" Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, IAST: Śakti; lit. ‘energy, ability, strength, effort, power, might, capability’)[1] in Hinduism, is the “Universal Power” that underlies and sustains all existence. Conceived as feminine in essence, Shakti refers to the personified energy or power of a male deity and often personified as the female consort of the Hindu god.[2][3][4]
In Tantric Shaktism, Shakti is the foremost deity, akin to Brahman.[5][5] In Puranic Hinduism, Shiva and Shakti are the masculine and feminine principles that are complementary to each other. The male deity is purusha, pure consciousness, which creates the universe through the female creative energy of Shakti, which is prakriti, ‘nature’.[6][7]
The term Shakta is used for the description of people associated with Shakti worship. The Shakta pithas are shrines, which are believed to be the sacred seats of Shakti.
Etymology and overview
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According to the Monier-Williams dictionary, the term Shakti (Śakti) is the sanskrit feminine word-meaning “energy, ability, strength, effort, power, might, capability”—thereby implying “capacity for” doing something, or “power over” anything.[1][8] Shakti is also considered feminine noun of linguistic term Sanskrit.[9] Though the term Shakti has broad implications, it mostly denotes “power or energy”.[8]
Much has been written in an effort to describe, define and delineate the principle of Shakti, which is held as the “most complex” goddess related theological concept.[9] Shakti is primarily identified with the feminine, and with the numerous Hindu goddesses, who are seen as “tangible” expressions-visible personifications of the intangible Shakti, such an ideation for Shakti took place over many centuries.[8]
Metaphysically, Shakti refers to “energetic principle” of the ultimate reality, which is ideated as “primordial power”.[8] Shakti is believed to constitute such important factors as: “cit (consciousness, intelligence), ananda (joy, bliss), iccha (will), jnana (knowledge), and kriya (action)”.[9] In the study of Indian religions and their associated philosophies, one finds terms that combine Shakti with other concepts, giving rise to various expressions, such as; “adya Shakti (primal energy, primordial force), cit Shakti or vacya Shakti (the energy of consciousness), vacaka Shakti (manifested consciousness), and para Shakti (supreme energy, cause of all)”—all of which, by their connection with Shakti, indicate that the respective concept is essentially feminine.[9]
Relatedly, the term Shakta (Sanskrit: शक्त, Śakta) is used for people and customs associated with Shakti worship.[10] The term Shakta became popular from the ninth-century onwards, before that the term Kula or Kaula, which referred to clans of female ancestry, besides to the menstrual and sexual fluids of females, was used to describe Shakti followers.[10]
Origins and development
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Pre-Vedic Goddess-worship
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The origins of Shakti concept are prevedic.[11] Sites related to worship of Mother goddess or Shakti were found in Paleolithic context at the Son River valley, where a triangular stone known as the Baghor stone, estimated to have been created around 9,000–8,000 BCE was found.[12] The excavation team, which included Kenoyer, considered it is highly probable that the stone was associated with Shakti or the female principle.[13] The representation of Shakti in a stone is considered an early example of yantra.[14]
Scholars assume goddess worship was prevalent in the Indus Valley Civilisation (3300–1300 BCE) as many terracotta female figurines with smoke-blacked headgears, suggesting their use in rituals, had been found in almost all the houses of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.[15] Numerous artefacts that appear to portray female deities were also found.[16] This development however is not assumed to be the earliest precursor of goddess worship in India; it has evolved for over a long period of time before.[16]
In the Vedic era
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The Veda Samhitas are the oldest scriptures that specified the Hindu goddesses. The Rigveda and the Atharvaveda are the main sources of knowledge about various goddesses from the Vedic period.[16] Ushas, the goddess of dawn was the most praised. Though male deities such as Indra and Agni have been more popular in the Vedic era, female deities were represented as personifications of important aspects like Earth (Prithvi), Mother of Gods (Aditi), Night (Ratri), and Speech (Vāc/Vāk).[16]
The Devīsūkta in the Rigveda, addressed to the goddess Vāc, became the progenitor of goddess theology that evolved later.[16] Here (10.125.6), Vāc states: “I bend the bow for Rudra that his arrow may strike and slay the hater of devotion. I rouse and order battle for the people, and I have penetrated Earth and Heaven”.[16] This hymn presented the goddess as an all powerful pervasive being, who is both “immanent and transcendent”, and is bestower of power to both gods and humans.[16] The prominent characteristics of Vāc were later incorporated into the identity of Saraswati, who was a minor river goddess in the Vedas, but later became the goddess of knowledge and the “Mother of the Vedas”.[16]
Most of the goddesses in the Vedic era were presented as wives of the gods.[16] They had no special powers nor an individual name either, rather they took their respective husband’s name with feminine suffixes, as with Indrani, the wife of Indra.[16] Though the goddesses had no power, one Rigvedic hymn (10.159) addressed Indrani as Śacī Poulomī and presented her as the “deification” of Indra’s power. The term Śacī meant “the rendering of powerful or mighty help, assistance, aid, especially of the ‘deeds of Indra’.”[16] This use of the term Śacī is seen as a major step in the later conception of Śakti as the divine power that is separate from a deity and something which is not inherently present within it.[16]
In later Hindu texts, the idea of Shakti as divine feminine energy became more pronounced as wives of the gods began to personify the powers of their husbands.[16] Despite arriving at this stage, it was only later, after a lot of philosophical speculation and understanding the connecting factor underlying the universe that the idea of Shakti as being the feminine unity pervading all existence was developed.[17]