***The **Widow **Goddess ***
Dhumavati is ugly, unsteady, and angry. She is tall and wears dirty clothes. Her ears are ugly and rough, she has long teeth, and her breasts hang down. She has a long nose. She has the form of a widow. She rides in a chariot that has a banner on top decorated with a crow emblem. Her eyes are fearsome, and her hands tremble. In one hand she holds a winnowing basket, and with the other hand she makes the gesture of conferring boons. Her nature is rude. She is always hungry and thirsty and looks unsatisfied. She likes to create strife, and she is always frightful in appearance.1
Dhumavati has two hands, which hold a skull bowl and a spear. Her complexion is black, she wears ornaments made of snakes, and her dress is made of rags taken from the cremation ground.2
The goddess should be imagined in the following way. Her complexion is like the black clouds that form at the time of cosmic dissolution. Her face is very wrinkled, and her nose, eyes, and throat resemble a crow’s. She carries a broom, a winnowing fan, a torch, and a club. Her face has a venomous expression. She is very old, and she wears the plain clothes of a mendicant. She has disheveled hair, and her breasts are dry and withered. She is without mercv. She frowns.3
Nirṛti, Jyeṣṭhā, and Alakṣmī
Dhumavati is barely known outside the Mahavidyas. If she had an independent cult prior to her inclusion in the group, we know nothing about it. However, Dhumavati bears striking similarities to certain goddesses who appeared very early in the Hindu tradition and who had cults or myths prior to and separate from the Mahavidyas; some contemporary authors identify Dhumavati with them. In particular, Dhumavati is said to be the same as Nirrti, Jyestha, and Alaksmi.4 All three of these goddesses, as we shall see, are inauspicious, dangerous, and avoided by people.
Nirrti is known in the earliest Vedic text, the Rg-veda, as a dangerous and inauspicious goddess. Just one hymn mentions her (10.59), and its concern is to seek protection from her or to ask that she be driven away. She is equated with death, bad luck, and destruction. The hymn sums up Nirrti’s nature very well. After four verses asking the gods for renewed life, wealth, food, glorious deeds, youth, and continued long life, the following refrain is invoked: “Let Nirrti depart to distant places.” That is, Nirrti is identified with the opposites of the blessings sought: she is decay, need, anger, cowardice, decrepitude, and death.
Later Vedic literature describes Nirrti in more detail and mentions her more frequently than does the Rg-veda. She is said to be dark, to dress in dark clothes, and to receive dark husks as her share of the sacrifice,5 although one passage says that she has golden locks.6 She lives in the south, the direction of the kingdom of the dead,7 is associated with pain,8 and is repeatedly given offerings with the specific intention of keeping her away from the sacrificial rituals and from the affairs of people in general. Nirrti continues to be known in the later Hindu tradition. Her nature has not changed; she is still associated with negative qualities and bad luck.
The goddess Jyestha also appears very early in the Hindu tradition.9 She seems to have enjoyed a quite widespread cult during some periods. Many images of her have been found, and during the seventh and eighth centuries she seems to have been widely known in South India.10 In physical appearance she bears some similarities to Dhumavati. She is described as having “large pendulous breasts descending as far as her navel, with a flabby belly, thick thighs, raised nose, hanging lower lip, and is in colour as ink.“11 She is black, or sometimes red, holds a lotus and a waterpot, and sometimes makes the sign of protection. She wears many kinds of ornaments, as well as a *tilaka *(an ornamental mark on her forehead), which identifies her as a married woman. Her hair is usually braided and piled on top of her head or wound around her head. She has a banner depicting a crow. Sometimes a crow stands next to her. She rides a donkey or is drawn in a chariot by lions or tigers. She carries a broom.12
According to the *Liriga-purana, *she was born when the gods and demons churned the ocean to obtain the nectar of immortality. She was given in marriage to the sage Dussaha, who soon discovered that his unattractive wife could not bear the sound or sight of any kind of pious activity. When he complained to Visnu, Visnu told Dussaha to go with his wife only to places where inauspicious things occur—hence Jyestha’s popular epithet Alaksml, “she who is inauspicious.” Among the places specifically mentioned as appropriate residences for her are homes where family members quarrel and elders eat food while disregarding the hunger of their children. Eventually Dussaha abandoned Jyestha. She complained to Visnu that she could not sustain herself without a husband, and he dictated that she would be sustained by offerings from women.13 Although the text does not say so, it is probably understood that Jyestha will not enter the homes of those who propitiate her. It is also significant, as a link between Jyestha and Dhumavatl, that her name means “elder” or “eldest.” Dhumavati, as we shall see, is usually shown as an old woman.
