Buy Goddess Rajarajeshwari (Tripura Sundari) - Brown Gold by Exotic India Art
by Kapil Goel Director
This brilliant brass statue of a
four-armed female divinity with a round face, well-fed cheeks, subdued chin,
eyes, three-fourth shut as when absorbed in meditation, well-aligned
beautifully modeled nose and moderately elevated neck represents
Tripura-Sundari, also called Trailokya-Sundari – the most beauteous female –
human or divine, in all three worlds. With broad shoulders, sensuously modeled
but as decently clad breasts, subdued belly further contained by an elaborate
girdle, broadened hips, moderate height …, the anatomy of her figure is highly
balanced. The four-armed divinity is carrying in her upper hands elephant goad
and noose, in the normal left, a sugarcane, while the normal right is held
in ‘abhay’. Seated on a tall seat with her figure straightened there
reflects absolute ease in her bearing, With her left leg horizontally stretched
along the seat’s top, and the right, laid suspending downwards, the goddess is
seated in ‘lalitasana’. She is clad in a sari – an unstitched textile length.
It is so worn that on the upper part of the figure it is as tight fitted as a
sewn costume, and on the lower side, as loose as the traditional ‘antariya’.
Though her ornaments are a bit voluminous and heavy, and so her crown and halo
consisting of lotus-buds, they perfectly fit her figure.
Goddess Rajarajeshwari (Tripura Sundari) |
Three of the Upanishads – Tripura
Upanishad, Tripura Tapini and Bahvrich Upanishad, allude to Tipura-Sundari and
as such Tripura-Sundari was an Upanishadic deity; however, for quite long, till
about 10th century, she was not attributed the status of a classical deity. At
the most she was seen as the transformation of Trailokya-Mohini, Lord Vishnu’s
female incarnation by whose fascinating beauty in the course of ocean-churning
he had succeeded in beguiling demons and frustrating their design to take away
ambrosia. So bewitching that it not only beguiled demons but also gods, sages
and human beings, Vishnu’s Mohini form was immediately lauded as Trailokya
Mohini, the woman who deluded all three worlds by her beauty. Though Vishnu’s
act was soon exposed, Puranas immortalized Trailokya-Mohini under various names
one being Tripura-Sundari.
By around the tenth century there evolved
the concept of Mahavidyas – great wisdom. One of the instruments of wisdom was
beauty that inspired intellect through emotions and Tripura-Sundari, also known
as Sodasi, was seen as personifying such faculty. Obviously, her form evolved
from Lord Vishnu’s Mohini incarnation that Puranas alluded. As such,
Trailokya-Mohini or Tripura-Sundari form represented the beauteous aspect of
Mahavidyas. Thus, Tripura-Sundari was elevated to the status of one of the
Mahavidyas. One Mahavidya-tradition names this beauteous aspect as Sodasi,
literally meaning ‘of sixteen years’, that is, the goddess stayed, and stayed
ever, at sixteen years of age ever abounding in youthfulness as a woman has at
sixteen. Other tradition saw Sodasi only as a transform of Tripura-Sundari. The
tradition identifying Sodasi and Tripura-Sundari as independent divinities
classifies Tripura-Sundari as one of the Matrikas, and Sodasi, more often, as
Tantrik deity. Though a transform of Trailokya Mohini, a form of Vishnu,
Tripura-Sundari is perceived as a Shaivite deity having strong Shaivite links.
As befits Tripura-Sundari’s form, the aspect that this image emphasizes is
maturity besides beauty and elegance.
This description by Dr. Daljeet and Prof.
P.C. Jain.
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Created on Jan 14th 2020 07:53. Viewed 244 times.
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