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Plate 1 A lion’s face framed by its mane, a trident rising behind it

Durga

Durga is the Hindu Mother Goddess as a warrior, worshipped at Navaratri and Durga Puja for her victory over the buffalo demon Mahishasura. She rides a lion or a tiger and holds the gods’ weapons in her many hands.

Hindu deities and their symbols. Also called Durga lion, Durga Maa, durga symbol, durga symbols, goddess Durga, Mahishasuramardini.

Meaning

The Himalayan Academy glosses her name as “She who is incomprehensible or difficult to reach” and calls her a form of Shakti worshipped in her gracious as well as her terrifying aspect, the destroyer of demons, honoured at Durga Puja, especially by Bengalis. The Hindu American Foundation calls her the warrior form of Parvati, the Mother Goddess who defends the oppressed with a fierce wrath and looks after creation with a caring warmth. The Cleveland Museum of Art describes her in a Pahari painting of about 1700 as the goddess who personifies the powers of all the male gods combined, with many arms, each holding a weapon: bow and arrow, trident, discus, shield, sword, mace, and the conch that sounds the start of battle.

Origin and history

Her great story is the killing of Mahishasura. In the Hindu American Foundation’s telling, the buffalo demon won a boon from Brahma that no man or god could defeat him, and used it to conquer the gods. They turned to Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu, and from the three gods’ combined energies Durga came into being, fought Mahishasura and killed him. The Cleveland Museum shows the moment in two works. In a stone sculpture of the 800s or 900s she uses Shiva’s trident to pin the demon down, and the museum reads the demon as arrogance and the other vices she destroys; in the Pahari painting she has cut off the buffalo’s head and shoots arrows into his true form as it climbs out of the neck.

Lion or tiger?

Both. The Himalayan Academy calls Durga “seated on a tiger”, and the Hindu American Foundation’s writer Rukmini Walker pictures her “wielding weapons in her many hands, riding on her fierce tiger.” The Cleveland Museum explains that painters in the foothills of the western Himalayas drew her mount as a tiger, and that lions and tigers had the same meaning throughout India, as emblems of shakti, divine creative energy.

Why she has so many arms

Durga is the powers of all the gods in one body. The Hindu American Foundation describes her coming into being from the combined energies of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu, and the Cleveland Museum calls her the goddess who personifies the sum of the powers of all the male gods, described with many arms, each holding a different weapon. Several of them have pages of their own: the trident, the discus and the conch that sounds the start of battle.

Navaratri and Durga Puja

Navaratri, nine nights in the month of Ashwin, celebrates the Feminine Divine, and some traditions give each night to one of the nine forms of Durga, from Shailaputri, daughter of the Himalayas, to Siddhidatri, the giver of powers. The tenth day, Vijayadashami, remembers her victory. Durga Puja, held at the same time, is especially important in Bengal and Nepal. The Hindu American Foundation describes it as the time when Durga comes down from her home on Kailash with Shiva to her mother’s home on earth.

See also

Parvati, Shiva, Ganesha, Murugan, Vishnu, Lakshmi.

Sources

  1. Dancing with Śiva: glossary (Durgā), Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Dancing with Śiva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Catechism, glossary, Himalayan Academy (Kauai’s Hindu Monastery), glossary, s.v. Durgā
  2. Dancing with Śiva: glossary (Kālī), Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Dancing with Śiva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Catechism, glossary, Himalayan Academy (Kauai’s Hindu Monastery), glossary, s.v. Kālī
  3. 9 things to know about Navaratri (Syama Allard, Hindu American Foundation), Syama Allard, “9 things to know about Navaratri”, Hindu American Foundation, 2020, Hindu American Foundation, article text
  4. Durga Puja (Hindu American Foundation), “Durga Puja”, Hindu American Foundation, Hindu American Foundation, article text
  5. Which face of the goddess do we wish to see? (Rukmini Walker, Hindu American Foundation), Rukmini Walker, “Which face of the goddess do we wish to see?”, Hindu American Foundation, 2020, Hindu American Foundation, article text
  6. Durga Slaying Mahisha (1960.51, Cleveland Museum of Art), Durga Slaying Mahisha, c. 1700–1710, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1960.51, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
  7. Durga Destroying the Buffalo Demon (1982.45, Cleveland Museum of Art), Durga Destroying the Buffalo Demon, 800s–900s, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.45, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description

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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research

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