Alaksml, the third goddess with whom Dhumavati is identified by contemporary authors, is mentioned as early as the *Sri-sukta, **a *very early hymn in praise of the goddess Sri. In that hymn, Sri is asked to banish her sister, Alaksmi (w. 5, 6, and 8).14 Alaksmi is said to appear in such inauspicious forms as need, poverty, hunger, and thirst. Laksml, or Sri, is her exact opposite, and the two do not dwell in the same place at the same time; by their natures they are incompatible and are unable to exist where the other is present. Alaksmi is described as “an old hag riding an ass. She has a broom in her hand. A crow adorns her banner.“15 The crow and the broom, as we shall see, are associated with Dhumavatl.
The contrast between Alaksmi and Laksml is dramatically evident in the festival of Dlvali (also known as Dlpavali) and the rituals and practices leading up to it. The ghosts of the dead are said to return during the three days before Dlvali, which takes place in the autumn on the night of a new moon.16 The demon Bali emerges from the underworld to rule for three days, and goblins and malicious spirits are abroad, including Alaksml.17 People invoke Laksml to drive these spirits away and light lamps to frighten the demons. In general, evil spirits are exorcised, especially Alaksml, who is believed to have reigned on earth during the past four months, when the gods were sleeping. In addition to the lighted lamps, which Alaksmi dislikes, people bang pots and pans or play on instruments to frighten her off.18 On another occasion in Bengal, an image of Alaksmi is made and ceremoniously disfigured by cutting off her nose and ears, after which an image of Laksml is installed to signify the triumph of good luck over bad in the future.19
In reading descriptions of DhumavatI, it is clear that she shares many characteristics with Nirrti, Jyestha, and Alaksml. Like Nirrti and Alaksml, she is associated with poverty and need, or is said to be poor herself; with hunger and thirst, or is said to be constantly hungry and thirsty; and with inauspicious things and bad luck. Like Nirrti and Jyestha, she is sometimes said to have a dark complexion. Like Jyestha and Alaksmi, she is said to have a banner with a crow on it and, sometimes, to carry a broom. Like Jyestha, she causes quarrels and has a bad temper. And finally, like Alaksmi, she is described as an old hag and is said to rule during the four months prior to *sukla **ekadasi *(the eleventh day of the waxing moon) of the month of Kartik, the date when Visnu wakes up after a four-month sleep. During the four months when Visnu is asleep, the soul lacks its usual luster, and auspicious events, such as weddings, are not performed.20
While the similarities between Dhumavatl and these three goddesses are unmistakable, and sometimes striking, and while it is likely that some modern writers are consciously patterning Dhumavatl on them, especially Alaksmi, there are some important differences between Dhumavati and her prototypes. One of the most distinguishing and consistent features of Dhumavatl is that she is a widow. Jyestha is married and has a *tilaka *and braided hair, signs of a married woman. I have found no mention of Nirrti or Alaksmi as widows.
Dhumavati is also described as ugly more often and more consistently than the other three goddesses. Her breasts are dried and withered, her face is nasty and wrinkled, her teeth are crooked or missing, her hair is gray and disheveled, and her clothes are dirty and worn.21 Although the other goddesses are certainly not said to be attractive, there is a stronger insistence on Dhumavati’s unattractive appearance in most written descriptions of her.
