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Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, IAST: Śakti; 'energy, ability, strength, effort, power, might, capability') in Hinduism, is the "Universal Power" that underlies and sustains all existence. Conceived as feminine in essence, Shakti as devi refers to the personified energy or power of a male deity, often personified as the complementary force of the given Hindu god.
In Tantric Shaktism, Shakti is the foremost deity, akin to Brahman. In Puranic Hinduism, Shiva and Shakti are the masculine and feminine principles that are complementary to each other. The female deity is Prakriti, the active, dynamic and creative principle. The male deity is purusha, the passive, unchanging and observing principle. The interaction of both principles is what creates the universe.
The term Shakta is used for the description of people associated with Shakti worship. The Shakta pithas are shrines, which are believed to be the sacred seats of Shakti.
Relatedly, the term Shakta (, ) is used for people and traditions associated with Shakti worship. Shakta became popular from the ninth-century onwards, before that the term Kula or Kaula, which referred to of female ancestry, besides to the menstrual and sexual fluids of females was used to describe Shakti believers.
Metaphysically, Shakti refers to "energetic principle" of the Ultimate reality—which is ideated as "primordial power". Shakti is believed to constitute such important factors as: " cit (consciousness, intelligence), ananda (joy, bliss), Iccha-shakti (will), jnana (knowledge), and kriya (action)". In the study of Indian religions and their associated philosophies, one finds terms that combine Shakti with other concepts, giving rise to various expressions, such as; " adya Shakti (primal energy, primordial force), cit Shakti or vacya Shakti (the energy of consciousness), vacaka Shakti (manifested consciousness), and para Shakti (supreme energy, cause of all)"—all of which, by their association with Shakti, indicate that the respective concept is essentially feminine.
Scholars assume that goddess worship prevailed in the Indus Valley Civilisation (3300–1300 BCE), as many Terracotta with smoke-blacked headgear suggesting their use in rituals had been found in almost all the houses of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. Numerous artefacts that appear to portray female deities were also found. This development however is not assumed to be the earliest precursor of goddess worship in India; it has evolved over a long period of time before.
The Devīsūkta in the Rigveda, addressed to the goddess Vāc, became the progenitor of goddess theology that evolved later. Here (10.125.6), Vāc states: "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, and I have penetrated Earth and Heaven". This hymn presented the goddess as an all powerful pervasive being, who is both "immanent and transcendent", and is bestower of power to both gods and humans. Prominent characteristics of Vāc were later incorporated into the identity of Saraswati, who was a minor river goddess in the Vedas, but later became the goddess of knowledge and the "Mother of the Vedas".
Most of the goddesses in the Vedic era were presented as wives of the gods. They had no special powers nor an individual name either, rather they took their respective husband's name with feminine suffixes, as with Indrani, the wife of Indra. Though the goddesses had no power, one Rigvedic hymn (10.159) addressed Indrani as Śacī Poulomī and presented her as the "Apotheosis" of Indra's power. The term Śacī meant "the rendering of powerful or mighty help, assistance, aid, especially of the 'deeds of Indra'." This use of the term Śacī is seen as a major step in the later conception of Śakti as the divine power which is separate from a deity and something not inherently present within it.
In later Hindu texts, the idea of Shakti as divine feminine energy became more pronounced as wives of the gods began to personify the powers of their husbands. Despite arriving at this stage, it was only later, after a lot of philosophical speculation and understanding the connecting factor underlying the universe that the idea of Shakti as being the feminine unity pervading all existence was developed.
Most of the Puranas presented the goddesses as consorts of the gods. The Kurma Purana (1.1.30) portrays the goddess Lakshmi as a being lower to her husband, the god Vishnu, who "takes possession" of her when she appears at the Kshira Sagara. Nevertheless, the Kurma Purana (1.1.34) likewise describes Lakshmi as the impetus of Vishnu, who calls her "that great Śakti (potency) of my form". An inseparable bond between the goddess and her consort was formed when she was projected as an embodiment of three important principles — "śakti (energy), prakṛti (primordial or primary matter) and māyā (illusion)", thus founding a relationship between "female divinity and creative power". In the puranic era, though the goddess was considered the source behind manifest creation, she was, nonetheless, a personification of her consort's energy and was referred to as prakṛti, who is still subordinated to her consort's will. While there was an individual goddess named śakti, the term referred to a quality held by both male and female deities. An apparent identity between feminine divinity and cosmic energy was not yet vouched.
