The Goddess Durga in the East-Javanese Period

Abstract

This article assesses the changing perceptions of the goddess Durga in Java in the tenth to the fifteenth centuries C.E. From an early perception of her as a beneficent goddess, slayer of the demon Mahisa and protector of welfare and fertility, we see later portrayals of her with a frightful countenance and a predilection for graveyards. This change is traced through the mythology to poorly understood Tantric practices that deteriorated into black magic and the coercion of the goddess's power for evil purposes, causing her image in Java to become tarnished and turning her into an evil demon.

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