Dhumavatl is also described as fierce, frightening, and fond of blood, characteristics that are not emphasized in descriptions of the other three goddesses. Dhumavatl, for example, crushes bones in her mouth, and the sound is awful. She is also said to make the noises of drums and bells, which are frightening and warlike. She wears a garland of skulls, chews the corpses of the demons Canda and Munda, and drinks a mixture of blood and wine.22 Her eyes are glaring red, stern, and without tenderness. She carries Yama’s buffalo horn in her hand, symbolizing death. She dwells with widows, in ruined houses, and in wild, uncivilized, dangerous places such as deserts.23 Also, unlike the other three goddesses, Dhumavatl is related to Siva, albeit indirectly in some cases, and to his spouse Sati.
Finally, Dhumavati is not identified with these three goddesses in contexts where one might expect it. For example, in her *name **stotras *(hymns invoking her many names), where she is identified with numerous other goddesses, the names of Nirrti, Jyestha, and Alaksmi are not included, a remarkable omission. Dhumavati, as we shall see, also has certain important positive characteristics and is interpreted by some as an effective symbol or power for achieving spiritual knowledge and liberation. None of the other three goddesses has such positive aspects.
Dhumavati, then, probably stands in a tradition of inauspicious goddesses, like Nirrti, Jyestha, and Alaksmi, who symbolize the more difficult and painful aspects of life and reality generally. It is also possible, even likely, that Dhumavati has been consciously modeled on these three goddesses. That she is “the same,” however, seems to me to be an exaggeration, particularly in light of some of her characteristics that they do not share and in light of her positive aspects in the context of the Mahavidyas.
Origin Myths
There are two myths that tell of Dhumavati’s origin, and they suggest significant aspects of her character. The first says that she was born when Sati burned herself to death on her father’s sacrificial fire or was burned on that fire after she committed suicide by willing her own death. Dhumavati was created from the smoke of Sari’s burning body. “She emerged from that fire with blackened face; she appeared from that smoke.“24 Born in such circumstances, embodying both the mood of the insulted, outraged goddess Sati at the time of her death and her funeral smoke, Dhumavati has, in the words of the priest at the Dhumavati temple in Varanasi, “a sad frame of mind.” In this version, then, Dhumavati is a form of Satl, indeed the physical continuation of her in the form of smoke. She is “all that is left of Sati”: sad smoke.
The second myth that tells of Dhumavati’s origin says that once, when Siva’s spouse Sati was dwelling with him in the Himalayas, she became extremely hungry and asked him for something to eat. When he refused to give her food, she said, “Well, then I will just have to eat you.” Thereupon she swallowed Siva. He persuaded her to disgorge him, and when she did he cursed her, condemning her to assume the form of the widow Dhumavati.25 In this myth, Dhumavati is associated with Siva. She represents an aggressive, assertive aspect of Sati. When Siva does not acquiesce to her wish, she turns on him and consumes him. This echoes the theme in the origin myth of the Mahavidyas as a group, in which the goddesses are formed when Satl is thwarted by Siva and she grows angry. The myth underlines Dhumavati’s destructive bent. Her hunger is only satisfied when she consumes Siva, who himself contains or creates the world. One author, commenting on her perpetual hunger and thirst, which is mentioned in many places, says that she is the embodiment of “unsatisfied desires.“26 The myth also emphasizes that Dhumavati as a widow is inauspicious. This is compounded by the fact that she has also been cursed and rejected by her husband. Her status as a widow in the myth is curious. She makes herself one by swallowing Siva, an act of self-assertion, and perhaps independence. On the other hand, she does not assume the form of a widow until Siva curses her.
