Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus c7.s2.28

c7.s2.28

Besides these more important manifestations of the female principle, the whole body of goddesses and nymphs of every order, are said to have sprung from the same source, and indeed every creature, whether human or brutal, of the female sex, is referred to the same principle, whilst the origin of males is ascribed to the primitive Purusha, or male. In every creation of the universe, it is said the MU'LA PRAKRITI assumes the different gradations of Ansarúpini, Kalárúpini and Kalánsarúpini,† or manifests herself in portions, parts, and portions of parts, and further subdivisions. The chief Ansas are, besides the five already enumerated, GANGA', TULASI, MANASA' SASHTHI, or DEVASNA, MANGALA'CHANDIKA, and KA'LI'; the principal Kalás are SWA'HA', SWADHA, DAKSHINA, SWASTI, PUSHTI, TUSHTI, and others, most of which are allegorical personifications, as Dhriti, fortitude, Pratishthá, fame, and Adharma, Wickedness, the bride of Mrityu, or Death. ADITI, the mother of the gods, and DITI, the mother of the demons, are also Kalás of PRAKRITI. The list includes all the secondary goddesses. The Kalánsas and Ansánsas, or sub-divisions of the more important manifestations, are all womankind, who are distinguished as good, middling, or bad, according as they derive their being, from the parts of their great original, in which the Satya, Rajas, and Tama Guna, or property of goodness, passion, and vice predominates. At the same time as manifestations of the great Cause of all they are entitled to respect, and even to veneration : whoever, says the Brahma Vaivartta Purana, offends or insults a female, incurs the wrath of PRAKRITI, whilst he who propitiates a female, particularly the youthful daughter of a Brahman, with clothes, ornaments and perfumes, offers worship to PRAKRITI herself. It is in the spirit of this last doctrine that one of the principal rites of the Sáktas, is the actual worship of the daughter or wife of a Brahman, and leads with one branch of the sect at least to the introduction of gross impurities. But besides this derivation of PRAKRITI, or SAKTI, from the Supreme, and the secondary origin of all female nature from her, those who adopt her as their especial divinity, employ the language invariably addressed towards the preferential object of worship in every sect, and contemplate her as comprising all existence in her essence. Thus she is not only declared to be one with the male deity, of whose energy some one of her manifestations is the type, as DEVI with SIVA, and LAKSHMI with VISHNU; but it is said, that she is equally in all things, and that all things are in her, and that besides her, there is nothing.*