The Devi Mahatmya nevertheless bolstered the concept of the Mahadevi or the great goddess—an amalgamate of manifold powers—with numerous epithets. Besides the term Devi, the most general name for the goddess is Chandi or Caṇḍikā (meaning "violent and impetuous one"), this was the first mention of this term in a Sanskrit text and was probably conceived for this distinct incarnation represented in an aggressive and often unorthodox mode with an affinity for drink and approval of blood offerings. She, as Chandika, is declared to exist eternally, and is lauded for being the foundation of the universe, as well as for maintaining and protecting this world. The traditional creator-god, Brahma, extols her as "thou who containest the world," thus suggesting a Panentheism imagery for her being as the eternal world-soul that resides in everything, and is the queen of the universe.
The idea of independence and not confirming to widely held notions of goddesses has been an intriguing trait of her character in the Devi Mahatmya. The goddess here, primarily identified as Durga, is not dependent on a male consort and she successfully handles male roles herself. In battles, she fights without a male ally, and when needed aide, creates female peers from herself like Kali. Also, the ideation of the goddess as a personification of Shakti varies, instead of providing power to a male consort like other puranic era goddesses, here she takes powers from the gods–who all "surrender their potency to her" at the time of her manifestation.
The Devi Mahatmya elucidated the goddess so meticulously that it clarifies the changeableness of her character and makes it clear that she cannot be classified readily as she is the embodiment of all facets of energy—being concurrently "creative, preservative and destructive" ( Devi Mahatmya 1.56–58). The goddess is described as "eternal, having as her form the world. By her is all pervaded" ( Devi Mahatmya 1.47). The text explains the all-pervasive Mahadevi as being both devi (goddess) and Asura (demoness), for she represents positive as well as negative aspects of power and energy. Here, the ultimate reality was completely equated with Devi, who is presented as the power enabling the trimurti—Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma—to engage in the "preservation, dissolution and creation" of the universe respectively ( Devi Mahatmya 1.59). Devi appears at the emergence of cosmic crisis, accordingly her role is assumed to be identical to that of Vishnu, who in his various Dashavatara vows to manifest himself at times of crisis. Similarly, Devi, also vows to manifest whenever her help is needed ( Devi Mahatmya 12.36). Scholars note that Devi Mahatmya exemplifies the notion of 'Brahminical synthesis' as postulated by Thomas J. Hopkins. Thomas B. Coburn explains that in the Devi Mahatmya, the pre-Aryan goddesses were all gradually incorporated into the Aryan/Brahminical fold under the title Devi. The inclusion of the pre-Aryan goddesses like Kali, Neeli, Maa Shoolini, Periyachi, Nagamma, etc., into the canon of Aryan/Brahminical goddesses (Parvati, Saraswathi, Lakshmi etc.) made possible the emergence of a complex Hindu goddess or Devi who embodies contradictory characteristics. Thus, she is held as being the primal matter or prakriti as well as the transcendent spirit or Brahman; the consort of the Vedic gods as well as the divine mother from the pre-Aryan civilizations.
The Devi Bhagavata Purana repeatedly describes the goddess as being "eternal, the basis of everything and identical with Brahman". The goddess here, addressed as "Ādya or Primordial Śakti", is unambiguously presented as "the source of all goddesses from the highest to the lowest forms", with higher forms presenting prominent aspects of her energy or power, and conforms with the three traits or the gunas in all life, namely: "sattva (purity, goodness, the illuminating principle), rajas (activity, passion, the energetic principle) and tamas (darkness, inertia, dullness)". Corresponding with sattva, she is Lakshmi; with rajas, she is Saraswati; and with tamas, she is Mahakali. However, Devi is still characterized as "being beyond all form", and is declared as nirguna (not having gunas or unmanifest), thus making her incomprehensible. But, to liberate her devotees, Devi "becomes saguna (with gunas or manifest) in a form that can be known and appreciated".