Symbol of Inauspiciousness as Transformative
There can be no question that Dhumavati is a figure who vividly symbolizes all that is conventionally affirmed to be inauspicious. She is often shown sitting in a chariot that has nothing to pull it, and she is a widow. In the context of Hindu society, she is a woman going nowhere, the ultimate symbol of all that is unlucky, unattractive, and inauspicious. She is a nobody socially; she has no place; she does not fit. The crow, which appears as the emblem on her banner or atop her chariot or as her mount *(vahana), *is a carrion eater and symbol of death. Indeed, she herself is sometimes said to resemble a crow. The *Prapaiicasarasara-sa?hgraha, *for example, says that her nose and throat resemble a crow’s.27 She lives in cremation grounds and is so depicted in a painting of her by a contemporary Varanasi artist (figure 31).28 In this picture she is surrounded by four cremation fires; on top of each one sits a crow. Her thousandname hymn says that her house is in the cremation ground, that she sits on a corpse, wears ashes from the cremation ground, and blesses those who haunt cremation grounds.29 She also wears a dress taken from a corpse in the cremation ground.30 She is said to be the embodiment of the *tamasguna, *the aspect of creation associated with lust and ignorance.31 Her thousand-name hymn says that she likes liquor and meat,32 both of which are *tdmasic. *According to a scholar of Tantrism in Varanasi, Dhumavati is “the aspect of reality that is old, ugly, and unappealing. The Mahavidyas are supposed to represent the diversity of reality, so we have in female form the young and beautiful forms and the ugly and fearsome forms.“33 Dhumavati is generally associated with all that is inauspicious: she dwells in areas of the earth that are perceived to be desolate, such as deserts, in abandoned houses, in quarrels, in mourning children, in hunger and thirst, and particularly in widows.34
The inauspicious, if not dangerous, overtones of Dhumavati as a widow also might be suggested by the Nepalese belief in *boksis, *a class of dangerous, inimical spirit beings who possess widows. To become a *boksi *it is necessary for a woman to sacrifice her husband or son.35 Widows are here associated with the murder of their husbands and sons, with willful evil. They are understood as bringing about their own inauspicious condition by despicable acts or as being vulnerable to possession by evil spirits who will prompt them to undertake such acts. Widows, by definition, are suspect as dangerous beings who are likely to cause trouble and who therefore should be avoided. As the divine widow, the symbolic widow par excellence, Dhumavati is to be feared.
Like the three inauspicious goddesses to whom she is sometimes compared or with whom she is sometimes identified, it seems that Dhumavati is primarily a being to keep at bay. Indeed, the majority of people are advised not to worship her, and married people, in particular, should keep her at a distance.36 That anyone would approach her, worship her, or cultivate a relationship with her seems, at first glance, highly unlikely.
In several places, however, it is said that she grants *siddhis *to those who worship her, that she rescues her devotees from all kinds of trouble, and that she grants all rewards and desires, including ultimate knowledge and liberation. The details for her worship are stipulated, and it must be assumed that at least some adepts worship her and cultivate a rapport with her, indeed, seek to become united with her and to realize her presence in themselves according to the logic of tantric *sadhand. *
An inkling of Dhumavati’s positive aspect is suggested in a comment made to me by a priest serving the Dasamahavidya *pandal *(a temporary shelter for worship) on S. N. Banerjea Street during Kali Puja in Calcutta. After telling me that she is a vision of old age and decay—that she is nearly blind and has loose, wrinkled skin, sagging breasts, and no teeth—and that furthermore she looks fierce, he said that inside she is tenderhearted. The priest at the Dhumavati temple in Varanasi, Panalal Gosvami, after telling me about all the inauspicious aspects of the goddess, and emphasizing that she should not be approached by happily married men like me, said that she gives “anything the devotee wants,” which he said was unusual among deities. He also said that her worship instills a feeling of wanting to be alone and a distaste for worldly things. In this vein, he said, her worship is appropriate for world renouncers. He also said that Dhumavati is partial to unmarried people and to those who have been widowed. He insisted that only unmarried people could withstand her great power and successfully spend a night alone in her temple. For a married person to do this, he said, would result in death.
These comments are suggestive. According to this priest, Dhumavati attracts and probably encourages and reinforces a certain kind of independence, or solitariness, that is experienced outside marriage. Whether this solitariness implies and affirms independence is not clear. It is important to remember, though, that the highest stages of the spiritual quest in many traditional Hindu texts can only be undertaken alone, after the aspirant has left home and family. It is also important to realize that many of the most pious Hindus one sees today in India are widows who have vowed to spend the rest of their lives undertaking pilgrimages to sacred centers or performing religious rituals at such sites. In most respects these women are living the life of the traditional Hindu world renouncer. Indeed, one text says that Dhumavati wears a “dress like a mendicant’s.“37
The priest’s comment that Dhumavati instills a distaste for worldly things also relates to the highest stages of the spiritual quest in traditional Hinduism. The world renouncer seeks to achieve a frame of mind that does not covet the comforts and joys of the worldly life, a frame of mind in which he or she is content with what comes to hand, with minimal food, clothing, and shelter. Like Dhumavati herself, who in the form of smoke is ever moving, never still, the traditional *sannyasi *wanders the world, never remaining in one place for more than a few days.
