9th century, present

7296-433: The generations to help preserve the text. There are, for example, 30 manuscripts of Rigveda at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute , collected in the 19th century by Georg Bühler , Franz Kielhorn and others, originating from different parts of India, including Kashmir , Gujarat , the then Rajaputana , Central Provinces etc. They were transferred to Deccan College , Pune , in the late 19th century. They are in

7392-436: The goddess is recited in order to worship her and is popularly known as the "Ashtottarshat Namavali of Goddess Durga". Other meanings may include: "the one who cannot be accessed easily", "the undefeatable goddess". Durga is also known as Durgati Nashini, meaning one who eliminates suffering. Her other names include Chandika, Sharada, Ambika, Vaishnavi etc. Evidence of Durga-like images can probably be traced back to

7488-520: The largest number of the 1350 verses of Rigveda found in Atharvaveda , or about one fifth of the 5987 verses in the Atharvaveda text. A bulk of 1875 ritual-focussed verses of Yajurveda , in its numerous versions, also borrow and build upon the foundation of verses in Rigveda . Altogether the Rigveda consists of: In western usage, "Rigveda" usually refers to the Rigveda Samhita, while

7584-482: The latter work are, however, clearly a later addition though they must have already formed part of it at the time of Pāṇini (c. 5th century BCE), if, as seems probable, one of his grammatical sutras, regulating the formation of the names of Brahmanas, consisting of 30 and 40 adhyayas, refers to these two works. In this last portion occurs the well-known legend (also found in the Shankhayana-sutra, but not in

7680-454: The love of the good, for liberation of those who depend on her, and a mark of the beginning of soul's journey to creative freedom. Durga traditionally holds the weapons of various male gods of Hindu mythology, which they give her to fight the evil forces because they feel that she is shakti (energy, power). These include the chakra (divine discus), conch, bow, arrow, sword, javelin, trishula trident, shield, mace, pink Lotus Flower and

7776-563: The material in the family books. The first mandala has a unique arrangement not found in the other nine mandalas. The first 84 hymns of the tenth mandala have a structure different from the remaining hymns in it. Each mandala consists of hymns or sūkta s ( su- + ukta , literally, "well recited, eulogy ") intended for various rituals . The sūkta s in turn consist of individual stanzas called ṛc ("praise", pl. ṛcas ), which are further analysed into units of verse called pada (" foot " or step). The hymns of

7872-539: The names of gods and goddesses found in the Rigveda are found amongst other belief systems based on Proto-Indo-European religion , while most of the words used share common roots with words from other Indo-European languages . However, about 300 words in the Rigveda are neither Indo-Aryan nor Indo-European, states the Sanskrit and Vedic literature scholar Frits Staal . Of these 300, many – such as kapardin , kumara , kumari , kikata  – come from Munda or proto-Munda languages found in

7968-462: The nine-day festival by devout Hindus. Durga is usually worshipped as a celibate goddess, but the Shaktism traditions includes the worship of Shiva along with Durga, who is considered to be his consort, in addition to Lakshmi , Saraswati , Ganesha and Kartikeya , who are considered to be Durga's children by Shaktas. Some Shaktas worship Durga's symbolism and presence as Mother Nature . In South India, especially Andhra Pradesh, Dussera Navaratri

8064-505: The number of syllables is not straightforward because of issues with sandhi and the post-Rigvedic pronunciation of syllables like súvar as svàr. Three other shakhas are mentioned in Caraṇavyuha , a pariśiṣṭa (supplement) of Yajurveda: Māṇḍukāyana, Aśvalāyana and Śaṅkhāyana . The Atharvaveda lists two more shakhas. The differences between all these shakhas are very minor, limited to varying order of content and inclusion (or non-inclusion) of

8160-423: The origin of the universe and the nature of the divine, and other metaphysical issues in their hymns. Some of its verses continue to be recited during Hindu prayer and celebration of rites of passage (such as weddings ), making it probably the world's oldest religious text in continued use. According to Jamison and Brereton, in their 2014 translation of the Rigveda , the dating of this text "has been and