The intrinsic nature of the Mahadevi in the Devi Bhagavata Purana comprises the twofold realities of Samkhya philosophy — "prakṛti (material nature), in its unmanifest and manifest forms, and puruṣa (pure consciousness)". The Devi Bhagavata Purana, differing from Samkhya and other traditions, specifically Advaita Vedanta, presents prakṛti in a more favourable manner as an intrinsic aspect of the goddess' power. Also, the concept of Maya is treated with respect instead of disdain and is presented as a necessary factor in creation. In the shakta cosmogonic worldview Maya is the source of all natural phenomena and/or human delusion, as well as the liberative milieu through which the goddess "as Liberatrix" delivers man "from the ignorance of the forms which are of Her making." The Devi Bhagavata Purana differed significantly in the conception of maya from the Bhagavata Purana wherein Vishnu is the "controller and possessor of māyā", whereas in the Devi Bhagavata Purana, the goddess apart from being the wielder of "the power of māyā, actually is māyā". The text quotes the goddess saying, "What is real can only be born.... Thus ... there does not arise any inconsistency in My being every-thing." In the Devi Bhagavata Purana, the workings of the universe appear way more deeply related with the goddess for Devi recourses to none but herself, whereas Vishnu and Shiva seek assistance of their respective Shaktis.
In much of Hindu philosophy, there is no concept of a singular benignant god or goddess and a distinct evil power. All the deities are facets of the one Brahman, the progenitor of everything, including both positive and negative aspects of life. However may the many goddesses appear on the outside, they are essentially embodiments of Shakti. In this context, the pan-Indian goddesses personify both the positive and negative, or benign and fierce aspects of Shakti. There are goddesses who personify benign aspects of Shakti - "the power of devotion, wisdom, love or compassion, etc", and then there are goddesses who are described as "essentially fierce", they personify the more active powers of protection and destruction, and need their worshippers to confront their fears to receive the goddess's grace. A significant fact to be considered here is that the "goddesses are essentially benign and essentially fierce". Those goddesses who are benign are not completely so, as they may have a fierce side to their personalities. Similarly, the fierce goddesses may have a benign aspect to their characters. This dualistic nature of the goddesses emphasize the contradictory nature of divine power or any power or energy. Evidently, the power of fire, needed to sustain life, can and does decimate it. Likewise, the power responsible for creation is the same power that will destroy it regularly, or more accurately dematerialize life, transmuting it into unmanifest state again.
The benign goddesses are highly beautiful and enchanting in their looks. They are very amiable and lure the devotee into having a "close and loving relationship with the divine". The essentially-benign goddesses reveal to the devotee their dharma (individual duties, responsibilities) in a benign way and help in their fulfillment by making them prevail over obstacles. Devotees who approach the benign goddesses need not be fearful, as above all, these goddesses provide "the power of love and grace".
The benign goddesses are mostly consorts of several gods, and in this respect, they symbolize the power of each of their husbands as his respective shakti. Each goddess is usually depicted as being smaller than her husband and is commonly shown in a subordinate role, as with Lakshmi, who is often portrayed sitting at the feet of Vishnu. In their roles as wives, the benign goddesses provide loyalty and assistance to their husbands, qualities that set ideal examples for Hindu women in general and often symbolize the supreme devotee.
The divine warrior trope is one of the most common themes in the portrayals of fierce goddesses, as is usually seen in representations of Durga. Here, the goddesses have protective functions and operate as destroyers of evil which is commonly depicted in the form of a demon. The depiction of a warrior goddess shows the continuity and retelling of the vedic-brahminic-puranic Indra slaying Vritra episode (shruthi), only now with the characters transformed into Devi and Mahishasura. This development is held as a testimony to both the remembrance (smriti) and the rediscovery of the essence of the earlier shruti.
Principally, goddesses Durga and Kali incorporate "the power of protection", and will protect anyone who comes to them with a spirit of humility or the attitude of a child. While Durga is seemingly in accord with the ideal of Brahmanical womanhood, being represented with an attractive face and many hands holding different weapons, Kali remains firmly on the outskirts of what is commonly considered as orthodox; on the borders of acceptability. The terrifying iconography of Kali—naked except for a garland of severed heads and a skirt of severed limbs, clasping a sword, holding a severed head, and standing on Shiva in a crematory—has made her a completely misunderstood figure. Accordingly, Kali is the "most grossly misrepresented Hindu goddess." In the Western world, she is depicted as the goddess of death and destruction, discarding her positive and elusive characteristics for her more dramatic qualities. Nevertheless, the sword of Kali destroys evil and cuts the worldly attachments that produce in man a keen sense of their self-importance.
