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Indian Goddesses - D
Dakini
One of the six goddesses
governing bodily functions; the others being Hakini, Kakini, Lakini, Rakini
and Sakini.
Dakshina
A Hindu cow goddess who is closely connected to the dawn goddess Ushas.
Dala
Kadavara
A Singhalese demoness who brings diseases and misfortune. Originally,
Dala Kadavara was an elephant-goddess.
Danu
The Hindu goddess of the primordial waters.
Devaki
A Hindu mother goddess. She is the consort of the mythical king Vasudeva,
mother of Krishna and Balarama (born of hairs from the head of Vishnu
which that god placed in her womb).
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Devasena
A Hindu goddess, one of the consorts of Skanda.
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Devi
The Divine Mother of the Hindu culture. Her name means "goddess."
She has many names and forms; such as the warrior Durgha, the bloodthirsty
Kali or Parvati, mother of the elephant god Ganesha and the consort of
Shiva (the god of generation and destruction).Devi is the goddess of creative
power and represents all women in the universe. Lakshmi, the consort of
Vishnu, is another incarnation of Devi.
Devi is the "Mother Goddess," meaning she is the mother of all.
In her hands she holds joy and pain, right hand; and life and death is
held on her left hand. She is the goddess of nature and life because she
brings rain and protects against disease; she is mild and loving. She
is depicted with eight arms, only one wields a sword.
As the mother of death, she is terrible. When she is fighting against
evil, she is usually mounted on a lion or a tiger. Devi is the warrior
Durgha when she is the mother of death; a twelve-armed warrior goddess,
created by Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva to slay Mahishasura, the shape-shifting
monster who menaced the universe. She rode a lion into the fray and was
victorious.
Devi is in all the women's soul and she can also turn into the religious
Uma. Devi's diagram is called her mansions. In the middle of her forehead,
she has a Bindu (drop or dot) which in some ways seems to be masculine.
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Dhanistha
Another Hindu goddess of misfortune, a malevolent nakshatra. She is a
daughter of Daksha and consort of Chandra (Soma).
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Dharani
A Hindu goddess of minor importance, an avatara of the goddess Lakshmi
and consort of Parasurama.
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Dharti
Mata
A Hindu mother goddess who first appears in the Puranic texts.
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Dhisana
A Hindu goddess of prosperity. She appears in the Vedas.
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Dhumvati
A Hindu goddess. She is one of the ten mahavidyas personifying the Sakti
of Shiva.
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Dhumorna
A Hindu goddess, consort of Yama.
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Dhumravati
A Hindu demonic goddess.
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Diti
An Indian goddess. Many mythographers see Aditi as the endless sky; Diti
as the earth. Both apparently come from a non-Aryan source of Hindu mythology,
for their children, though recognized as supernatural, were never part
of the official pantheon. Diti's children were asuras, non-gods. They
were powerful beings, especially the warrior Maruts, who might have conquered
the gods. Diti, whose earlier children Indra had killed, practiced magic
when pregnant again. So threatened was Indra that he watched her constantly.
When Diti fell into a doze, Indra entered her vagina, traveled to her
womb, and dismembered the fetus. Even cut to pieces, the fetus was so
powerful that it reformed into forty-nine separate warriors.
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Draupadi
A Hindu heroine of the Mahabharata, she was a polyandrous woman who slept
in turn with each of her five husbands, who were all brothers.
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Durga
(Durga Jagadhatri) Great warrior Goddess from India. The Puranic texts
say that when the other gods could no longer fight the asuras (demons),
they called Durga from her mountain home to help. She came, golden like
the sun, with her tigers, and vanquished the asuras who symbolized oppression
and ignorance.
Durga offers a sacred gesture of protection to all mothers and children
as she guards them from the elephant demon Mahisa. Riding upon a lion
and wielding a weapon in each of her ten arms, the Hindu warrior goddess
Durga calmly defeats the buffalo demon. He symbolizes the egoistic illusions
of maya (everyday reality) which delude us and keep us from knowing our
innate divinity. In Hindu mythology and religion, a malignant form of
Devi, the inaccessible, represented by a yellow woman riding a tiger.
Also Kali or Parvati. She is the consort of Shiva.
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