The appearance of warrior female deities in history.

[urmiladuhan]

I have noticed that female warrior deities such as Kali, Durga etc began to be prayed to at a much later period in history. Earlier, the concept of warrior female goddesses was almost non existent. What social factor/s could have led to the emergence of female warrior goddesses? Perhaps it is a sign of revolt against female suppression, or else perhaps other reasons. Your views please.

[swaich]

Interesting topic. Just asking - is there no mention of female deities warriors or not in the pre-vedic or early vedic period?

On revolt - my two cents is that putting females on a pedestal as warriors or goddesses has hardly guaranteed the required respect for females. So I am not sure if this is related to any female revolt against suppression.

[Samarkadian]

I have noticed that female warrior deities such as Kali, Durga etc began to be prayed to at a much later period in history. Earlier, the concept of warrior female goddesses was almost non existent. What social factor/s could have led to the emergence of female warrior goddesses? Perhaps it is a sign of revolt against female suppression, or else perhaps other reasons. Your views please.

They say past is the history and once I saw my grandmother in our fields lifting gobar in her hands n throwing at the man who was trying to encroach our fields. I was a small kid but surely she appeared like a warrior. Oh yes! her dress I can recall was Kurta, daman, dhathha . Thats it. And she was uttering - Dedh ka beej, pher dekhiye kheta ma n . That man never tried it again.

[urmiladuhan]

Well, let me tell what I have seen in museums. From Maurya period, we see dominance of Buddhist sculptures. Among the Hindu gods, kushana period shows shiva in the form of linga and the rest in Kushana period is again is dominated by Buddhist sculptures. In Gupta period, we get to see dominance of Hindu gods such as Vishnu, shiva and Parvati (but only as shiva's wife), surya etc. This trend continues upto Pratiharas in the north. The warrior form of female deities appear after this period as per my observation. I am a bit surprised that even Krishna's sculptures are rare upto Pratihara period.

Interesting topic. Just asking - is there no mention of female deities warriors or not in the pre-vedic or early vedic period?

On revolt - my two cents is that putting females on a pedestal as warriors or goddesses has hardly guaranteed the required respect for females. So I am not sure if this is related to any female revolt against suppression.

[urmiladuhan]

From Harappan times, we get female figurines which are considered mother goddess. Not in warrior pose at all.

Interesting topic. Just asking - is there no mention of female deities warriors or not in the pre-vedic or early vedic period?

On revolt - my two cents is that putting females on a pedestal as warriors or goddesses has hardly guaranteed the required respect for females. So I am not sure if this is related to any female revolt against suppression.

[bsbana]

What social factor/s could have led to the emergence of female warrior goddesses?

My speculation : Some of mother-goddess worshiper tribes started attributing warrior qualities to female deities(so they can save them from their enemy tribes), later these deities were adopted into mainstream Hinduism from local tribal culture.