Bhagavati

In her anthropomorphic representations Taleju is usually represented as a form of the goddess that people in Bhaktapur in other contexts identify as "Bhagavati." This is a female form with many arms, clearly a dangerous goddess, but lacking any further identification (through location or specific iconographic features) as one of the "partial" goddesses.^[42] The representation identified as Bhagavati is also very often (in both temple and household images) that of the Devi of the Devi Mahatmya account in the form of the slayer of the buffalo Asura, that is, as Mahisasuramardini.

Bhagavati is a traditional title for what we have been calling the full goddess. She is equivalent to "Devi," to "Sakti," to "Prakrti^[*] " (Mani 1974, 113). For people in Bhaktapur, however, Bhagavati is a separate goddess, a divinity in her own right. She has three temples. All of them have Taleju staff priests as temple priests, and are closely connected with Taleju's internal rituals. One of these is housed at the Natapwa(n)la ("Nyatapola") Temple (fig. 10), a large five-tiered temple, one of the most striking traditional buildings in Nepal. The Natapwa(n)la goddess is in the same square as the main temple of the city's major male dangerous divinity, Bhairava, with whom she has an esoteric connection for the purpose of "controlling him." The story of the temple is presented in one of the chronicles (Wright [1877] 1972, 194f.):

Bhupatindra^[*] Malla built [in Bhaktapur] a three-storied temple, the length of which ran north and south, and placed in it, facing west, a Bhairava for the protection of the country, and the removal of sin and distress from the people. This Bhairava gave much trouble, and the Raja ,n consequence consulted many clever men, who told him that if the Iswari [goddess] of the Tantra Shastra [texts], whom the Bhairava respected, were placed near him, he would be appeased. He therefore, at an auspicious moment, laid the foundation of a five-stoned temple. . . . The pillars were of carved agras wood, and there were five stones of roofs. This temple is the most beautiful, as well as the highest in the whole city. In building it the Raja set an example to his subjects by himself carrying three bricks, and the people brought together the whole of the materials in five days. When the temple was finished he secretly placed in it a deity of the Tantra Shastra, who rides on Yama-raj whom no one is permitted to see, and who is therefore kept concealed.

This goddess has a secret name and form, and is supposed by some experts to be "Siddhi Laksmi" However, she is known publicly as "Bhagavati." The two other Bhagavati shrines in addition to their use by Taleju Brahmans have some local worshipers.

Bhagavati has only one minor processional festival, which had been inaugurated in Bhaktapur only some ten or fifteen years before this study. In spite of this sparse representation in public space, however, Bhagavati is one of the principle divinities of Bhaktapur. She is the most common local name for the goddess in her full power, in the form where she has incorporated the power of all lesser forms of the goddess. She is thought of as a warrior goddess, as most clearly portrayed in her Mahisasuramardini representation and legend (see section on principles of classification of dangerous goddesses, below). Her main concrete presence is in the household. Bhagavati is the name and form of the household image in which the Dangerous Goddess is worshiped in home puja s as one of the group of household gods. She is at the focus of home worship during the important household ritual components of the Mohani festival. Bhagavati is also the main deity worshiped in many Tantric puja s. She is also the secret Tantric family goddess, aga(n) dya: , of the majority of upper-status households (chap. 9). For Bhaktapur's people Bhagavati is the city's main protective goddess when they are thinking of the city as a whole, rather than the protection of its boundaries. For the Taleju priests she is sometimes conceived of as "Taleju's older sister," because they believe she long preceded Taleju in Bhaktapur's history and in legendary status. But she is also alternatively conceived of by them as Taleju's "assistant," for she protects the city at Taleju's wish and direction.