Celebrating Durga- Moulding the Void (Mother in the Making)

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The Goddess Devi, the primordial Shakti, is a revelation of the eternal Brahman in a maternal aspect. She is worshipped during the autumnal festival of Durga Pujo in Bengal every year. In this volume, Peter Bjørn Franceschi presents a photographic exploration of the mother goddess in the making, a visual diary of the clay idols of Goddess Durga, from conception to finished form. The book takes us through the winding lanes of Kumartuli, home to the master artists who craft the clay idols of the Devi for the Durga Pujo. Accompanying these photographs are verses from Sankaracharya's poetic work Saundaryalahari (Waves of Beauty), translated by the scholar Minati Kar. The work is a paean to Goddess Durga, entwining Advaita Vedanta and Tantra philosophy to paint a splendid picture of Devi, starting from the crown of her head and ending at her feet. These poetic descriptions serve as a deeper layer to the visuals, and as an alternate way of interpreting the process of image-making. Delving deep into the philosophical and artistic aspects of the divinity of Goddess Durga, this volume is a visual celebration of her many forms, and also of the artisans who have occupied a centuries-old caesura between devotion and art.

Peter Bjorn Franceschi is a Danish visual artist working from Copenhagen, Kolkata and southern France. Trained as a glass artist from the Danish School of Design, he presently works in a wide range of media. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in Europe, the Middle East and India.

The creationofthecreator-thejagatjanani,byher creation-us the humans is a sublimely divine process akin to the creation of life itself. For time immemorial, we have put our faith in the creator-the one who put life on this earth. A sculptor, somewhere in the streets of rural Bengal, putting mud and hay together to create the embodiment of ultimate Sakti-unknowingly, the sculptors become a part of this timeless tradition of moulding the clay into various yet omnipotent feminine depictions of the Devi.

From as far back as the Indus Valley civilization, India has prayed to the Mother Goddess. She who nurtures and sustains life, defends the truth and slays the evil. For the past six decades as a worshipper (devotee) of the Mother at my 120-year-old family puja in my village, 1 have seen many a different face of the mother and yet on every occasion her idols have always exuded the radiance of the all-powerful supreme feminine.

"The Mother in the Making" (Devirüpayana) depicted through photographs has many levels of interpretation. The portrayal of the artistic photographs is interpreted here from the stance of Advaita Vedanta and Tantra. The root div means "to shine", hence Devi who is worshipped as the Mother is resplendent in her gorgeous form. In the Tantric view, she is Sakti, feminine energy, and reality as such.

Reality means cosmic and transcendent existence. Reality in its static aspect is Parabrähman, and its dynamic facet is Parašakti. Šakti means energy. The Devi is called Parašakti, present in all animate beings and inanimate objects (a devi sarvabhüteşu šaktirupena samsthita, Candi Patha). There are four aspects of Parasakti: Maheśvari, Mahäkäll, Mahälakṣmi and Mahisarasvati. These powers confer wisdom, strength, harmony and perfection. The worship of the Divine Mother gives us strength and endows us with the realization of unity in multiplicity. From the point of view of Tantra, the Supreme Being is conceived as the Great Mother. She is consciousness and benignantly gracious.

Goddess Devi, the primordial Sakti, in reality, is Brähman revealed in her motherly aspect. In Yoginitantra, Kalt says of herself: "I am existence, consciousness and bliss, I am Brähman, I am self-revealing and emanating radiance" (saccidananda-rupaham brahmaivaham sphurat-prabham, part 1, chap. 6). Sakti is known as svalantra (her existence does not depend on anything extraneous to herself).

The Devi as Parabrahman is beyond all forms and qualities (guna). The forms of the Mother are threefold: supreme (para), subtle (sukyma) and gross (sthula). As the mind cannot settle in the subtle form, a gross form or image is created in concordance with the tenet of Tantrasastras and Candi Patha. Through the worshipper's single-minded meditation, the clay image is visualized as the conscious Mother.

**Contents and Sample Pages**