Why Dhumavati in particular might be effective in instilling these kinds of feelings or bringing about a frame of mind that is indifferent to the world is perhaps explained in the same way as the symbolism of the goddess Kali and the logic that underlies the *panca **tattva *ritual (the ritual of the five forbidden things): Dhumavati is able to inculcate indifference to the world because she so unambiguously reveals the negative aspects of life. Like Kali, with whom she is sometimes identified,38 she forces her worshipers to acknowledge the inherent miseries of existence and thus encourages an indifference to or distaste for the world. In the logic of the *panca **tattva *ritual, according to which it is spiritually transformative to confront what is forbidden, Dhumavati may be understood as a dramatic symbol of all that is socially rejected. To seek to identify with her by undertaking her worship is to partake of the “forbidden” and to realize that it is primarily a manifestation of false human categories, that underlying what is thought to be pure and impure, auspicious and inauspicious, is a unity that transcends such artificial dichotomies. Beyond desire for worldly blessings, beyond avoidance of what is thought to be polluting and dangerous, is indifference to these distinctions, is the knowledge of the ultimate, which is without name and form.
In a more positive vein, as a socially marginal being for whom worldly concerns are past, Dhumavati encourages spiritual awakening. Although others may consider the widow unfortunate, she is free to undertake spiritual pursuits, such as pilgrimage, that were difficult or impossible in her younger, socially responsible days. For women whose marriages prove oppressive, the widow may be a liberating figure. Like the traditional world renouncer, she is outside society and free of its constraints and obligations.
Dhumavati is often said to be manifest in Mahapralaya, the great dissolution of the universe at the end of the great cosmic age. In the *Prapancasarasara-saingraha *she is said to have a complexion that is “black like the accumulated clouds during dissolution.“39 In her thousand-name hymn she is called She Whose Form is *Pralaya, *Who Is Occupied with *Pralaya, *Who Creates and Causes *Pralaya, *and Who Walks About in Pralaya.40 One author says that she appears at the end of time, when even Mahakala, Siva himself, has disappeared. Since she is alone, she appears as a widow and in this form represents “the Power of Time, outside Time and Space.“41 Another scholar says that Dhumavati “personifies the destruction of the world by fire, when only smoke from its ashes remains.“42 Beyond name and form, beyond human categories, alone and indivisible, as the great dissolution, she reveals the nature of ultimate knowledge, which is formless and knows no divisions into good or bad, pure and impure, auspicious and inauspicious.
The Dhūmāvatī Temple in Varanasi
Dhumavati temples are few and far between. In Varanasi I visited one of these rare temples on several occasions.43 Although the central image there is covered with clothing, the priest assured me that it represents Dhumavati. He described her as a widow, riding a chariot; in three of her hands she holds a winnowing fan, a broom, and a pot, and with the fourth she makes the fear-not *mudra. *The image is of black stone with large eyes and red lips. She receives as offerings the usual things, such as flowers and fruit, but also likes liquor, *bhang *(a form of hashish), cigarettes, and meat. Blood sacrifices are performed occasionally at this temple. She does not like offerings burnt in a fire that is not smokey, so the priest said he is always careful to create a lot of smoke. She also likes smoke from incense, offerings, and cremation fires. Smoke attracts her because it suggests destruction. She herself, the priest said, exists in the form of smoke, and like smoke she drifts everywhere at will.
