This October or about every October is the time in India of the navratras i.e. the days of worship of Goddess Durga, MahaGauri or MahaKali. The entire period of nine moon days is full of festivities, starting new ventures as the days are considered auspicious and Indian style prayers.
What I want to talk about is about the first of the nine days; its ruling deity is called Devi Shail-Putri where Hindi/Sanskrit word shail is rock or stone or mountain and similarly Putri means daughter and devi means Goddess so Shailputri would mean Goddess Daughter of the Rocks/Stone/Mountain. Nature worship is an ages old thing and probably worship of Shailputri is something similar.
Here I want to add my own interpretation of things: We all have come across the term 'son of the soil' for people or a person who is born and is an inhabitant of a local area and identifies strongly with it. Similarly can we say that someone born in the mountains of India, Tibet, China or elsewhere where there is a mountain is a Son of mountain/stone or he is a Shail-Putra. Here Putra means Son. Looking at the variety of locales in the world we can apply the same rule to people of the desert and say that they are Sons Of the desert or Desert-Putra or Maru-Putra. I am not sure of the Hindi word for desert but it could be 'maru' because 'marusthal' in Hindi means a desert.
Here I remember another story about Goddess Lakshmi of Indian Hindu religion. She is sometimes called Samudra-Putri or Goddess Daughter of the Seas/ Oceans. Lets apply it to the people who live in the plains be it river plains like plains of the river Ganges or simply a plain without a major river flowing through it. In this case the people could be called Mrida-Putra or Maidan-putra or literally the sons of the soil as 'mrida' is soil in Hindi. My knowledge is limited as i can not think of a sanskrit word for maidan. People of snow bound areas could be called Him-Putra or HemPutra as Him or Hem is snow or ice in Hindi.
Point to note here is that people in various locales are identified by local cultures and geographies like mountains, deserts, plains, plateaus and islands have a strong influence on the inhabitants. I don't know how far we can stretch the idea of Shailputri or Shail-Putra but it does have a focus when we come across a person of the mountains or the deserts or the plateaus.
Life is like that.
Happy & Auspicious Navratras to Everyone
What I want to talk about is about the first of the nine days; its ruling deity is called Devi Shail-Putri where Hindi/Sanskrit word shail is rock or stone or mountain and similarly Putri means daughter and devi means Goddess so Shailputri would mean Goddess Daughter of the Rocks/Stone/Mountain. Nature worship is an ages old thing and probably worship of Shailputri is something similar.
Here I want to add my own interpretation of things: We all have come across the term 'son of the soil' for people or a person who is born and is an inhabitant of a local area and identifies strongly with it. Similarly can we say that someone born in the mountains of India, Tibet, China or elsewhere where there is a mountain is a Son of mountain/stone or he is a Shail-Putra. Here Putra means Son. Looking at the variety of locales in the world we can apply the same rule to people of the desert and say that they are Sons Of the desert or Desert-Putra or Maru-Putra. I am not sure of the Hindi word for desert but it could be 'maru' because 'marusthal' in Hindi means a desert.
Here I remember another story about Goddess Lakshmi of Indian Hindu religion. She is sometimes called Samudra-Putri or Goddess Daughter of the Seas/ Oceans. Lets apply it to the people who live in the plains be it river plains like plains of the river Ganges or simply a plain without a major river flowing through it. In this case the people could be called Mrida-Putra or Maidan-putra or literally the sons of the soil as 'mrida' is soil in Hindi. My knowledge is limited as i can not think of a sanskrit word for maidan. People of snow bound areas could be called Him-Putra or HemPutra as Him or Hem is snow or ice in Hindi.
Point to note here is that people in various locales are identified by local cultures and geographies like mountains, deserts, plains, plateaus and islands have a strong influence on the inhabitants. I don't know how far we can stretch the idea of Shailputri or Shail-Putra but it does have a focus when we come across a person of the mountains or the deserts or the plateaus.
Life is like that.
Happy & Auspicious Navratras to Everyone
