THE MOTHER-GODDESS
By
U. R. EHRENFELS, Ph. D. (Vienna)
and
M. S. GOPALAKRISHNAN, M.A., Dip. Anth.
(University
of Madras)
The
discussion about the Somnath Temple and its reinstitution led Mr. Philip Spratt
1 to reflect also on the sociological functions and psychological
implications of the Mother Goddess concept, which no doubt holds a key position
in Sivaitic religion generally and that of South India in particular. He
perceives the connection between Sivaism, the Mother Goddess idea and the
appearance of Yoga as one of the most typically characteristic features of
religious development in the Indian area. He further concludes that the
emphasis on the Father God was “more favourable to the rise of a
broader loyalty; and historically the emergence of nations from the tribal
stage is associated with loyalty to great kings, and the fusion
of tribal gods.” 2 On the other hand he thinks that “devotion to the
mother is a regression; at the deepest level a regression to the inter-uterine
stage, i. e., to identification with the mother.” 3
This
side-track of Mr. Spratt’s article raises the question of the indirect
influence which the Mother Goddess concept may exercise on culture patterns,
and this is no doubt of more than a peripheral interest to the understanding of
South Indian culture.
The
first thing which we have to take into account here is the probability of a
specialized, in no way primitive, yet no doubt pre-Aryan type of Mother Goddess
religion, which was rooted in a matrilineal city civilisation.4 It
is possible that this civilisation was identical, or at least connected, with
the ancient pre-Aryan Indus civilisation and thus gave a common background to
all Indian cultural developments since about 2,500 B. C. Assuming this as a
preliminary working hypothesis, we will undoubtedly find a plausible
explanation for the introverted and non-violent elements in Indian culture, by
equating them with the Mother Goddess ideal and the attempt at identification
with Her. But the claim that the same identification was only a regression
appears to be at least doubtful, whilst the other contention, viz., that
the father concept makes for unification, must be considered to be more than doubtful.
Matrilineal civilisations flourished because of, and along with, the discovery
of plant cultivation–probably an achievement of primitive women. 5 “India herself appears to have been the
centre of not only one, but even various different matrilineal cultures, from
simple village to specialized city civilisations, which left a deep impression
on the entire culture-historic configuration of this country.” 6
Patrilineal and Patriarchal civilisations with a strong father emphasis
developed in nomadic herdsman cultures 7 and partly also in those of totemistic hunters. 8 In
the former, feudal warfare, and in the latter the splitting up of society into
numerous, and sometimes even hostile, sub-groups, was just as characteristic as
the consolidation of populous co-operative village and city organizations was
typical of matrilineal civilisations. The Father God concept should, under
these circumstances, be rather seen as making for competition, even tribal
warfare, and the Mother Goddess concept for a more protective mentality
and economico-political co-operation than vice versa. Thus far,
conclusions from anthropological and archaeological fact-finding among actual
matrilineal and patrilineal societies and their pre-historic fore-runners.
Let
us, however, also consider the matter from the culture-historic approach to
religion. Sivaism, as the present religion we know, can hardly be called
original. It is a sect within Hinduism. Hinduism is a great system of ideas,
composed of various blendings of pre-Aryan and Aryan thought. It is a norm of
life, followed in different ways by different types of Hindus.
What
exactly was the religion of India, before the Aryans came, can only be
cenjectured on the basis of archaeological evidence, aboriginal parallels and
survivals, traceable in folklore, mythology (legendary history) and literary
sources.
Archaeological
excavations, conducted in the valley of the Indus, have shown the permanence of
an old Indian civilisation which the Aryan invaders with their new set of
thoughts and materials could not yet completely destroy. The pre-Aryan
civilisation of the Indus valley has also left traces of a religion, connected
with an oft-represented Magna Mater and a Siva-like male deity. In this
setting we find objects, believed to symbolise linga-yoni. If the theory
of linga-yoni worship among the Indus people can be accepted, it is
hardly too bold a conclusion to hold that some sort of ‘Saivism’, without its
present Vedic elements, was prevalent in the Indus civilisation before the
Aryans came.
We
do not know how and when exactly the concept of a Mother Goddess came to be
closely associated with that of Siva, or whether both are rooted in a common
source. Siva who is considered to be an ascetic, is also glorified as the
Original source from which all things emerge. In this way He is the creator and
similar to the Magna Mater concept of a creatrix; Though the creatrix
concept was not prominent in the Vedas and the Upanishads, in the Puranic
period, the role of the Mother became important to the further development of
Aryan Hinduism. With the growth of the Tantras the cult of the Mother became
complex and great Hindu metaphysicians found no difference between Siva and
Sakti. Has here a circle of ideas been closed which passes from original,
pre-Aryan oneness, through sex-differentiation and the deity-concept and the
suppression of its female aspect in the earlier Vedic period, and finally
arrived at a second trend of unification in early medieval Hinduism? This
non-differentiation between a male god and a female goddess is also present in
other Indian religious systems, as for instance in the Khasi attitude towards U
Blei-Ka Blei. From researches 9 and an analysis made of the U
Blei –Ka Blei idea among the Khasi, it would appear that the “Magna
Mater or “Great Goddess” concept of the Khasi is fused with the Creator God
idea into one indivisible, yet sexually differentiated unit.” 10 The
double-sex aspect of a Creator is also noticed in the belief of primitive
non-agricultural food-gathering tribes, such as the Kadar of Cochin, 11
Negritos of Malaya12 and others.13 Thus we find the idea
that one is within the other, and the very appearance of duality to be only a
sort of veil over the great principle of unity, a veil or illusion, however,
which appears to be very ancient. Though the worship of the Mother Goddess was
prevalent in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete, Greece and other ancient civilisations,
India is the land where the cult attained not only a very high philosophic
significance but also persisted up to this time.