Paintings of the other Mahavidyas adorn the inner walls, although some have been effaced. Matarigi, Chinnamasta, Sodasl, Bhuvaneśvarī, and Bagalamukhi still remain. The priest said the temple exists on the spot *(pitha) *where a piece of Sati’s body fell to earth and was founded a long time ago by the sage Dhurvasa, who had an irascible disposition, appropriate for a devotee of Dhumavati, who causes such irascibility in those who worship her. The priest said that the goddess tends to be in a sad frame of mind and is quarrelsome, that her lips are red because they are covered with blood, and that she is the same as Smasana-kali (Kali who lives in the cremation ground). The priest said that world renounces and *tdntrikas *worship at this temple and implied that Dhumavati is partial to them. He also insisted that married people, like me, should not cultivate a relationship with Dhumavati, as she produces in her devotees a desire to be alone, inappropriate for a married person; she has an affinity for unmarried people. The priest himself, however, is married and has five children.
Despite the priest’s comments about the typical worshipers being single and the goddess preferring this, the regular flow of visitors to the temple on the occasions when I was there consisted primarily of married men and women; I saw very few widows, though one might assume that widows would feel a special affinity to this goddess. It is difficult to imagine that people who attend the temple do not, on occasion, ask for the usual worldly favors: children (male children, usually), good fortune, a good marriage partner for their children, success on exams and in business, and so on. Indeed, the priest admitted that most of the regular worshipers are locals and that stories of the goddess’s grace are common among these people.
As the priest described Dhumavati’s local significance, it became clear that she plays the role of a guardian deity, or village deity, who looks after the people of her locale first and foremost and whose lives she supports with worldly blessings. It is also interesting to note that a Siva *lirigam *is enshrined directly behind the image of Dhumavati, implying the presence in the temple of Siva and all that he represents. When I asked about the *liriga?n, *I was told that, although it represents Siva, it does not indicate that he is married to Dhumavati. It is an independent shrine that arose at the same time that the Dhumavati temple appeared. It is also interesting to see that both inside and outside the temple are images of a lion, the vehicle *(vahana) *of Durga in her various manifestations. The *lirigam *and the lion associate Dhumavati with the creative male power of Siva and the demon-slaying, dharma-supporting role of the goddess. These two aspects of Dhumavati, as Siva’s consort and as a manifestation of Durga, are both clearly present in her *nama **stotras, *where many epithets identify her with Parvatl or Satl or as a slayer of demons.
The priest at her temple said that Dhumavati appears in many forms and read me sections of her hymns to illustrate this. In the morning she appears as a young maiden, at noon as a married woman (her image was usually draped in a red *sari, *the color for a married woman), and in the evening as a widow. In this public temple cult, it is clear that Dhumavati has taken on an approachable character. She is no longer simply the inauspicious, dangerous goddess who can be approached only by heroic tantric adepts. Here she is a neighborhood deity who favors and protects those who live near her and seek her shelter and blessing. Indeed, a benign, approachable, even auspicious facet of Dhumavati is clear in her thousand-name hymn. She is frequently said to bestow favors, and in many pictures of her she makes a boon-conferring gesture. Her thousand-name hymn says that she lives in the midst of women and is worshiped by women (w. 80-81), and her hundred-name hymn says that she bestows children (v. 16).44
Unusual Portraits of Dhūmāvatī
Among the many pictures I have seen of Dhumavati and the many descriptions I have read of her, three relatively recent paintings are striking, suggesting facets of the goddess that are not usually apparent. One painting is by the eighteenth-century painter Molaram of Himachal Pradesh (figure 29), another is from an eighteenth-century illuminated Nepali manuscript (figure 30), and the third, done around 1915, is by a Varanasi artist, Batuk Ramprasad (figure 31).
Molaram’s painting of Dhumavati shows her on a chariot being pulled by two enormous birds. Although they are not crows, their hooked beaks suggest carrion-eating birds, perhaps buzzards or vultures, which would be appropriate to Dhumavati’s generally inauspicious associations. She holds a large winnowing basket in her left hand, and her right hand is raised, perhaps in the gesture of conferring boons. She has fangs, and her tongue lolls out in the fashion of Kali and Tārā. None of this is unusual for Dhumavati (except for the lolling tongue). What is striking about the picture is the elaborate ornamentation of the goddess. She wears bracelets, earrings, armbands, a necklace, and a pendant. She also wears elegant clothes. Her breasts are not pendulous but high and round. She is portrayed as young and full of life. Her appearance contrasts sharply with descriptions of her as ugly, withered, and wearing the soiled clothes of a widow.
