Matrikas
The matrikas ( Sanskrit : mātṝkās , मातृका , lit. "the mothers"), sometimes also Matara (Sanskrit: mātaraḥ , मातरः ) or Matris ( mātṛs , मातृ ) form a group of seven ( sapta ), eight ( ashtha ) or more mother goddesses which were very popular in the heyday of Hinduism in both north and south India as well as parts of Nepal .
history
The origin of the matrikas possibly goes back to the time of the Indus cultures , because a few seals and coins were found there, on which seven female persons or deities are represented side by side. The Rig Veda speaks at one point of seven mothers who prepare the divine immortality potion ( soma ). In the 1st century AD they also appear in the Mahabharata ; there they are described as dark-skinned, speaking in foreign languages and living on the outskirts (of the villages). They are also associated with the female yakshas living in the forests , which come from Aryan - Dravidian origins. Today it is assumed that they were originally rather demonic folk goddesses of the rural areas, who in turn are to be seen as the embodiment of positive and negative aspects of the Mahadevi and thus had a great deal of autonomy and independence, which at the time of the codification of the Orthodox Aryan -Brahmanic Hinduism - especially in the Gupta Empire - was viewed as problematic and was gradually disappearing.
mythology
There are various legends of the origins of the saptamatrikas ; the best known comes from the Matsya-Purana and is closely linked to Shiva's fight against the demon Andhaka , the embodiment of ignorance and malice. This legend clearly shows the lost sovereignty of the Matrikas: Andhaka wanted to kidnap Parvati , Shiva's wife, from Mount Meru ; his companion Nila took the form of an angry elephant who was supposed to kill Shiva. Virabhadra - a son of Shiva - then killed the elephant-shaped demon and brought the stripped skin to his father, who hung it around himself and danced in it. But the fight continued: Shiva finally killed Andhaka with an arrow, but every drop of blood that fell on the ground gave rise to new demons - a metaphor for the ineradicability of ignorance and evil. Shiva then created his Shakti Yogeshvari and the other main gods also emanated their Shaktis in the fight against the demon - these were then equated with the older mother goddesses or overlaid them.
presentation
As a rule, the matrikas are represented as a group - in temple sculptures mostly seated, in paintings mostly fighting. Chamunda is more often treated as a single figure; this form of representation is extremely rare in the other matriculation records. The mother goddesses vary both in number and in their representation: sometimes they are represented with a child in their arms, a sign of fertility; sometimes they carry weapons as a sign of vigilance, courage and readiness to fight. Often they only hold the attributes of their male god of origin in their hands. Two of them are regularly depicted with a human body, but with a boar's head (Varahi) or a lion's head (Narasimhi).
| Matriculation | God of origin | Attributes | Mount ( vahana ) | Meaning (negative energy) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brahmani | Brahma | Chain ( mala ), pot ( kalasha ) | Goose ( hamsa ) | Proud |
| Vaishnavi | Vishnu | Conch shell, club ( gada ), discus | Sun eagle ( garuda ) | greed |
| Maheshvari | Shiva | Trident ( trishula ) | Bull ( nandi ) | anger |
| Indrani (Aindri) | Indra | Thunderbolt ( vajra ) | elephant | Nagging |
| Kaumari ( Ambika ) | Kumara / Karttikeya | spear | peacock | Delusion |
| Varahi | Varaha | (Boar head) | boar | envy |
| Narasimhi | Narasimha | (Lion head) | - | - |
| Chamunda | Shiva | - | Owl or corpse | Defamation |
Chamunda is not always there; on the other hand, Kali , Yogeshvari, Yami, Vinayaki and others are sometimes referred to as matrikas in religious texts, although they are almost never presented in the series of goddesses. In Nepal, Narasimhi is mostly replaced by Lakshmi.
Adoration
In the great temples ( kshetram ) of the southern Indian state of Kerala , the residence of the sapta mathrukkal is marked by shapeless stone marks on the ground outside the main temple ( srikovil ). The worship of the main deity at the annual temple festival ulzavabali includes the ritual circumnavigation ( pradakshina ) of the temple, during which a priest precedes with a portable replica of the statue of the deity. The main deity, who symbolically receives the blessing of all lower deities, is placed in front of the stone of the sapta mathrukkal . A Nambudiri priest performs a ritual with the musical accompaniment of a parashavadyam orchestra, which only appears during this ritual. The ensemble plays the drums timila , idakka , chenda , the bronze bell chengila and the snail horn shankh , occasionally the pair cymbal elathalam and the wind instruments kuzhal and kombu .
See also
literature
- Anneliese and Peter Keilhauer: The Imagery of Hinduism. The Indian world of gods and their symbolism. DuMont, Cologne 1983, pp. 209ff, ISBN 3-7701-1347-0 .
- David Kinsley: Indian Goddesses. Female deities in Hinduism. Insel, Frankfurt 1990, pp. 206ff, ISBN 3-458-16118-X .
Web links
- Matrikas in Devi-Mahatmya in Markandeya Purana - text + pictures (Eng.)
- Spiritwiki about Maheshvari