Mr.
Philip Spratt connects with this fact that, “yoga may have to be regarded as a
unique and inexplicable contribution of India.”14 The process of introspection
is not, as yoga, unique to India alone. There is the esoteric religion of
ancient Egypt, the Greek Mystery cults and the practices and attitudes of
Medieval European mystics and the Sufis of the Islamic world. There is also the
belief in individual guardian spirits, to be personally acquired, by the Sioux
and many other American aboriginal groups;–also indirect indications of a
similar introverted attitude in pre-Columbian American civilisations. Yoga can
hardly be defined as aiming at a return back to the womb, pure and simple, as
Mr. Spratt suggests.15 It also means a fusion, stateless state of
non-existence beyond humau comprehension. It is said that for one who practises
yoga, through the power of concentration, an absolute identification with the
object of contemplation is achieved. By this achievement he experiences in
himself all the power and qualities of the object of meditation.16
We don’t think that the picturing of the Goddess within the heart of the
contemplative yogi leads him actually back to the womb, though perhaps to a
state of mind which is comparable to that experienced
there. Identification with the Mother imagined within the subject’s body cannot
be interpreted as literally a return back to the womb; but it means a return back
to oblivion; oblivion, that is to say, of the transitory, the ‘non-real’
aspects in the Ego. This state of freedom from the inessential implies the
annihilation of separateness–but not of consciousness. This mental attitude
appears to have been present also in the initiates of such cults as that of
Isis-Osiris, Demeter-Persephone, Aphrodite or Artemis,17
Baal-Ashtarot and at the root of the Arabian goddess Al-Lat.18 The
figure of the Mother Goddess plays an important part in all these manifold
cults.
The
vision of God as Mother19 is the expression of a longing for
compassion and grace, for tenderness and sympathy–mental qualities which are
generally more manifest in the feminine than in the masculine aspect of humans.
This does not mean that the actual masculine individual is necessarily devoid
of these qualities, though it is in a few only that they can be established
alongside the masculine traits.
The
religious images of Ardhanarishwara and Hermaphrodite–contributions of Indian
and Grecian mythology and sculpture to the world of art–illustrate this aspect
in their sphere. It is man who strives to understand the feminine already in
him, and woman who strives to comprehend the male. The supreme is the womb of
all manifest things. This metaphorical simile finds a parallel in the Arabic Al-Rahman
Al-Rahim as one of the most important attributes of God which are literally
derived from the Arabic root RHM (womb), and mean “The Beneficent–The
Merciful”. The conciding use of this word for the same idea in various
languages is no doubt more than mere accident–but it is also more than mere
desire for return to the physical womb. Return to the pre-natal stage
thus would seem to indicate something different from, and more than, the mere todestribe,
the urge for death, which Freud acknowledged besides libido, in its
physically destructive desire for annihilation of the manifest ego.
The
character of Siva as destroyer does therefore not mean that he is the
representative of a Father-God idea, full of terror, as was suggested.20
Siva as Mahakala can perhaps be seen as the element of Time. In swallowing all
created things, the feminine aspect Mahakali yet predominates. Thus He-She
withdraws into Him-Herself: the Universe. It is in our will to realise whether,
“Time must have a stop or not.” If one can destroy one’s subjection to time,
one is beyond time. The transgression beyond time offers us the Timeless. Thus
Siva, the destroyer, becomes Siva the redeemer. It is this truth that the great
Saivite saints taught us. The yogi full of silence and peace understands
this Father in whom the grace of the Mother is always immanent.
Devotion
to the Mother taken in the sense of bhakti requires absolute
self-surrender and self-abnegation. Self-surrender, however, is not identical
with regression.
Conclusions
suggesting that devotion to the mother leads to “a weakening of national
solidarity,” 21 and devotion to the
father (as no absolute identification is possible with
him), is favourable “to the rise of a broader loyalty”, 22 are thus
not only in discord with general culture-historic, anthropological experience,
but also with a psychological analysis of religious concepts.
