Durga

Light gathered from every side. From Brahma, from Vishnu, from Shiva, from every god in the heavens, a blazing golden light flowed together, like millions upon millions of stars meeting at a single point. Heaven and earth shook. And out of that radiance stepped a goddess. Her hair was black as night and her skin golden as fire. Her eight arms spread wide like the wings of an eagle, and each hand held a sacred weapon. This was Durga.

This is one of the most wondrous legends in Hindu mythology. When the universe faces a disaster it cannot escape, the answer does not come from the strength of one god. It comes from the light of all of them, joined together. And that supreme form is a woman.

The story begins with a fearsome wish.

According to Hindu legend, the demon Mahishasura had been granted a power that made him invincible: no male god and no man could kill him. With that power, Mahishasura brought ruin across the three worlds. Even the Trimurti, made up of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, could not stop him. The heavens sank into darkness.

But that wish, which seemed perfect, held a loophole.

Only one being could stop him. That being did not yet exist. That being had to be created.

Then, the legend says, the gods looked at one another and understood. No words were needed. Brahma offered his light of creation, warm gold, gentle as the dawn. Vishnu offered his power of preservation, blue, wide as the ocean. Shiva offered his strength of destruction and rebirth, blazing white, cold as a flame that has gone beyond fear. Indra offered his halo of thunder and lightning. Vayu offered an invisible wind that passes through all things.

Stream after stream of light joined together. The earth trembled softly. The sky changed color.

The radiance grew brighter and hotter, until no one could look straight at it. And then, from within that radiance, a figure stepped out.

Durga.

She rode a mighty lion. She had eight arms. Each arm held a weapon, and each weapon was the light of a god. The trident of Shiva, called the Trishul. The discus of Vishnu, the Sudarshana Chakra. The bow of Vayu, the god of wind. The thunderbolt of Indra, the god of thunder.

No single god handed his power to Durga. Durga was the power of all of them, cast into one form. Her name in Sanskrit, Durga, means "the one who cannot be assailed." She is like a fortress that no enemy can get past. She is Shakti, the divine feminine energy and the feminine principle of the universe.

Mahishasura changed from one shape to another: a buffalo, a man, a lion. But Durga followed him through every form, never tiring, never letting go. She did not fight out of anger. She fought because it was what the universe needed her to do. On the tenth day, called Vijayadasami, the darkness at last drew back. Balance was restored. The heavens were returned to the gods.

To remember that victory, Hindus hold Navratri every year. It is a festival of nine nights honoring nine forms of Durga, known as the Navadurga. The first night honors Shailaputri, daughter of the sacred mountain. She rides a bull and holds a trident and a lotus. She is simple and enduring. The third night honors Chandraghanta, Durga crowned with a crescent moon. The sixth night honors Katyayani, her boldest warrior form. Each night portrays one quality of feminine strength: patience, wisdom, courage, compassion. On Vijayadasami, those who keep the festival greet the dawn of victory.

The Museum of Cham Sculpture in Da Nang holds the largest collection of Cham sculpture in the world. Among its treasures is a statue of Durga Mahishasura-mardini, a name that means "Durga, Slayer of the Buffalo Demon." It is one of the finest pieces in the whole collection. It shows Durga at the moment of victory, carved in stone by the hands of Cham artisans.

The kingdom of Champa held the central coast of what is now Vietnam for many centuries. In Cham belief, the figure of Durga blended with Po Ino Nogar, the Mother of the Land. She is the goddess who protects the homeland and all its people. The Cham carvers did not make her fierce. They made her calm. There is no rage in her. Only steadiness and purpose.

That statue in the museum in Da Nang is a woman of stone, a millennium old. She holds her weapons and faces an enemy no one could defeat, and she does not tremble. She knows she does not fight alone. In each of her arms is the light of all those who gave her their strength.

Perhaps that is what the Cham carvers wanted to leave in stone: not victory, but faith in the light.

And that light, though a millennium has passed, still stands there on the coast of Vietnam, looking out at the blue sky.