The Saktas: An Introductory And Comparative Study

The chief characteristics of Saktism are the idea of the deity as destroyer, its conception of God as Mother, and its attention to ceremonial. Each of these features can be paralleled in other forms of Hinduism, but nowhere are they so combined and emphasized as in this sect. The Saktas are the followers of Sakti, which means energy--the active principle in the universe, and which is personified as a Goddess. From the primordial Sakti every other form of activity proceeds. Under many different names it is worshipped as Devi or the Mother. The present work attempts to describe the sect, and outline its practices; consider the rise of Sakta ideas in the religious literature of Hinduism; and indicate some possible causes of its popularity, and the origin of some of its beliefs. The author tries to convince that Saktism is not just about awe, dread and propitiation but love and tenderness are also its characteristics.