In
Hinduism, for instance, devotion to the guru, who is to be given all the
regard and respect shown to a father, is to culminate in identification with
him by his chela who strives to understand the Ultimate. This attitude
falls no doubt under the yogic mother-goddess pattern of mental behaviour,
though applied to a man. History shows us, moreover, that loyalty to kings (or
dictators) did not prevent wars, rather the opposite, and fostered a spirit of
competition which is typical of patrilineal and patriarchal societies. This
answers the question whether, or how far, matrilineal civilisations are to be
considered as belonging to a fundamentally different sociological and religious
pattern, as compared to patrilineal cultures.
In
conclusion we see how the study of matrilineal civilisations reveals the
worship of a feminine deity. This goddess is frequently, yet not always,
interconnected with agricultural, rites, but not exclusive of the male-god
worship. It should also be stressed that primitive food-gatherers of primeval,
bilateral social organisation, such: as e. g. the Kadar of Cochin, are
not unaware, of the feminine principle in creation and being. Perry thought:
“The Great Mother seems to be all alone in the days before the discovery of
irrigation. Later she is accompanied by a son, who is also her lover. This son
is personified on the earth by the kings...; and the king, the god and the
mother goddess are primarily associated with irrigation, fertility, vegetation
and similar things.” 23
It
would now appear to be more correct to say that originally there was a
conception of the deity, comprising the double aspect of its sex character.
This concept seems to have been followed by various more concrete deities in
which at some times and at some places the male, at other times and at other
places the female aspect predominate. If, however, we compare these two
developments from the common original source, the female one can be seen
associated with large agricultural civilisations which are based on
co-operative activities (irrigation and storing of grains), whilst the male
aspect is generally found in strongly centralised States which have been built
on military expansion and thus gave rise to a spirit of competition.
Baba, Dr. Moses Osamu:
1951-Iku-Nishi of the Saghalien Ainu published in The Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 1951, (Vol.
LXXIX, Parts I and II, 1949.)
Bo Yin Ra: 1935-Briefe
an Einen und Viele, Basle (Kober’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung).
Bo Yin Ra: 1932-Der
Weg meiner Schuler, Basle (Kober’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung).
Childe, Gordon: 1942–What
Happened in History. (A 108 Pelican Books).
Ehrenfels, Dr. U. R:
1941-Mother-Right in India, Hyderabad Deccan (Oxford University Press,
in Osmania University Series).
Ehrenfels, Dr. U. R.:
1950/A–A Kadan Creation Myth in: Anthropos, Vol. XIV, Posieux-Froideville.
Ehrenfels, Dr. U. R.:
1950/B–The Double Sex Character of the Khasi Great Deity in The Journal of
the Madras University, (July 1950).
Ehrenfels, Dr. U. R.; 1951–Women’s work published
in: Women’s Welfare Journal, Madras, (Aplil 1951), (Government of
Madras).
Evans, Ivor H. N.: I
937–The Negritos of Malaya, Cambridge (University Press).
Judge, William Q.:
1930–The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali, Los Angeles (California)
Perry, W. J.: 1923–The
Children of the Sun, London (Methuen & Co.)
Robertson-Smith, W.:
1885-Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, Cambridge (University Press).
Schmidt-Koppers: 1926–Volker
und Kulturen, Regensburg.
Spratt, Philip: 1951–Somnath
in: Triveni Vol. XXII. No.2. (July 1951).
Turner, Ralph: 1941–The
Great Cultural Traditions, Vol. I. New York–London (First Edition.
McGraw-Hill Book Company).
1 Spratt,
‘Triveni’ (1951) p. 108.
2
Spratt, ‘Tnveni’ (1951) p. 112.
3 Ibid.
4
Ehrenfels, (1941) PP’ 171 seq.
5
Childe (142) pp. 48, 49 etc.
6
Ehrenfels, (1951) page 3.
7
Turner (1941) Vol. I., pp. 242. seq., 361, seq., 473.
8
Schmidt-Koppers (1926).
9
Conducted in 1949-50 by Dr. U. R. Ehrenfels, Head of the Department of
Anthropology, University of Madras, with the financial and
from the Viking Fund Inc., now: Wenner-Gren Foundation for
Anthropological Research Inc., New York which has dedicated
another Grant-in-aid to the comparative study of matrilineal societies
in India to the Madras University, to be carried out by Dr. Ehrenfels in
1951-53.
10
Ehrenfels (1950 B) p, 31.
11
Ehrenfels (1950 B)
12 Evans
(1937) pp. 140, 143.
13
Among whom special interest attaches to the far-off Ainu, comp. Osamu Baba
(1949), p. 27, where Chise-korokamui, the husband of the all-important
hearth-goddess in Hokkaido is mentioned.
14
Spratt ‘Triveni’ (1951) p. III.
15
Ibid.
16
Judge (1930) p. XVIII.
17
Bo Yin Ra: (1935) p. 115.
18
Robertson-Smith: (1885) pp. 292-300.
19
Bo Yin Ra: (1932) pp. 126-27, where a deeper understanding of these relations
is made accessible.
20
Spratt ‘Triveni’ (1951) p. 112.
21 Spratt
‘Triveni’ (1951), p. 112.
22 Ibid.
23
Perry (1923), p. 221