Goddesses of India ~ D

Dakini
One of the six goddesses governing bodily functions, the others being Hakini, Kakini, Lakini, Rakini and Sakini.

Dakshina
A Hindu cow goddess who is closeley connected to the dawn goddess Ushas.

Dala Kadavara
A Singhalese demoness who brings diseases and misfortune. Originally, Dala Kadavara was an elephant-goddess.

Danu
The Hindu goddess of the primordial waters.

Devaki
A Hindu mother goddess. She is the consort of the mythical king Vasudeva, mother of Krishna and Balarama (born of hairs from the head of Vishnu which that god placed in her womb).

Devasena
A Hindu goddess, one of the consorts of Skanda.

Devi
The Divine Mother of the Hindu culture. Her name means "goddess." She has many names and forms such as the warrior Durgha and the bloodthirsty Kali or she can be gentle as Parvati, mother of the elephant god Ganesha. Devi is the consort (wife) of Shiva which is Parvati. Shiva is the god of generation and destruction. Devi is the "Mother Goddess," meaning she is the mother of all. In her hands she holds joy and pain, right hand; and life and death is held on her left hand. Devi is the god of nature and life because she brings rain and protects against disease. Devi is mild and loving. This was the personality of Devi as mother of life. As mother of death, she is terrible. In her description, Devi has eight arms, only one arm has a sword. When she is fighting against evil, she is usually mounted on a lion or a tiger. Devi holds the universe in her womb, she is the warrior Durgha when she is the mother of death. Gods begged Durgha to kill, and protect all from the evil Mahisasura. Devi is in every woman's soul and she can also turn into the religious Uma. Devi's diagram is called her mansions. In the middle of her forehead, she has a Bindu (drop or dot) which in some ways seems to be masculine. Lakshmi, wife of Vishnu is an incarnation of Devi. She is the goddess of creative power, and represents all women in the universe. A twelve-armed warrior goddess, created by Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva to slay Mahishasura, the shape-shifting monster who menaced the universe. She rode a lion into the fray and was victorious.

Dhanistha
Another Hindu goddess of misfortune, a malevolent nakshatra. She is a daughter of Daksha and consort of Chandra (Soma).

Dharani
A Hindu goddess of minor importance, an avatar of the goddess Lakshmi and consort of Parasurama.

Dharti Mata
A Hindu mother goddess who first appears in the Puranic texts.

Dhisana
A Hindu goddess of prosperity. She appears in the Vedas.

Dhumorna
A Hindu goddess, consort of Yama.

Dhumravati
A Hindu demonic goddess.

Dhumvati
A Hindu goddess. She is one of the ten mahavidyas personifying the Sakti of Shiva.

Diti
An Indian goddess. Many mythographers see Aditi as the endless sky; Diti as the earth. Both apparently come from a non-Aryan source of Hindu mythology, for their children, though recognized as supernatural, were never part of the official pantheon. Diti's children were asuras, non-gods. They were powerful beings, especially the warrior Maruts, who might have conquered the gods. Diti, whose earlier children Indra had killed, practiced magic when pregnant again. So threatened was Indra that he watched her constantly. When Diti fell into a doze, Indra entered her vagina, traveled to her womb, and dismembered the fetus. Even cut to pieces, the fetus was so powerful that it reformed into forty-nine separate warriors.

Draupadi
A Hindu heroine of the Mahabharata, she was a polyandrous woman who slept in turn with each of her five husbands, who were all brothers.

Durga
Great warrior Goddess from India. When the other gods could no longer fight the asuras (demons), they called Durga from her mountain home to help. She came, golden like the sun, with her tigers, and vanquished the asuras who symbolized oppression and ignorance. This myth is from the Puranic texts. She is in front of a stone representation of herself from the Orissa state, India.
Durga Jagadhatri, the Lion-Goddess, into your home. Durga is the Great Mother Goddess who has been portrayed in Mid-East iconography riding upon her lion (or tiger; both are symbols of queenly power) since prehistoric times. She offers a sacred gesture of protection to all mothers and children as she guards them from the elephant demon Mahisa. Riding upon a lion and wielding a weapon in each of her ten arms, the Hindu warrior goddess Durga calmly defeats the buffalo demon. He symbolizes the egoistic illusions of maya (everyday reality) which delude us and keep us from knowing our innate divinity. In Hindu mythology and religion, a malignant form of Devi, the inaccessible, represented by a yellow woman riding a tiger. Also Kali or Parvati. She is the consort of Shiva.