Local goddesses are generally not considered as local counterparts of pan-Indian goddesses. Though local goddesses are often regarded as having no connection with the Brahmanical goddesses or the concept of shakti, there is, still, a fundamental understanding that all goddesses personify divine power, and between all goddesses there is a correspondence. Per the scriptures, both local goddesses and Brahmanical pan-Indian goddesses are manifestations of the Mahadevi. The conception that all goddesses emerge from one reality is expounded in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana and in the Devi Bhagavata Purana, which states (9.1.58) 'Every female in every Universe is sprung from a part of Radha or part of a part'. The Kurma Purana, in praise of Parvati (1.12.64), highlights that pan-Indian goddesses themselves have many manifestations; an epithet used for the goddess is Ekānekavibhāgasthā, meaning 'stationed in one as well as in many divisions'. These similitudes are speculated to be the genesis of the frequently used phrase 'all the mothers are one'.
An interplay between the pan-Indian and local goddesses commonly occurs in the local areas where efforts can be made to "Brahmanise, Sanskritise or Hinduise" a local goddess. This approach involves shaping her character, similarly, to those of pan-Indian or Brahmanical deities, usually achieved by minimizing evidently local traits, such as approval of blood offerings. Another feature of this process is what has been called 'spousification', wherein an independent goddess is ritually married, either "temporarily, annually or – if fully Hinduised – permanently" to a celebrated god, usually Shiva. Again, conversely, the localisation of some pan-Indian goddesses took place, with them being conferred on with more popular names and forms and folklore that would relate them to a location.
The pan-Indian goddesses are clearly more orthodox and can be regarded as being essentially pure, they are paid respect to when needed and they stay at fringes of local life without necessarily intervening in the daily lives of people. Local goddesses, on the contrary, concern themselves with devotees' everyday issues which can most easily be addressed to the nearby goddess who would then solve the problems no matter how trivial they may be. It can be asserted that local goddesses are of utmost importance in the daily functioning of Hindu life. The lives of devotees and local deities are inextricably interlaced with each other so much that it seems they are in an intimate relationship.
In Devi Mahatmya, the goddess came to be identified with prakriti (materiality)—the feminine principle Hindus believe is the created world through which everything is made manifest. Initially developed in Samkhya philosophy, prakriti was posited against purusha (consciousness), with the two being eternally opposed forces behind the universe. This duality was resolved in the Tantras which view all existence as one whole inseparable from the divine. By identifying purusha with shiva and prakriti with shakti, the Tantras advocate nonduality of the two, asserting shiva and shakti are ultimately one and the same, thereby implying that "the divine essentially is creation"—thus making the goddess immanent in creation. John Woodroffe states that the goddess "does not cease to be the cosmic cause because it evolves as the universe its effect." Making redundant a classical problem of metaphysics that seeks to know how or why the imperturbable infinite became operative, Shakta ontology posits creation as an act of love between Shiva and Shakti who join to produce the Bindu, the seed of the Universe. States Woodroffe, "the production of the Universe is according to the Śākta an act of love, illustrated by the so-called erotic imagery of the Śāstra. The Self loves itself whether before, or in creation. The thrill of human love, which continues the life of humanity is an infinitesimally small fragment of and faint reflection of the creative act". The sādhanic quality of shakta ontology thus makes it possible to experience in the union of Śakti and Śākta—Brahman, which is ultimately real, but remains incomprehensible at the level of critical thinking.
Anagarika Govinda states that the concept of Shakti forms the focus of interest in Hindu Tantras as the feminine divine power, but it does not play any role in Tantric Buddhism, where the central idea is Prajna. While Prajna refers to the non-active female element, the active female element is referred to as Dakini. Theological scholars, such as E. Dale Saunders, recommend the use of the term Shakti be restricted to Hindu tantrism as it represents concepts that are in direct opposition to Buddhist tantric doctrine.
