Essay name: Devi Tantra, Mantra, Yantra (study)
Author:
Srider Basudevan Iyer
Affiliation: University of Mumbai / Sanskrit, University Department
This essay studies the history of Devi (the Goddess) in relation with worship using Tantra, Yantra and Mantra. The study explores the concept of the 'Female Principle' or Goddess, examining her role and significance in ancient Indian society.
Chapter 2 - The Maior Goddesses
97 (of 125)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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chapter II Major goddesses Place among masses. 154 According to the folk belief, the goddess Alak峁i is the
inauspicious spirit of poverty which has to be dispelled from the
house during Deepavali. On the night of Deepavali, doors and
windows are kept open in the night so that Laksmi may come in and
at four in the morning, the eldest woman in the family beats and
drives out Alak峁i out of the house.
Temple.
There is a temple dedicated to the goddess Jyesta in the old
Calicut madras trunk road at a village called Thacha-nattu-kara237.A
second temple of the goddess is in Srinagar on a hill called Jethyar
which overlooks the Dal-lake 238
Preferential places.
The goddess Jyesta is the goddess of misfortune. She is the
elder sister of Laksmi, the deity of fortune. Jyesta is the deity of
poverty, indigence, odium, reproach and ignominy. Her very name is
a term of reaproach. She is the symbol of all that is detestable and
loathsome. Jyesta's presence in the house is indicated by the presence
of waste, dirt, squalor, sloth-ness, indolence, idleness, disorder, anger
237 The Times Of India, vide the speaking tree Dt. 14.9.2002
238 The Times Of India, Dt. 1.10.2002 P. 14
