Goddess Jagadhatri

West Bengal, Calcutta

Not on view

Jagadhatri represents an aspect of the Hindu goddess Durga (Parvati) widely worshipped in West Bengal and Odisha, and most lavishly in the annual puja held in the Hooghly district of Kolkata, celebrated in the month of Kartik (mid-November). The goddess rides a lion which has slain an elephant—visible between the lion’s forelegs—while it holds the trunk in its jaws. She is dressed in red and seen in four-armed form, displaying a discus and conch in her upper hands (acknowledging Vishnu) and a bow and arrow in her lower hands. A third eye in her forehead and a snake rising above her left shoulder signal her higher allegiance to Shiva.

Goddess Jagadhatri, Lithograph printed in black, hand-colored with crimson, yellow, and grey watercolor and white gouache, West Bengal, Calcutta

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