Miscellaneous Dangerous Goddesses

There are some dangerous goddesses in Bhaktapur of circumscribed present importance. Some of these are auxiliary forms associated with Taleju in the Taleju temple, and others are goddesses located elsewhere in the city, where they have some specific and limited functions.

Taleju temple contains a number of Tantric images of various degrees of secrecy. These include Mahesvari (whom we have mentioned above) represented by a stone, Guhesvari considered as secondary to the major Guhyesvari Devi pitha goddess at the Pasupatinatha shrine, and Dui Maj.. Dui Maju is said to be the goddess of an internal pitha in Taleju temple, and to be "Taleju's own pitha goddess." In the Padmagiri chronicle Dui Maju is said to be the lineage deity of a "caste" of Maithili invaders, and to have helped King Nanyadeva take possession of Bhaktapur. In time, the account says, when Harisimhadeva^[*] in turn captured Bhaktapur as "he had received immense wealth from Dwimaju Deva whom he regarded as his Penate [lineage god] [he] established a Devali Puja [lineage puja ] to her" (Hasrat 1970, 50, 52). The dim reflection of some historical reality distorted in the chronicle, and the special esoteric position of Dui Maj. now in Taleju temple suggest something of her possible historical identity.^[43]

Another important esoteric form associated with the Taleju temple is Ugracandi, who is represented in some of the events there during Mohani, and who is thought by some to have an esoteric relation to the Nine Durgas.

There are some goddesses represented in the collection of shrines and temples built by the Malla kings in proximity to their palace, which we will discuss below as "gods of the Royal Center." The two goddesses in this group, who have no relevance to the rest of the city, are Baccala^[44] and Annapurna^[*] .

Of the few miscellaneous goddesses scattered throughout the wider city, some have special functions, and others had some past function and meaning and are now dimly remembered as a shrine or image that has some residual power. Kulachimi (or Ku Laksmi) (located in the Tulá che(n) twa: ), identified as Laksmi's^[*] "older sister," is considered to be a "bad god."^[45] She is worshiped daily by an assigned temple priest, probably, in a pervasive idea about such deities, to keep her from doing harm.

The Palu(n)palu(n) goddess, identified with Kumari and represented by a stone, is located in the Inaco Twa:. It was popularly used in the past as part of a curing ritual for children—rice held first to a sick

child's head, was then brought to this shrine and offered to the goddess.

Sitala (Newari Si:tala), a goddess of frightening mien whose vehicle is a donkey, is found at the river at Hanman Ghat^[*] . She is the goddess thought to have been efficacious for curing or preventing smallpox. On the twelfth day^[46] after the first signs of infection people went there to pray for cure and for protection from disfigurement. She is a well-known goddess in South Asia and can produce smallpox as well as cure it (Stutley and Stutley, 1977, 278; Slusser 1982, vol. 1, p. 328). Bhaktapur's Sitala has a broken nose, reportedly broken by a father whose son died in spite of his prayers.

Another goddess with curative functions is represented by a hole with a stone at its bottom in the Inaco Twa:, which is identified as Balkumari. People go here to pray for the cure of someone with a bleeding nose or who is coughing up blood.

In the Sukhu Dhwakha neighborhood there is a goddess called the "Durupo" or "Durupwa:" goddess, literally the "breast" goddess. She is also considered to represent Draupadi, the wife of the five Pandava brothers of the Mahabharata epic, and to be at the same time one of the ten Tantric goddesses of the Mahavidya. These varied attributions attest to her historical interest, but she now has no function or worship. Another such historical remnant is the Tantric goddess, Chinnamasta, also one of the Mahavidya, but of no present significance.