The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Navyanyaya
of these lunar months and concludes
with a festival dedicated to the god
Rama: Ram Navami in Chaitra and
Dussehra in Ashvin. Of the two, the fall
Navaratri is far more important. The fall
Navaratri is celebrated with fervor in the
Bengal region, where the Goddess is the
dominant regional deity. The Bengali
Navaratri is characterized by large processions
featuring elaborately decorated
clay images of the Goddess. These
images are commissioned by individuals,
businesses, trade unions, and neighborhood
associations. Having the best
image is a sign of great status. During
the weeks around Navaratri, Bengali
children get a holiday from school, state
workers get paid vacation from their
jobs, and the electricity supply
in Calcutta runs without interruptions—
a phenomenon dubbed the Navaratri
“miracle,” since during the rest of
the year shortages and blackouts
are common.
These Navaratri festivals are performed
to gain the favor of the Mother
Goddess, particularly in her powerful
forms such as Durga. During these nine
nights devotees (bhakta) perform a variety
of different rites. Some fast
(upavasa) and worship in their homes,
often consecrating temporary images of
the Goddess for use during this festival.
Devotees may also worship young girls
as manifestations of the Goddess, or
sponsor readings of the Devimahatmya,
the earliest and most important text for
the mythology of the Goddess. They may
also worship the Goddess in her form as
Navadurga, paying homage to a different
form on each of the nine nights.
Another common practice is to harvest
shoots of barley, which are sometimes
worn on the final day of the
festival. This practice hints at the festival’s
purpose since, among other things,
the Goddess represents the female
power of fertility and procreation. In
northern India, the spring festival
comes before the crops are planted.
Wearing sprouting grain is an attempt to
please the Goddess so the crop may
flourish. The fall Navaratri comes after
the harvest, when this promise of
fruition has been fulfilled, and is seen as
a time of thanksgiving for blessings
received. The Goddess also represents
the triumph of good over evil; the readings
of the Devimahatmya on these
occasions remind the listeners of the
Goddess’ wondrous deeds and assure
them of her continued protection.
Navyanyaya
(“new Nyaya”) A later branch of the
Nyaya philosophical school. The Nyaya
school was one of the six schools in traditional
Hindu philosophy, which flourished
in the early centuries of the first
millennium, but then lost its influence.
The Navyanyaya school developed in
late medieval times (15th–17th c.), in an
attempt to reinvigorate the school and
to resolve some of the problems with the
earlier Nyaya notion of inherence
(samavaya). The earlier Nyayas perceived
inherence as a weak relational
force that connected objects and their
qualities—for example, connecting the
color red with a particular ball and thus
making the ball red. It also connected
material objects—the force that held a
clay pot together once the two halves
had been pressed against each other.
Finally, inherence connected selves and
their qualities—one became happy
when inherence connected happiness
to one’s self, and unhappy when unhappiness
was connected.
This notion of inherence explained
many things in the perceivable world.
However, objections were raised against
the Nyayas’ insistence that inherence
was a single, universal property at work
in different places. According to this
criticism, a universal and eternal inherence
could link an object with any
property, including ones that contradict—the
color brown with the moon or
the appearance of a cow with a dog.
Other attacks questioned whether
inherence continued to exist after one of
the things it had been connecting was
destroyed. If it did not, opponents
claimed, then inherence was clearly
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