Here Come The New Gods

Eternally in search of divine intervention, india is inventing brand new gods and goddesses or reinventing obscure folk deities. Who are they, and what do they promise?

- Damayanti Datta

THE HOUR OF GOD STARTED A tad too early for some in Mysuru. On September 18, just a day before Devi Durga commenced her divine journey to planet earth, over a hundred citizens set out on a mythic trip. Troops of motorbikes took off from the Dalit colony in Ashokapuram to shower flowers on an iconic statue at the top of the Chamundi Hills, towering over the panoramic skyline of the city: Mahishasura, the buffalo-demon.

Brightly painted, fiercely moustachioed, 12 feet tall, a sword in one hand and a serpent in the other, he was installed by Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, the last Maharaja of Mysuru, at the entrance of the ancient Chamundeshwari temple of goddess Durga in the 1940s. But this was the first time in memory that he received obeisance. “We are the moola nivasigalu, original settlers of Mysuru,” chanted his devotees. “He was not a demon but a good king who gave Mysuru its name. To us, he is God.”

As Durga puja gets off to a glittering start, the timeless enemy of the ten-armed warrior-goddess, slain by her in an epic battle of good and evil, jostles for space in the Hindu pantheon of 330 million deities. And he is not the only one. Quietly and privately, a whole lot of new gods and goddesses are gaining new clout and legitimacy. Who are they, what do they promise and why are they appearing?

WHO ARE THEY?