Shantadurga is the most popular form of the Hindu goddessDurga revered in Goa, India,as well some parts of Karnataka. She is a Brahminical form of the ancient Mother goddess known as Santeri. She is worshipped in almost all villages of Goa as an ant hill. This is seen in some temples dedicated to Shantadurga.
Origins
The second chapter of the Sanskrit', ', is a part of Sahyādrikhaṇḍa which is the chapter of Skanda Purana gives detail about this. Only the title of the chapter mentions the goddess Shantadurga and no where else is this epithet of the goddess mentioned. This section refers to a certain sage, a resident of Nagavya. The goddess appeared before Shantamuni and hence she may have been called Shantadurga. No other justification has been furnished in this chapter. Durga is portrayed in her ferocious nature; therefore the adjective Shanta is contradictory to the nature of Durga. Only in verses 16,19,34 of Sahyadrikhanda, the goddess is called . The verse 18 of this section mentions about the disappearance of the goddess into an ant hill. These ant hills symbolically represent goddess Shantadurga as well as goddess Santeri. The worship of ant hills may have originated among aboriginal tribes of Konkan.Therefore, the Sahyadrikhanda furnishes the evidence of Sanskritisation of the folk deity, by the upper castes who followed Vedic, Puranic and Tantric religions, and adopted the deities of the primitive settlers of Konkan by introducing Brahminical form of worship and Sanskrit names. With the advent of Tantrism, many folk-deities were absorbed into Brahminical fold. In due course, these goddesses were associated with the god Shiva. According to another myth, once there was a terrible war between the godsShiva and Vishnu due to which the entire world was distressed. Hence the god Brahma prayed and implored Shakti to intervene and stop the war. The Goddess held Shiva by one hand and Vishnu by the other hand and brought about reconciliation among them. This stopped the war and brought peace to the world. Such an idol of goddess is found in the inner sanctum of Shanta Durga Temple of Kavale. The 17th-century Marathi furnishes an exhaustive account of the conflict between the followers of the Vaisnavism and Shaivism in Goa. It is quite possible that the myth of Shantadurga is symbolically related to these sectarian conflicts.
Iconography
Though in few shrines dedicated to Shantadurga, an ant hill is found inside the sanctum in place a stone, metal image of the deity or a Kalasha is consecrated. Especially in Kavale temple metal image of the deity which is four handed, is depicted holding two male figures in her lower hands and snakes in the upper hands. Most of the Shantadurga temples have stone sculpture of Mahishasuramardini aspect of Shakti. Whereas some have stone or metal idol with four hands,sometimes seen holding any of the following:sword, bowl of ambrosia,a shield, trident, hand kettle drum, lotus, snakes. The deity is also portrayed with her hands in and. In rare cases a Kalasha is worshiped as a symbol of the deity. Few temples also worship ant hill alongside an image.
