Kumari Devis: Living Child Goddesses of Nepal

Do we need to believe in God? For a vast majority of people, the answer is a resounding ‘Yes’. After all, when assailed by doubts, only faith gives us hope and direction in a world where injustices keep happening all the time. Faith in life – or in a Higher Power. Faith in oneself and and in other people. Faith enriches and deepens our lives, and quite possibly gives us a mooring, a direction and a purpose – and, in so doing, lends meaning to our existence and makes us believe that life is worth living no matter what obstacles are thrown our way.

But faith calls for unquestioning adherence, and our minds need something more concrete than an abstract all-powerful God, somebody to whom we can relate to physically. It is one thing to believe that divinity permeates in every animate and inanimate things, but to conceptualize the all-pervading universal spirit, people seem to need specific objects to which they can attribute the divinity and worship it. 

Hindus have designated certain objects of nature such as trees and rivers as gods and worshipped them. Like many other Eastern religions, they worship ancestors. During festivals and on special occasions they pay obeisance to married women and young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of ‘Shakti’, the feminine universal principle of cosmic energy. Yet, this is very temporary and does not alter the life of the worshipped in any way, good or bad.

But when people designate young children as god-incarnates to head their religious institutions or monasteries, the events alter the designated child’s life for ever. At that tender age, they cannot understand life or haven’t yet figured out their own principles or ideologies. Think of Shankaracharyas chosen to head Shankara monasteries. Think of the 1980’s when its head Shri Jayendra Saraswati had to run away from the monastery. Imagine being forced to lead a celibate life and not having the freedom to follow one’s own convictions because of the decisions taken by parents on behalf of the child. So whom do you blame when such people falter?

Consider the living child goddesses of Nepal.

Kumari, or Kumari Devi, is the age-old tradition of worshipping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy or devi in South Asian countries. Kumari means virgin in Sanskrit. A Kumari is believed to be the incarnation of the goddess Taleju (the Nepalese name for Durga). The temples dedicated to the goddess Taleju Bhawani are present in Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur, three chief towns in Nepal and there are about 11 kumaris across Nepal. The royal temple of goddess Taleju in Bhaktapur, however, is the oldest among the three and the Raj Kumari Devi (royal goddess) in Kathmandu is the most important. .