The two sides of a Hindu goddess

She is perhaps the most powerful goddess in Hindu mythology, as feared as she is revered, with millions of worshippers honoring her during ritual 10-day festivals every autumn and spring. She is prayed to during the best and worst of times, and she assumes pride of place in small household shrines and elaborate temples around the world.

Durga is also the subject of an exhibition at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena that explores how the goddess has been depicted throughout Asia and the Indian subcontinent, based on exhibitions dating back 2,000 years.

In the pantheon of Hindu gods and goddesses, the icons that most often come to mind are Vishnu, Siva and Brahma. But Durga is said to embody the feminine power of male gods, and she is a warrior as well as a protector.

“I’ve watched her being worshipped in my home from my childhood,” said Pratapaditya Pal, the exhibition co-curator and an expert on South Asian art as well as a research fellow at the museum. “She is almost a personal goddess for me.”

Some of the approximately 70 artworks in “Durga: Avenging Goddess, Nurturing Mother” come from Pal’s personal collection; others are part of the Norton Simon or were borrowed from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art or other sources. They range from the 1st century BC -- a terracotta plaque with an engraving of Durga that originated in West Bengal -- to a richly executed tableau produced in 1989.

That clay, pith and fabric work was created by Ananta Malakar, an artist who also lives in West Bengal and specializes in tableaux. The show also includes sandstone statues from Cambodia dating to 1100, gorgeously detailed lithographs and other works on paper, 18th century painted figures on glass and bronzes.

“An effort was made to put Durga in a cultural context that people from non-Hindu backgrounds could understand,” said Susan Bean, curator of South Asian and Korean Art at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass. “There is so much artistic energy behind it.”

The opening and closing dates of the exhibition were timed to bridge the Durga Puja, or “prayer” ceremonies practiced by the goddess’ devotees twice a year, usually in late September or October, based on the Hindu calendar, and then again typically in March.

The events are steeped in folklore and tradition. At the end of the 10-day autumn observance, there is a final ritual at which -- in India, anyway -- tableaux of Durga are immersed in rivers where they are left to dissolve. Locally, at celebrations held by the Bengali Assn. of Southern California, which lent a colorful example to the exhibition, the tableau is locked away, signifying closure.

According to Pal, spring was originally the time of the major Durga Puja. But this was changed by the god Ram, who prayed to Durga in the fall before he set off on his legendary conquest of the demon Ravan, effectively altering the cycle. As a result, autumn remains the time for big, public worship, while every spring, devotees pray to Durga in the privacy of their homes and attend smaller functions at their temples.

At the far end of the exhibition galleries, a five-minute film illustrates the nature of the Durga Puja, which is as pious as it is celebratory. The tableaux, which are three-dimensional and intricately detailed, are at the core of the closing event. Made of bamboo, straw, vegetable and mineral pigments, and other materials, they have been painted and embellished. The goddess is dressed in silk and satin and decorated with costume jewelry. She rides a lion, is attached to the evil titans she has slain, and is accompanied by her children, among them Ganesh and Lakshmi, who are also revered in the culture.

“The overall theme is the dual nature of the goddess -- safe and nurturing and also unbridled and avenging, like a wild child,” said Christine Knoke, assistant curator at the Norton Simon and co-curator for the show.

In putting the exhibition together, Knoke also wanted to portray the multitude of versions of Durga coming out of numerous countries, including India, Cambodia and Nepal. Durga might be seen with multiple arms or with just two. Often, she is standing alone; other times, she is seated on her lion. She is portrayed gently caressing a child or attacking the demon known as Mahisa -- who appears as a massive buffalo -- with spears and tridents. In many examples, she has some or all of the accouterments for which she is known: the trident, bell, disc, sword and conch shell.

The exhibition is arranged thematically in sections, shifting from Durga as the iconic goddess and loving wife and mother to Durga the fierce. A final section covers modern-day worship of Durga. She is given numerous appellations in addition to Durga; her loving aspect is called Parvati or Uma, but as the warrior she is known as Durga, Kali or Chamunda. The latter two are usually depicted as gory and bloodthirsty, with fangs and long red fingernails and bedecked with garlands of severed heads and limbs.

But Durga is most often simply referred to as “Ma” or “Mother.” In almost every depiction, she is embodied as a fertile, abundant and full-figured woman with buoyant breasts and curved hips, essentially a traditional incarnation of the mother.

“Durga is absolutely central in Hindu mythology,” said Gerald James Larson, professor emeritus of Indian cultures and civilizations at Indiana University Bloomington. “Goddesses were widespread all over India in terms of the older traditions, and Durga represents the coming together of all these traditions into one major goddess figure.”

Larson added that the emphasis on the matriarch in Hindu religion is something not generally seen in other cultures.

“In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the female is totally repressed,” he said. “One way to think of the goddess is to think of shakti, the female power of the god. The male god is considered to be passive in his energy and power, and then Durga becomes the personification of this shakti.”

Certain pieces in the exhibition clearly and poignantly point to that. There is an ornate copper chest, created in late 18th century Tibet, that shows Durga with her child and lion, as well as a dancing skeleton. Another 18th century piece, this time an Indian watercolor, depicts her as Kali, known for her coal-colored skin and serpent tongue, corpses of her enemies beneath her and the gods Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma praying to her.

In yet another sculpture, a bronze dating to 11th century India, she is calm and lovely, adorned with a crown and jewels.

“In Bengal especially, Durga and Kali have a very special place,” said Bean, of the Peabody Essex. “She is the creation of the energy of the gods.”

Bean added that although goddesses might generally be perceived to be “benign and passive and sweet things,” Durga is often anything but.

“She is a destroyer of evil and upholder of what is right in the cosmos,” she said.

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‘Durga: Avenging Goddess, Nurturing Mother’

Where: Norton Simon Museum,

411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena

When: Noon to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays, with hours extended until 9 p.m. Fridays.

Closed Tuesdays.

Ends: March 27

Price: $4 to $8

Contact: (626) 449-6840; www.nortonsimon.org