In the Puranas Shakti gains importance. The Markandeya Purana conceives Shakti as "pure consciousness" overseeing creation, preservation, and destruction; and identifies Shakti with nature or prakriti. It portrays the feminine (shakti) in various roles, such as the feminine lover to experience the " lila" (divine play) of her divine consciousness.
The Devi Bhagavata Purana presents Brahman as containing both male and female, purusha and prakriti, Shiva and Devi. The Devi Bhagavata Purana considers the nature of Shakti as being made up of three existential qualities, similar to prakriti in Samkhya: Sattva (calm and balanced), Rajas (passionate and active), and Tamas (lethargic and inactive).
Scriptural texts such as Devi Bhagavata Purana, Kalika Purana, Markandeya Purana, and Mahabhagavata Purana held Shakti as the supreme over all Deity and promoted her worship.
In the details of its philosophy and practice, Shaktism resembles Shaivism. However Shaktas focus most or all worship on Shakti as the dynamic feminine aspect of the Supreme Divine.Subramuniyaswami, p. 1211 According to this tradition, all Hindu goddesses are manifestations of the same goddess, Mahadevi, also referred to as Adi Parashakti, Adi Shakti, and Abhaya Shakti. Vishnavism consider her to be Lakshmi; whereas Shaivism consider her to be Parvati, Durga, Tripura Sundari and Kali; while Shaktism believe her to be Durga, Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshvari, and Kali.
In the Hindu tantric view, Shakti correlates with the Kundalini energy. Shakti is considered the "creative dynamic energy" that permeates and "animates" all existence. In the Brihannila Tantra, the God Shiva says: "O Goddess I am the body ( deha) and you are the conscious spirit within the body ( dehin)". "Shiva without Shakti is but a corpse, it is said."
Animated and inanimated objects like rivers, stones, trees, mountains are worshipped as embodiments of shakti. Women are believed to be inherently divine; coalescence of the menstrual cycle with the moon's lunar cycle is held important. The menstrual blood ( Kula) is revered and is offered in rituals to propitiate the deities. In some cases, have replaced menstrual blood offerings, however female animals are not sacrificed.
The Shakta pithas, located across the Indian subcontinent, are believed to be the sacred seats of Shakti. At the altars in these shrines, Shakti is often worshipped in the form of a stone, which is painted red, considered the colour of Shakti, and is decorated with anthropomorphic features like eyes.
From Devi-Mahatmya:
From Shaktisangama Tantra:
The Will as a thing-in-itself, enters into phenomenal existence—where it manifests itself, but it is considered to be free from all of the characteristics inherent in the phenomenal existence. However, objectively, the Will "determines our experience in all of its phenomenal aspects", thereby making itself eminently comprehendible. Schopenhauer states that when an individual becomes aware of the Will in their self-consciousness, they also become aware of the "consciousness of freedom" present therein. This leads one to believe a priori that they are perfectly free in their actions, but a posteriori, after experience, realize to their astonishment that they are not free and their actions were all subjected to necessity. This startling occurrence, Schopenhauer asserts is due to the fact that man "is not will as a thing-in-itself, but is a phenomenon of will", as such, one's actions are necessitated by principle of sufficient reason. However, man is free in a more basic sense, having "an unshakeable certainty that we are the doers of our deeds", this sense of responsibility reveals one's character, which in concurrence with motives and circumstances determine further actions, leading the individual to play out their designated role.
While Schopenhauer noted his philosophy has affinity with classical Indian thought and identified the notion of Brahman as its closest analogue; Heinrich Zimmer identified it with Shakti and wrote:
(). According to Zimmer, Shakti is "the central concept of [[tantric|Tantra]] ideology", and represents the essence of the world as divine energy. He noted that emergence of the idea of Shakti, ultimately, "puts an end to a prolonged, ancient struggle for preeminence and sole authority among the separate ways we conceive of the Divine". The many [[Hindu deities]], countering their sectarian rivalries, were reduced to the "elemental concept they always had in common: to their very self, to divine energy". The countless personifications of Divine are held as manifestations of Shakti.
