NARRATOR:
Wouldn’t it be great to have a few extra arms? You could carry your books, answer your email, wash the dog, and catch a fly ball…all at the same time! Well, if you were a Hindu god or goddess you’d have as many arms as you needed. You might even have an extra head or two.
This goddess, named Durga, represents the warrior side of the female deity. In Hinduism there is one supreme spirit, which has no form or shape and is everywhere in everything. Individual gods represent different parts of that spirit. There is one main goddess who appears in many different forms. Sometimes, she’s Parvati, a wife and mother. Sometimes she’s the bloodthirsty Kali. And sometimes, as in this statue, she’s Durga, the goddess of war, and her many hands hold weapons.
Here Durga sits atop a lion, the animal she uses for getting around heaven, kind of her divine vehicle. And she holds her son, Kumara, whose head is missing here. Believe it or not, this goddess of war can also be a peaceful, loving mother. Like many Hindu deities, she is a mixture of opposites: good and evil, kindness and cruelty, life and death.
Durga with Kumara
9th century
Asia: India, Bihār
On View
The presence of a child signifies that this is a peaceful and maternal manifestation of the Hindu goddess Durga, despite her militant attributes. Her upper right hand is busy extracting an arrow from her full quiver, while her other hands hold a bow, sword, and shield. She sits atop her lion mount and supports a small boy on her left knee, perhaps Kumara. Interestingly, her torso is not bare, and she wears a thin blouse embellished with lotus blossoms.
Details
- Title: Durga with Kumara
- Date: 9th century
- Medium: Schist
- Dimensions: 35-1/4 x 20 x 10 in. (89.5 x 50.8 x 25.4 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1975.16.10.S
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Durga: Avenging Goddess, Nurturing Mother
- Norton Simon Museum, 2005-10-07 to 2006-03-27
- Pal, Pratapaditya, Asian Art at the Norton Simon Museum, Volume 1: Art from the Indian Subcontinent, 2003, no. 133 pp. 172-173
- Pal, Pratapaditya, Durga: Avenging Goddess, Nurturing Mother, 2005, fig. 23 pp. 24-25
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 1206 p. 382
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