Creative Flight Journal: The Journey of Goddess Sasthi: Transformation from the Malevolent to the Benevolent

The Journey of Goddess Sasthi: Transformation from the Malevolent to the Benevolent

Anindya Das

State Approved College Teacher in English

Shree Agrasen Mahavidyala

Dalkhola, Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal

Dr. Nonie Lourembam

Assistant Professor in English

Department of English

Manipur International University

MIU Palace, Airport Road

Ghari, Imphal, Imphal West Manipur, India

Since the Paleolithic period, when men lived the life of hunters and gatherers, at the centre of religiosity was a dominant female deity, “the Great Goddess”, who was the “Mistress of Animals” and the source of life. She is a fearsome deity, implacable, vengeful and demanding, who needs to be placated by sacrificing blood of animals, humans and even of infants. The hunters could see that women were the source of new life, being capable of giving birth and their awe of this power was projected into the image of a powerful woman, a figure who always demands endless bloodshed. The female thus became an awe inspiring icon of life itself, which required the ceaseless sacrifice of men and animals like the unforgiving ways of nature.

In the Neolithic period, with the invention of agriculture, the nurturing Earth was regarded as female, the Great Mother who seemed to sustain all creatures – plants, animals and humans – as in a living womb. So, the maternal, nurturing Earth became ‘the Mother Goddess’ who sustains and protects life. The Mother Goddess of the farmers became one with the Great Mother of the hunting societies, retaining many of her frightening characteristics. These two aspects of the female deity were later personified in myths, and represented iconographically in forms of goddesses, who nurtures and protects but also exacts sacrifice and bloodshed, spreading death and suffering if not satisfied and placated. (Armstrong, 2005: 38-46)

The origin of Sasthi, ‘the sixth one’, the protecting goddess of childbirth and offspring can be traced back o the time of the fusion of the two goddesses – one benevolent and the other fierce. At that time, human reproduction was itself highly dangerous for both mother and child; infant and newborn children were vulnerable and was in need of supervision and protection of the divine power manifested in the form of a goddess. It requires a goddess who is strong enough to ward off death and diseases.

At the very beginning, the Mother Goddess was iconographically represented by a stone or stones, a cleft in the mountain, a specific tree, a star or a cluster of stars. The belief that the goddess of fertility must herself be fertile led to the larger concept of the mother goddess as the overall protector of children. As a source of human fecundity, she causes the conception of children, delivers them safely from the mothers’ womb and protects them from all types of dangers and diseases. Though it is difficult to ascertain with certainty that a mother goddess cult existed during the Indus Valley Civilisation days, female terracotta figurine holding a child discovered at Mehrgarh, Baluchistan dating about 3000 – 2500 BCE suggest the existence of a goddess who was revered and worshipped for her power of fertility.

Mehrgarh Terracotta Mother and Child Ima 1

With the emergence of the Yakshini cult, the mother goddess with the power of bestowing fecundity was accepted within its folds. The seventh century CE Buddhist manual the Manjusrimulakalpa lists forty six names of Mahayakshinis, among whom are Revatika, Hariti and Pingala, who iconographically comes close to Sasthi. Gradually different non elite classes and communities all over Indian subcontinent evolved thousands of folk and local goddesses who are worshipped for the protection and welfare of children. With the passage of time, many of these deities merged into each other. At the same time there were many deities who were strong enough to retain their individual identities. There are many local deities who are identical but are worshipped at different places under different names. These mother goddesses became very powerful and popular because of the high infant mortality rate at that time, as also due to superstitious beliefs. (Madhurika, 2009: 29)

The Goddess Hariti - Ashmolean Museum Ox 1 Statue of Harini at Bojjannakonda Image 1

The cause of infant mortality was laid on a group of malevolent deities, mother goddesses, who in folk belief was known as child afflicting ‘grahas’ or ‘bal grahas’ and in the Revati Kalpa of Kesyapa Samhita, Sasthi is called jata harini or jata pharini meaning one who steals a child. However, later malevolent Sasthi became benevolent in folk belief and from a graham she transformed into jatamatrika goddess of married women, giver of children, assists at child birth and is the guardian of young children.

Hindu higher caste Brahminical religion has thrived by appropriating folk and subaltern deities and weaving their own narratives around them, and Sasthi was given a pride of place in Vayu Purana, Brahmabaibarta Purana and Kashyap Samhita because of her role as a guardian of infants, she became one with the six krittikas who nurtured the newborn Kartikeya, son of Agni. Kushana era (1^st – 3^rd C.E.) coins, sculptures, inscriptions depict her as six headed, though as a Balagraha Matrika she has an animal face – the face of a cat. Gupta era terracotta figures of the 5^th – 6^th C.E. from Ahichatra show the goddess with six heads. Sasthi, known by the names of Pundesvari, Purnesvari, Punyesvari was represented as a sitting goddess with a child in her lap, who is shown touching her breast. “Protecting children and bestowing fertility to women could have been some of her functions.” (Prasad, 2021: 88)

Saiva cult absorbed Sasthi in the image of Parvati or Durga, as the wife of Siva. This is evident in the Sitala Sasthi jatra festival in the Sambalpur region of Orissa, on the sixth day of bright fortnight in the Hindu month of Jyestha (May – June), when the marriage between Shiva and Parvati is celebrated. In Bengal too, the rite of the sixth night of the Gajan, a festival of seven days and nights observed during the last week of the month of Chaitra (April) is devoted to the celebration of a ritual marriage between Shiva and Parvati, or Nila Sasthi, that aims to restore fertility, all kinds of fertility – of the fields, in the waters and in families. As Ralph W. Nicholas observes, “Bengali cultural history offers several examples of local, non Sanskritic deities who have been accepted into the pantheon alongside Vedic and Puranic divinities.” (Nicholas, 2008: 133) – and Sasthi is one of them. In the Gajan, during the Nila puja, Parvati and Sasthi become one in a ritual statement of fertilization.

Sasthi has been worshipped in different localities under various local names having attributes both formidable and benign. At the beginning were Bhima and Hariti. In the 9^th and 8^th century BCE, Sasthi was worshipped as the six Krittikas who reared Kartikeya. By the 5^th and 6^th century CE, the practice of presenting as a votive offering the sculpture of a child sitting in the lap of a seated goddess and touching her breast became very popular in southern Bihar. In this form Sasthi was known as Pundeswari, Puneswari or Purneswari, Gausva or Gauseva – as these names were inscribed on such images. Sasthi is worshipped during Chath in Bihar. In Bengal, she is worshipped on the sixth day from a child’s birth in the room where the birth has taken place and during each of the twelve months of the year. The twelve forms in which Sasthi is worshipped during each month of the year are Chandan, Aranya, Kardama, Lunthana, Chapor or Chapeti, Durga, Nadi, Mulaka, Anna, Shitala, Gorupini and Ashoka. (Bhattacharji, 1998: 66)

Parvati, Pala Dynasty, 11th Century C.E. 1 Purneshvari: Image Credit Victoria and Al 1

The Sasthi putul, a terracotta female figurine carrying two or three children given as votive offering during these Sasthi worships in some places of Bengal links the tradition to the days of the Indus Valley Civilisation about five thousand years ago.