Hands Of Goddess Durga:Victory Over Evil Asur ?

[Tein Network]

October 7, 2000

TO: Indology E-Discussion Group
RE: "Hands Of Goddess Durga": Victory Over Evil "Asur"

HYPOTHESIS: Memory Of An Ancient Migration From Babylon To
Historic India. Tribal memory of a victory of  forces of
"good" over "evil".

Is this hypothesis possible ? Yes or No ?

SUMMARY DISCUSSION:
By the year 612 BC, two centers of Assyrian power, Nineveh and Nimrod
were destroyed.  The oppressive power of the Assyrians for over a
century that terrorized all of the Fertile-Crescent tribal nations
including the two sister Hebrew kingdoms to the west was finally
broken.

This momentous victory was credited by modern archeologists and
historians to an alliance  between Nabopolassar, the founder of the
neo-Babylonian empire, and Cyaxeres, the emerging Indo-European ,
proto-Persian tribal leader of the Medes (according the Greek
Herodotus). This was a momentous event for all of the Babylonian
tribes that participated  in that war. This momentous event became
a oral tribal memory for the Babylonians who composed
Naboplassar's army .

This victory symbolized (by the tribal king and his soldiers,) as a
victory of  "good" represented by the Babylonian war goddess, Goddess
Ishwar, "against "evil", Asur (Assyrian) (not sure if I remember her
name correctly from the NYC library archeology book where I remember
the picture of the escavated Babylonian goddess statue with four
hands).

Stories  were told and retold in campfires, and in temples, and
celebrated in centuries  following  and became part of the oral
tradition of surviving Babylonian tribes.

Persia as a nation was beginning to emerge then with amalgamation
of the older Elamite culture, and as the leadership of the emerging
tribes of Media, and other surrounding Indo-European tribes who had
stormed into this region as they did in the neighboring Indus Valley.

Persian tribal power continued to increase, as the Babylonians went
into decline in the following centuries. Then in 539 BC, Cyrus, The
Persian, entered the gates of  Babylon with his massive forces. He set
free the Hebrew nation held in bondage there since 605 BC. This
momentous "freedom"  event became a part of the permanent memory of the
Hebrews  in the centuries following  and were recorded in the documents
that later became known as the Old Testaments, sacred to the
Judeo/Christians of today.

When  Cyrus arrival in the outskirts, a few Babylonian tribes elected
not to engage Cyrus in battle.

Instead, they  secretly escaped eastward  toward a new potential
homeland, along a little known trade route hugging the sea coast,
toward Historic India.

Upon arriving in India, slowly the tribe moved  eastward, negotiating
passage with the local Rajas, until they arriving in the Punjab area
where they settled. Over the centuries, their war goddess remained a
primary deity in the tribal memory. In the ensuing centuries, this
goddess was remembered by her varied personifications as such emerged
via the creativity of the folklore history of the tribal memories.

Sometimes she personified as Katyani, with four hands, and tiger bahan.
Sometimes she was Chandraghanta, four hands and bullock bahan. Then
later, she also became, Kushmanda, with 8 hands and a tiger bahan. And
finally, she became Durga, with her 10 hands and a lion bahan as the
memory of a momentous victory of the forces of good over evil Asur!

Bengali Goddess Durga Celebration is then a tribal memory of a victory
of the forces of "good" over "evil" of a real battle long ago, in the
ancient holi lands of  the Fertile Crescent where  Hebrews were held
in bondage, and were set free by the Persian, Cyrus The Great !

The memory of the Hebrews survived in the Hebrew written
"Old Testament" . The memory of the Babylonians did not survive in
the ensuing centuries as the Babylondians disappeared as a separate
nation.

The tribal memory of  a victory of forces of "good" over "evil" were
brought to historic India by these peaceful remnant tribes of
Babylon and fused into the Hindu religious memory in the "hands of
Goddess Durga" in today's  annual holy celebration of victory of the
forces of "good" over "evil" in the worship of Goddess Durga in Hindu
temples from Punjab to Bengal.

Is this hypothesis possible ?  Yes or No ?

Avi Dey,
Coordinator,
NSW3
"A community based society for pursuit of harmony and
life long learning"
www.tein.org, click on  NSW3 (under construction)

[admin note: changed date from Sat, 7 Oct 1972 10:10:38 -0400]