"Within the several, duller levels of our consciousness of the phenomenal world's many differentiations, Śakti realizes itself above all in the consciousness of the individual human soul, in jıva. But since nothing can exist apart from this divine spiritual energy, the lower worlds of animals and plants—even mountains and rocks—are simply stages of the unfolding of the one single Śakti into which, in play, it divided to form the duality of consciousness. Their lack of spirituality, their insensate nature exist only as opposites to the dimly lit spirituality of human consciousness; bound to this consciousness by its own māyā, the spiritual, that energy, does not know itself as the Universal One." — Heinrich Zimmer
Though Zimmer's conceptualization of Shakti and Schopenhauer's Will intersect as universal, active forces—both bound to the Upanishadic vision of reality beyond appearances, they primarily differ in theological outlook. Zimmer emphasized Shakti as "the Divine", whereas Schopenhauer stripped the Will of any divinity altogether. Another significant aspect of divergence is around eros, Schopenhauer considered the pleasurable eros to be the "unadulterated expression" of Will from whose painful grasp freedom is realized only by its suppression in what he regarded as nirvana. Zimmer viewed the Tantras prevailing over such dualistic conceptions by their reduction into oneness—the dual creative polarities of pain and pleasure, masculine and feminine, represented by Shiva and Shakti, thus:
Everything in the world is Śiva and Śakti: in the sexual union of the spouses, the polar tension of the Divine's duality collapses into oneness; in this union, human consciousness crosses the borders of its isolation and enters a realm beyond polarities, to the point where it dissolves its polar nature—it becomes nir-dvandva. Eroticism in marriage is one means to the experiencing of one's own godlike nature, where the distinction between I and Thou, disappears, where the world falls away, where pain and desire and all the other polar opposites are transcended ( aufgehoben).
An affinity between the Hindu tantric concept of Shakti and Schopenhauer's Will was perceived by Zimmer at a time when European academics disparged the Tantras as a degeneracy and corruption of medieval Indian culture and religion; but Zimmer, whose understanding of Shakti and Tantric thought was profoundly influenced by the works of John Woodroffe, viewed Tantras as reconciling the earlier disparities in Indian religious thought, and as thoroughly informative of Indian art and ritual.
In Hindu tantric view, the Goddess or Shakti (spirit, female principle) is the animating energy underlying the phenomenal existence (male principle, Shiva). The human body is considered a synthesis of the universal forces of Shiva and Shakti, and sexual union-a symbol of liberation when understood as the union of Shiva and Shakti. In Tantric tradition, Shakti is the female energy that "penetrates" through the male essence ( matter Shiva), and the bliss one experiences during sexual union is considered "the power of the goddess ( Śakti) in a tangible form". The guiding image of a male and a female conjoined in sexual intercourse represent the embodiment of Nondualism consciousness, and a couple would arrive at unity in the divine feminine by embodying non-duality, enabled by the ritual maithuna, whereby the couple gets "completely dissolved in the unity of the godhead represented on the earthly plane by the energy field created by the synthesis of Shiva and Shakti in the couple." The synthesis of Shiva and Shakti in each of the persons involves rising of the latent Kundalini shakti ("active female energy") from the bottom of the spinal column and fuse with the "passive, male consciousness" (Shiva) at the top culminating in samadhi (contemplative rapture). Thus, the couple, in being aligned with the non-dual Ardhanarishvara synergy field, experiences the realization of the "unity, totality, and infinitude" of the self.
This imaginal transformation of the couple also involves transmission of energy currents by which "the goddess Shakti seeks to create an imprint or image in human form," states Madden, "The divine intentionally comes into a human form." This tantric phenomenon is analogous with the notion of Jungian individuation, in which "the self of the psyche seeks us," to percolate higher consciousness. Both Tantrism and Jungian psychology stress upon temenos – body being a sacred container, and emphasize the accessibility of "the numinous and mystical in the physical and phenomenal realm". Tantric practice by clarifying analytical psychology thus offers insight into how the feminine and the inclusion of body can transform spiritual growth.
