Talk:Durga

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Durga article.
Article policies
WikiProject_Hindu_Mythology This article is within the scope of WikiProject Hindu mythology, an attempt to promote better coordination, content distribution, and cross-referencing between pages dealing with Hindu mythology. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page.
Wikiproject_Hinduism This article is within the scope of WikiProject Hinduism, an attempt to promote better coordination, content distribution, and cross-referencing between pages dealing with Hinduism. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page.
B This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale.
High This article has been rated as high-importance for this Project's importance scale.

I've never seen the work 'Durgha' used, so I deleted that as an alternative spelling.
Gokul

Should there be mention of Karni Mata?

Contents

[edit] Durga as Living Icon

Durga as she is worshipped today in large tracts of Bengal, Orissa, Nepal and other parts of Eastern India, is much more than a mythical figure. She is a living sociocultural phenomenon, as this article captures in the lower part. Yes, her mythology needs to be told, but to relegate her as a part of the "Hindu Mythology" project is not right; the mythology is a part of the Durga concept, and this article, in my opinion, does well to reflect this.

So the Hindy Mythology project should link to this article, but should not try to restrict the notion of Durga merely to her mythology. If necessary, a second article called "Durga Mythology" can reflect the many versions of the Durga myth.

In other respects, I find this article quite well written and cogent, and do not see why it has been marked for cleanup - perhaps the contributors since July 2005 have cleaned it up and it is time this flag was removed (however that works!)...

--mukerjee

[edit] Potential Merger

I'm just about to add a link to a page for potential merging. Please be very very careful if you do merge the pages together. The other page was created by an anon IP and its information -may- be copied off something else. Their may be some good info their which is worth incorporating here just be careful. -- Shimirel (Talk) 01:01, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Actually the durgashtami article (as of today) is extremely poorly written, but otherwise it presents an Andhra perspective on the puja which possibly should be incorporated (perhaps as an additional paragraph) into the Durga article under the "Worship of Durga" section. Mukerjee 07:20, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Broken link

The link to http://durgapuja.visitnortheast.com/ seems to be broken. Can whoever put it there fix it?--Snowgrouse 16:00, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Disputed Material

The actual worship of the goddess as stipulated by the Hindu scriptures is in the Hindu month of Chaitra. The month roughly overlaps with March and April. The ceremony is observed only by a handful and that too in the state of West Bengal. The more popular form of the ceremony popularly known as Sharadiya (from Sharad which means Autumn) is celebrated later in the year with the dates falling either in September or October

.

The Chaitra navaratri is another popular festival devoted to the goddess. Though clay images are not worshipped at the household level; Devi temples observe it. I object to the "The actual worship of the goddess as stipulated by the Hindu scriptures is in the Hindu month of Chaitra. The ceremony is observed only by a handful and that too in the state of West Bengal. " It is also observed in Devi temples in Maharashtra , i do not know of rest of the states. --Redtigerxyz 12:31, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mantra

Most other Hindu devas/devis have mention of a mantra. Shiva, Vishnu etc. Should we add it or no? Happy Asuj Navratras everyone. --ॐJesucristo301 00:44, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge from Dhruti

This seems like it should be merged, as it is said to be one of the 108 names of Durga. Is there an "official" list of 108 names of Durga (analogous to 99 Names of God in the Qur'an)? If so, that should be in this article (or in an article linked), which could probably include all the material from Dhruti (meaning, etymology, etc.) Rigadoun (talk) 17:40, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Durga, VEDIC????

The acknowledgment and reverence of the Female Principle, The Goddess, first appears in Hinduism in its most ancient authority, the most ancient of Indo-European texts, the Sanskrit Rig Ved itself. Whereas Indologist scholars have seen fit to suggest that the worship of the "Primal Mother" is an introduction into the religion from the Dravidian population, it cannot be ignored how tutelary The Goddess was to the Aryans themselves. The "narration of energies" , known in Sanskrit as "sukt" appears in the Rig Ved as the (Rig Vedao'ktam - literally, "created of the Rig Ved") "Devi Suktam." The personification of Nature, Shakti ("Energy"), or of Universal Consciousness was taken, rightly so, by the Vedic Indians to be utterly beyond human comprehension. Indeed, several Sanskritic verses often demonstrate an apologetic tone to the perceived gods, asking and stating the seeming impossibility of the task of "Divine Description". The Vedic Goddess, known by various names, is commonly regarded as the collective strength of all that is. She is Aditi, the Solar Mother, Creatrix Superior, mother of the Sun and the creative potency of The Lord of the Universe Himself. The Gayatri mantra, chanted with much fervour by practising Hindus, is dedicated to the Sun not as a star, but for His (the Sun's) energy, i.e. Shakti.

Identification of Durga with Vedic Aditi is OR. Also Gayatri mantra dedicated to Sun's Shakti is OR. too.--Redtigerxyz 16:46, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Contemporary incarnation

I think that the "contemporary incarnation" section is inappropriate. It is not written badly, I just do not think that such current event type content is fit for an encyclopedia. In the history of the worship of the goddess Durga, this is a minor event, at least so far. It may develop more later. Also, similar events considered supernatural by some occur regularly in India, with some being looked upon as a positive sign and others being considered negative. -- Kjkolb (talk) 04:29, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Removed:

In April 2008 the Associated Press widely circulated a report that a healthy baby girl in India has been worshipped as an incarnation of Durga, receiving up to 100 people daily to "touch her feet out of respect, offer money, and receive blessings". Lali, the daughter of Vinod Singh in Saini Sunpura, a small village in north India 25 miles east of New Delhi, was born with a craniofacial duplication, an extremely rare genetic anomaly. She has four eyes, two noses, and two mouths. Village leaders have hailed her for bringing fame to their community, and plan to build a temple to Durga.[1]

Citation not WP:RS, also WP:UNDUE.--Redtigerxyz (talk) 05:18, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia frequently covers current events, and usually the Associated Press is regarded as a reliable source in articles. This is not such a large article that it lacks room for more information. The story seems uncommonly interesting when one considers that although unlikely, we really don't know whether a human being with such an unusually formed brain could sometimes have extraordinary mental capacity - for all we know she might in some sense actually be an incarnation of Durga... Wnt (talk) 06:47, 13 April 2008 (UTC)