How many hands does Durga really have?
In Bengal, the Goddess is Dasapraharanadharini, holding 10 armaments in her 10 arms. But, in the world s first Red Book Sri Sri Chandi, she fights with her 18 arms. There is a fabulous inventory of the gifts that the gods gave her to lure her to the battlefield. However, a recent Bengali book on the Goddess confirms that, in the oldest statue of the Goddess, recovered in Uttar Pradesh, she has two arms, like any other human being. At Mathura, another statue portrays her as four-armed. But then, at other places, she is either an eight-armed, 100-armed or even a 1,000-armed goddess. Nobody knows why she is 10-armed in Bengal. How many names does the goddess have? A 1,001 names, if not more. Narada provides a mini list of 45 names from Parvati to Mayavati. Then there are endless regional variations. In Kashmir, she is Amba, in Gujarat Hingola, in Kanyakubja Kalyani, in Mithila Uma, in the south Ambika and in the west and Nepal Navrat. THE Bengal version of Durga s fight with the buffalo-m
