Page:Durga Puja - With Notes and Illustrations.djvu/29

 have struck the daughter of Dyus (the Dawn) a woman difficult to vanquish.

As Hari, Vishnu, is the lord of day, and is the sun, so Siva, Saumya, is the lord of night, and is the moon. Indeed, Siva bears on his forehead the crescent moon, and as such interchanges places with Vishnu the lord of day. Both are however the lord of light, and Siva being light in a milder form i. e. borrowed light, is the lesser deity. Siva and Hari may however be said to be identical in many respects, and as such Lakshmi and Sarasvati the twin consorts of Hari are forms of Sakti, Durga, and as Siva's is the derived light from Hari, so conversely Sarasvati and Lakshmi are regarded the daughters of Durga. Siva as lord of night has been represented in the Tantras, which view things mystically, as the most terrific of the gods, and as night is the death of day, the gods, Siva is described in the Puranas as the Destroying Energy of the Divinity. Similarly the Tantras hare pursued the myth of the Gloaming as a form of Dawn, and have given numerous imaginary tales regarding the goddess Kali, a form of the Virgin, discovered by the Sun at the threshold of death, and therefore adorned with wreaths of skulls and like emblems of death. The ravens, which accompany this idol, have their counterpart in the constellation Corvus in the heavens which follows Virgo. It might be mentioned that the asterism Svati is held in the Tantras to be an auspicious junction star of the new moon for the worship of Kali.

In the Sastras Mahamaya as already observed is said to have come forth in the form of glory from the person of Vishnu and to have ascended the heavens, figuring like a