Tara

Published on 17th March, 2019, in Mid-day. In Hindu astronomy, the sky is divided into 28 parts, or nakshatras, based on 28 different constellations, one of which is supposed to have disappeared so effectively that there remain only 27. These constellations or houses are visualised as goddesses. It is said that the moon god was married to all of them, but he preferred only one of his wives, which is the reason the 28th wife disappeared. The remaining 26 complained to their father, who got so angry with the moon god for preferring one wife over the others, that he cursed the moon god with ..

Published on 2nd September, 2018, in Mid-day A thousand years after the Buddha's nirvana, Buddhists finally acquired a goddess of (almost) equal stature to the Buddha. Before this, the only goddess who was very prominent in Buddhist literature was Shri or the Goddess of fortune, clearly included within the Buddhist iconography by the lay people. However, a 1,000 years later, the need for a woman to be part of the Buddhist pantheon was felt greatly, and so emerged Tara. Tara's entry into the Buddhist pantheon was a very slow process. It began in many ways, with the rise in Mahayana Buddhism, about 500 years after ..