In another Hinduism thread I said to Cub that I’d start a thread on Santoshi Ma. There’s a time limitation on me so in fact I’ll just give a brief overview of part of an article I have. (No doubt an online search would prove interesting.)
In “The Elephant God and His Daughter” by Paul B. Courtright (July 1987, in “The World and I”) Courtright goes into Ganesh and Santoshi Ma, and this is just a quick summation of the facts / comments on Santoshi Ma.
A very interesting deity since she was only “invented” recently – the impression is the mid-20th century and perhaps as early as the 1960s? I don’t know if Cub or anyone knows that Santoshi Ma was revered earlier? Santoshi Ma is the daughter of Ganesh, but unmarried, so is a Hindu version of the Virgin. “She combines two crucial associations of women and power: power that comes from restraint and power that comes from nurturing.” Her main characteristic is her great concern for the mundane well-being of her devotees (she looks after the minor matters). The two rituals toward her are vrata performed every Friday until a wish is fulfilled from the devotee; vrata consists of fasting and offering raw sugar and chick-peas to her image.
Does this conform to what practising Hindus know and do?
Two interesting aspects of her are firstly, how as a recent (it seems?) deity, she became well-known through modern means of mass communication. In fact, unlike the ancient deities who are written about in Sanskrit, anonymous books began appearing about her written in modern Indian languages. Then knowledge of her spread in the 1960s through chain mail! If you received a letter about her you had to pass it on to so many others or such-and-such would happen to you. But above all, 1975 saw the release of the film about her, still repeated, “Jai Santoshi Ma”, a typical Bollywood with sudden dances etc., but a complex and moving plot of the involving the benevolent goddess. Particularly from 1975 she became revered, even supplanting other worship.
Santoshi Ma seems to appeal in particular to middle-class and lower middle-class women in urban areas. Her sudden rise seems to parallel a desire for these women to be free of the hierarchical system apparent in some aspects of Hindu society. In other words, she is almost “the” feminist” deity.
Courtright, in 1987, pondered that with her swift rise to fame, there might soon appear monasteries (or nunneries?) devoted to her. I wonder if this has occurred?
I've only got this and more from reading, and wonder what actual Hindus can add, or if there are inaccuracies here? Is worship to her still growing?
Of course, it's a fascinating case since we can see its origins and how the worship toward a goddess has first begun, but this time also using the mass media for swift promulgation.
Is she a major figure of worship in Britain I wonder?
Love and Light,
Venetian
RE: Santoshi Ma
Hi David
Thanks for all this information. I found this website: http://reli350.vassar.edu/mason/film.html which pretty well echoes what you've already said.
You ask:
Courtright, in 1987, pondered that with her swift rise to fame, there might soon appear monasteries (or nunneries?) devoted to her. I wonder if this has occurred?
and I have to say that IME ashrams (I presume that is what's meant by 'monasteries') don't grow around the gods as such, but rather around a teacher or saint (guru). I certainly don't know of any dedicated to Santoshi Ma. In point of fact, in the south I don't believe that Santoshi Ma figures that much in day to day temple worship. As I said earlier, I first encountered her in Roger Housden's book (an excellent introduction to Sacred India BTW) and then she popped up again in pujas and bhajans in Amma's ashram in Kerala. When I asked the priests what she represented they said 'She is the Goddess of Happiness' - so I suppose you can't ask for more than that.
I expect she figures more in North India, the movie after all was in Hindi (I presume) and that is not widely spoken in the South.
But I do like your theory that she was just hiding in the wings and then used the movie as a vehicle to make herself known to the public! I've just remembered that, in the south, you can make the comment 'santosham' to mean 'very happy with this'. Presumably that's where she gets her name from. But I never realised that she is Ganesh's daughter: again that places her in the North as Ganesh is a bachelor in the South!
Love
Sunanda xxx
RE: Santoshi Ma
Sunanda, hi,
The info on that link is very interesting, and yes, I'd been thinking along the same lines regarding fiction and reality. Of course, a sceptic could claim that many deities of religions, if they are not historical figures, are fictitious. Some even make that claim wholly or in part of Jesus and have on these forums. But I didn't want to seem dismissive and an open-minded approach could say that devotion to Santoshi Ma, despite how she came to the fore, is "hitting the target" for any of three reasons:
1. Worship to a goddess, even if fictitious, will go to the feminine part of God anyway and is never lost, and will even be answered.
2. An extrapolation of that would be that perhaps (as I believe) there are untold beings "up there", so given the rise of a "fictitious" Santoshi Ma, one would come down and actually take on the role, receiving the worship and responding.