Shakti symbolizes the idealized omnipotent mother. In the myth of Ganesha, Parvati alone creates her son from her own body or the earth in the absence of a father. This myth portrays Shakti as a combined parental figure opposing the triadic dynamic of mother-father-child, and represents the triumph of mother-son relationship over husband and wife. In psychodynamics perspective, Shakti represents an "overwhelming conscious or unconscious feminine primal force or combined parental object". Sigmund Freud called Shakti "libido that cannot be simply repressed." Psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva in her book Powers of Horror argues that in the resolution of an individuals oedipus complex, the mother figure is irrevocably defiled and is subjected to Abjection. The maternal body is associated with impurity (blood, excrement, etc.), in contrast to the The Symbolic paternal consciousness. Kristeva states that art and religious help prevent the erosion of maternal and paternal boundaries, allowing an individual to not succumb irretrievably into the comforting dyadic relationship with the mother and lose their identity. The oedipal crisis is resolved in the case of Ganesha by depicting him as lacking in an ideal masculine body, who, thus unlike his 'phallic' brother Kartikeya, becomes an ascetic-ceases to be a paternal figure, pleasing his ascetic father Shiva.
Despite such social norms, several young Hindu widows in Varanasi have taken recourse to "Shakti-goddess" identity to assert their will and wade through societal constraints. The widows downplay negativity attributed to their Widowhood effect by aligning themselves with the Jagadamba, they often say, "All children are my children, all women are the Mother-Goddess; my children get only love from me—like the Goddess". By identifying themselves with the Goddess, their positive self-regard was enhanced. A relationship with the Mother-Goddess induces deeper connection with Shakti and enables to view it as an internalized force rather than as an external entity and thereby attain greater self-control. The women believe shakti is the true strength and fire like power of Mahadevi (the Great Goddess) and that women embody it sixteen times more than men. The young widows work hard and procure enough wealth to keep themselves and their dependents in good strength, seen as a validation of their strong shakti ( pakka shakti). The Indian scholar Indira Goswami who was widowed at young age, but later became an award winning writer credited Shakti for her transformation from a powerless being into empowered becoming.
Scholars Diana Eck and Robert Fuller note that in Hindu theological view, darshana is a way for "the devotee to literally partake in the power ( śakti) of the deity". This notion of darshana deeply embedded in the psyche of Hindu viewers makes the on-screen vision of goddesses an emotional experience. Diane Mines states, "Hindus see vision as a material exchange, a kind of touching." The goddess genre corroborates this notion of touch and vision, or darshana. In a scene from the 1970 film Namma Veetu Deivam (The Deity in our House), regarded to exemplify the goddess genre, the goddess plays a prank on her devotee priest by making herself perceived in human skin to his touch when he puts sindoor (vermillion) on her forehead as part of the daily ritual sanctification of the goddess's stone idol, the moment he realizes this miracle, her human form turns back to stone. The goddess films by making the intangible-tangible, assert that the abstract concept of a primordial nurturing and protective power is the goddess. They offer a "psychophysical enculturation" into the Hindu worldview. The appeal of goddess films is contended to be deeply rooted in the Hindu beliefs and culture. Their narratives entwine the vedic and folklore myths and showcase the power and glory of the Hindu goddess as the divine mother and the guardian of her devotees. Films such as Aathi Parasakthi (1971) and Melmaruvathoor Adiparasakthi (1985), re-enact the goddess creation myths central to shaktism.
By their projecting of the metaphorical "conceptual" through the "material" artifact, the goddess films show that the power of the goddess endures through physical facets. A talisman ensures special link between the goddess and her "mortal daughter"—the female devotee. Having bindi or kumkum (vermillion mark) on forehead at all times is emphasized as tradition, a very strong link between the goddess power ( Śakti) and bindi is indicated. A connection with the goddess is presented as the only path to female empowerment. Despite the projection of such ideals, the well-being of ordinary women did not improve. Interestingly this genre of films were highly successful in the 1970s when feminist activism peaked in India and women began to access higher education and jobs. The goddess films flourished in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu more than anywhere else. They ascended popularity during the 1960s and 70s when the Dravidian political movement aggressively attacked Hinduism by desecrating the Hindu deities and traditions for alleged subjection of the Dravidian region into Aryan culture. The goddess genre reified the Hindu beliefs and customs that were under threat and provided a psychological succor to the majority of Hindu masses who remained mere spectators to the iconoclastic political activities.
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