8256-664: The philosophical and mystical speculations related to Durga as Devi and other epithets, identifying her to be the same as the Brahman and Atman (self, soul). In the Narada Purana , Durga is associated as a form of Lakshmi . In the Garuda Purana and the Vishnu Purana , Lakshmi is considered Prakriti (Mahalakshmi) and is identified with three forms — Sri, Bhu and Durga. In Pancharatra texts such as

8352-679: The power of good over evil. Durga is believed to unleash her divine wrath against the wicked for the liberation of the oppressed, and entails destruction to empower creation. Durga is seen as a motherly figure and often depicted as a beautiful woman, riding a lion or tiger, with many arms each carrying a weapon and often defeating demons. She is widely worshipped by the followers of the goddess-centric sect, Shaktism , and has importance in other denominations like Shaivism and Vaishnavism . The most important texts of Shaktism, Devi Mahatmya and Devi Bhagavata Purana , revere Devi (the Goddess) as

8448-495: The practical ceremonial and 11–30 the recitations ( shastra ) of the hotar. Sayana, in the introduction to his commentary on the work, ascribes the Aitareya to the sage Mahidasa Aitareya (i.e. son of Itara), also mentioned elsewhere as a philosopher; and it seems likely enough that this person arranged the Brahmana and founded the school of the Aitareyins. Regarding the authorship of the sister work we have no information, except that

8544-578: The primordial creator of the universe and the Brahman (ultimate truth and reality). She is one of the five equivalent deities in Panchayatana puja of the Smarta tradition of Hinduism. She is also considered to be the younger sister of Vishnu according to Bhagavata purana. Durga has a significant following all over Nepal , India , Bangladesh and many other countries. She is mostly worshipped after spring and autumn harvests, especially during

8640-408: The purchase of new clothes and gift giving. Traditionally, the festival is celebrated over 15 days, the first nine-day are spent by the faithful by remembering Durga and her ideas, the tenth day marks Durga's victory over Mahisura, and the last five days celebrate the victory of good over evil. During the first nine days, nine aspects of Durga known as Navadurga are meditated upon, one by one during

8736-406: The text; however, there is no discussion of rice cultivation. The term áyas (metal) occurs in the Rigveda , but it is unclear which metal it was. Iron is not mentioned in Rigveda , something scholars have used to help date Rigveda to have been composed before 1000 BCE. Hymn 5.63 mentions "metal cloaked in gold", suggesting that metalworking had progressed in the Vedic culture. Some of

8832-518: The time of the Kuru kingdom. The Rigveda is far more archaic than any other Indo-Aryan text. For this reason, it was in the center of attention of Western scholarship from the times of Max Müller and Rudolf Roth onwards. The Rigveda records an early stage of Vedic religion . There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the early Iranian Avesta , deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times, often associated with

8928-455: The total number of extant manuscripts known then must surpass perhaps eighty at least. Rigveda manuscripts in paper, palm leaves and birch bark form, either in full or in portions, have been discovered in the following Indic scripts: The various Rigveda manuscripts discovered so far show some differences. Broadly, the most studied Śākala recension has 1017 hymns, includes an appendix of eleven valakhīlya hymns which are often counted with

9024-624: Was built on the foundation of the Vedic religion, mythology and philosophy. There are total of nine avatars of Goddess Durga in Hinduism. Epigraphical evidence indicates that regardless of her origins, Durga is an ancient goddess. The 6th-century CE inscriptions in early Siddhamatrika script, such as at the Nagarjuni hill cave during the Maukhari era, already mention the legend of her victory over Mahishasura (buffalo-hybrid demon). Durga as

9120-568: Was the result of " syncretism of a mountain-goddess worshipped by the dwellers of the Himalaya and the Vindhyas ", a deity of the Abhiras conceptualised as a war-goddess. Durga then transformed into Kali as the personification of the all-destroying time, while aspects of her emerged as the primordial energy ( Adya Sakti ) integrated into the samsara (cycle of rebirths) concept and this idea

9216-569: Was written in Braj at Anandpur Sahib , Punjab . It has eight cantos, contains 262 couplets and quatrains, mostly employing Bhujang Prayat and Rasaval measures (chhands), divided into 8 chapters. This work was composed at Anandpur Sahib, sometime before 1698 CE, the year when the Bachitar Natak was completed. According to Max Arthur Macauliffe , the composition was written by bards in who were employed by Guru Gobind Singh and translated

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