3. Or as you and the link suggest, the outlets such as the movie were used to make her known.
Yes BTW, she's a northern Indian phenomenon. The article I have pins down in detail where she "caught on".
Good point on ashrams and that they're going to need a physical figure in order to happen. It would take someone to come along as a "teacher of Santoshi Ma" or such - but it probably won't happen as she isn't intended to be one of the main deities such as you'd give up your life to in an ashram.
I'd never thought of that - Ganesh doesn't have a consort? Would you say he's an eligible batchelor? 😀
Edit to add: From the one article I've read, I gather that the feminist aspect is important, and Santoshi Ma couldn't have arisen 100 years ago. She seems to give the non-rural ladies of northern India a feeling of greater worth, and someone to go to, though she's not restricted to the ladies.
Also, the link emphasises how such films are a "ritual" in the Hindu context, not entertainment. This is true according to other articles I have. Remember that there were two screen versions of The Mahabharata? One was the very long Indian 'soap' with poor production, and there was a much shorter Western production. A Western scholar sat with a Hindu family through all of these and noted: (1) that the Indian version was indeed watched as though partaking in a ritual, (2) the family were aghast at many "errors" in the Western version that a Westerner would never pick up on - such as "He should not be wearing that colour because the colour represents --------- [whatever]!" and etc., etc.
V xxx
RE: Santoshi Ma
Hi David,
Lovely to continue our chat about Santoshi Maa! I couldn't find the complete article you mention (subscription only), but will look into finding it.
the impression is the mid-20th century and perhaps as early as the 1960s? I dont know if Cub or anyone knows that Santoshi Ma was revered earlier?
If my mum's recollection is correct, then Santoshi Maa was revered as early as the 1940s when she was a child. This would have been in East Africa, so the Goddess' influence may have flown the boundaries of India very early. Perhaps knowledge of Her travelled with the Indian migrant workers who moved to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Her main characteristic is her great concern for the mundane well-being of her devotees (she looks after the minor matters).
Far from it. My experience of Her has been of a deity providing assistance in extreme circumstances. She tests Her devotees' love for Her very strictly (e.g if you eat sour foods then you will feel Her wrath - on that basis not sure I'd have liked to receive a chain mail regarding her [&:]). But once She's sure that you're sincere in your prayers, She helps in the most difficult situations and gives on the basis of very simple offerings. No need for years of intense jappam sitting under a bilwa tree! I think my mum turned to praying to Her in my childhood as she felt that life had gotten painfully difficult, and that if any deity could help, She would.
The two rituals toward her are vrata performed every Friday until a wish is fulfilled from the devotee; vrata consists of fasting and offering raw sugar and chick-peas to her image.
We also used to read/hear a story about Her as part of my mum's puja, and the whole family could not eat sour foods in the house. That was quite difficult as most Gujarati cuisine involves pureed tomaotes, and as for breakfast cereals with added ascorbic acid . . . The gur and chickpeas would be placed over a copper container of water.
there might soon appear monasteries (or nunneries?) devoted to her. I wonder if this has occurred?
I've not come across any murthis of Her in temples in the UK or Gujarat, but I think a painting of Her is kept with the other Devis at the Gita mandir in Birmingham. If you [link= http://jaisantoshimaa.com/temples.asp ]*click here*[/link] you can see a list of some temples that exist in India. The majority seem to be in a couple of southern states in India. Whereabouts in the south do you visit, Sunanda? Perhaps worship of Her is not so widespread in India?
I don't think She has a huge following in this country, although you'd be likely to find Her picture in many households as many women gain so much comfort from praying to Her. As I mentioned in the other post, She's very much the patron saint of abused and neglected women who are seeking a comforting mother figure when they have left their own mothers far behind. Something that the same site I mention says is that there is no need to dedicate a temple to Her as She is everywhere and willing to help. Best place to have Gods and Goddesses reside is in your heart!
Jai Santoshi Maa
Love,
Cub
RE: Santoshi Ma
Great, thanks Cub. Fascinating.
Most 'academic study' on Hinduism - "on" it as opposed to carrying on within it as pandits - is done by Westerners who are either largely outsiders or even if, say Hare Krishnas, they may not know the whole of the real Indian experience. So your info is enlightening - such as Santoshi Ma in Africa in the 40s. That may place her back in India a fair way before that.
Meandering thought - if such a deity does "begin" where the name and personage wasn't known before, I wonder with who, and how, at the very beginning?