Mahishasura Mardhini Namah

Jay Bhawani

Mahisha, depicts the "Tamasa" guna. As large, black, stubborn, unlearning, slow and filled with baser instincts and appetites. In mythology and iconography, allusions often become literal.

I came across an enormous (Eighteen feet tall)Mahishasuramardhini statue at Mandapam (Tamilnadu-Andhra border), enroute from Thiruthani to Shreekalahasthi in the 1980s. The statue was unearthed when workmen preparing the ground for a second railway track struck the granite. It has since been covered by a very popular kische temple for which the Kumbha Abhishekham was performed by Chandrashekharendra Saraswathi of Kanchi.

The Temple has since been subverted to superstitious practices of the Non-Brahmin Dravid-Dalit majoritarian variety as have so many temples that no longer uplift lest this should interfere with the inexorable destruction of excellence and superior things by the Indian Republic..

The Statue faces South as suggested by the Kanchi Shankaracharya. Its exquisite face looks upwards in an expression of sublime bliss and the upper torso is that of an exquisitely shapely woman in restful ease. Below the navel, the body is frozen in intense movement. The trident pierces the Asura, writhing, face down.

When I first visited it, (there was no temple there then)  and circumambulated the magnificent sculpture, a local Brahmin translated, for me, the verses that the Sthapathi (Sculptor) had carved behind the statue's base in ancient Granthi-Thamizh. The gist of these verses is that Narayana has killed any number of Asuras (those who do not follow Brahmin-Aryan Law: The Suras) with his Chakra (Discus), yet Subrahmanya has killed none, but only transformed them into harmless creatures of beauty. (Such as the Peacock and the Rooster). This is because his Vel (spear) was given to him by Parameshwari who is the very embodiment of compassion. If this is so, then why is she, herself, killing Mahishasura? This is because Mahishasura represent man's jealousy, lust, and sadism. The slightest appeasement of any of these is like throwing ghee upon the Yajna Fire. Man can never be freed of these impulses of his animal body but by Mother's grace. Her love causes the pain of disillusionment that liberates.

This is Mahishasuramardhini at Haveri (Near Venugram i.e. Belgaon)

Courtesy: S Suchindranath Aiyer, https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156666879663082&id=683703081