The Nepali painting of Dhumavati is equally uncharacteristic, if we take the descriptions in her *dhyana *mantras to be normative. In this striking picture, Dhumavati stands, legs apart as if striding, on a peacock, which in turn rests on a lotus. She is naked except for a necklace of pearls and a circle of pearls crowning her hair. Her yoni is clearly exposed. Her breasts are high and not pendulous. Her hair is light in color and elaborately braided. She is looking at herself in a mirror, which she holds in her left hand. She is encircled by a ring of fire, which is a typical feature of Nepali iconography and many represent cremation fires. This image bears no similarities to any of Dhumavati’s *dhyana *mantras with which I am familiar. In this image she conveys a rather erotically alluring presence.
In the painting by Batuk Ramprasad, Dhumavati is again pictured in a style that deviates markedly from her *dhyana *mantras and from most depictions of her with which I am familiar. She is dressed in white and sits astride a huge crow. Surrounding her are what appear to be cremation fires, with a crow sitting on top of each one. Her complexion is black, and she holds a trident, sword, winnowing fan, and bowl in her four hands. Her breasts are somewhat pendulous. Again, what is striking is that she is heavily adorned with ornaments—bracelets, armlets, anklets, toe rings, earrings, a nose ring, necklace, and pendant—and is wearing an elegant, diaphanous upper garment and a gold-hemmed lower garment, hardly the dress of a widow.
What might be the significance of these paintings? It is possible that there is another tradition, which I have not been able to find, in which Dhumavati is not a widow and is not described as ugly and clothed in soiled, worn garments. Barring this, a plausible interpretation of the paintings might well relate to the reputation of widows as dangerous to men. Attractive young widows, who in most upper castes are prevented from remarrying, are considered particularly threatening. Because her husband has died, the widow is a woman who has lost her social identity, at least from the point of view of the Hindu law books. From the male perspective, she is a social misfit, and if she is attractive and still in her childbearing years, she represents a temptation. She might also be understood to have strong, unsatisfied sexual longings, particularly in light of the claim made in many (male authored) texts that females are sexually insatiable. In short, the widow is understood to be sexually tempting to males. A saying popular in Varanasi captures this: “Widows, bulls, stairs, and Sannyasis / If you can save yourself from these, / for you awaits the liberation of Kashi.“45 Widows here are put on a par with such notorious dangers in Varanasi as wandering bulls, dilapidated stairs at the bathing ghats, and unscrupulous “holy men.”
Hints that Dhumavati possesses sexual attractiveness and allure can be found in her thousand-name hymn. She is said to give enjoyment (v. 10), to be completely beautiful (v. 15), to be lovely (v. 20), and to be doeeyed (v. 71). She is also said to create dance and to be a leader of dancers (w. 76-77) and to be adorned with new garlands, clothes, and ornaments (w. 77-78). She is also called She Whose Form Is Rati (either Kamadeva’s wife or, literally, “sexual intercourse,” v. 82) and is said to enjoy sexual intercourse, to be present where sexual activity is, and to be occupied with sex (w. 81-83). She is also said to have disheveled hair, which suggests a certain wildness, perhaps sexual wildness (v. 8), to like liquor and to be intoxicated (w. 87-88), to be worshiped by intoxicated people (v. n2), and to partake constantly in the five forbidden things *(panca **tattva) *(v. Q2).46
Her generally ugly, decrepit, inauspicious, cranky, cronelike nature, then, is tempered or even offset by other qualities suggested in this hymn. In particular, she is said to be beautiful and to have erotic power, aspects of Dhumavatl that are featured in the three paintings. While these contrasting qualities may reflect the common tendency to portray a goddess, particularly in her thousand-name hymn, as “complete,” as having many facets, both terrible and benign, the mention of erotic qualities may also suggest the sexual appeal, and perhaps sexual danger, of widows.