Running head: The age of faith: Goddess Durga 1 The age of faith: Goddess Durga 7 The Age of Faith: Goddess Durga Poojan Patel National Louis University Abstract This essay describes the representational strategies used to visualize the Pratima (deity) of the goddess, Durga that the Hindus worship. The worship of goddess Durga among the Bengalis presents and represents culture, commodity, and identity and brings to the fore many more things or issues that have implications not only for a person but also for broader anthropological studies of people and culture linking global to the local. The Goddess Durga depicts the energy needed to overcome evil and also symbolizes the power we have over demons and standing strong over our challenges. Hinduism is a religion where people worship multiple gods. The gods' people worship come in many forms, and each has special meaning and purpose. The goddess Durga depicts the energy needed to overcome evil. All the people recognize the goddesses as their protectors and providers. According to the Hindu view, there are four purposes of life in the world, and all individuals should strive to get all four. Each person should target for righteous living (dharma), legal wealth (Kama), human and sexual love, and spiritual uplifting (moksha). Hinduism is an interesting religion to study since it incorporates all kinds of people and all kinds of beliefs. For the non-Hindus, it is difficult to understand how they worship several gods, the whole aspect is puzzling, but the Hindus believe that when a particular god has a single problem to sort out, it will be solved faster. Durga is a Hindu Goddess created from the attributes to the gods that Hindus worship. This was during the 12th century. She was formed to slay a powerful buffalo demon, Mahisha. It is bronze, and its height is 17.6cm. According to Malinar, Mahisha was worshiped in some sections of Hindus as one of the gods whereas in some parts he was a buffalo demon (2). The sculpture shows sixteen arms. Each of the arms in an array has a weapon thus creating kinetic energy to display power; the image is more illuminated in a dimly lit shrine. By her assembling the weapons of all gods and overcoming the demigod, who in some sectors was evil, Mahisha. Hinduism is a religion depicted as one of the religions in the world where there is worshipping of multiple gods. They come in many forms, and each has special meaning and purpose. The Goddess Durga depicts the energy needed to overcome evil. It also symbolizes the power we have over demons and standing strong over our challenges (Malinar 3). The artwork of the goddess Durga killing the buffalo demon represents her moment of victory on winning the battle. After cutting off the head of the bull, Durga pulls the demigod from the animal and swiftly stabs him by surprise, before he can even think of drawing a weapon. The perfe.