Ritual songs and folksongs of the Hindus of Surinam

61 Pacrā i [Nieuw Nickerie, 1967]
To Durgā

dharamai dharama binäǫ tuhe mātā nā jāne devi kauna rūpa haį
sonavā ke duragā motī lāye ągiyā rūpana jhālara lāgī
kahą̄ devī tųha bądhalī cäuriyā kahą̄ lihai autāra
hįgalāja devī janama bhaye haį kamarū lihau autāra
bindvāvana mę banī hai cäuriyā mathavā navāye sansār

Totally according to duty³ do I pray to you, mother; it is not known⁴ what form the goddess has.
Durgā has brought⁵ gold or pearls (and there) is a lace of silver attached to (her) blouse.
Goddess, where have you (had) your altar⁶ built and where have⁷ you incarnated?

3 Another meaning suggests itself to the mind: ‘I pray to the goddess in each object because it is not known what is her real form’.

4 Idiomatically translated, ‘who knows’.

5 Perhaps, lagāye, ‘has it affixed’ (knit together, interwoven, embroidered).

6 S. catvara, a raised platform, sthaṇḍila; see p. 25.

7 In the original, actually, third person future, ‘shall incarnate’.

[p. 117]

IV.

The goddess has taken birth at Hiṅgalāj¹ and (her) incarnation (has taken place) in Kāmarūpa.²

V.

The altar has been built in Vindyāvana;³ the (whole) world bows the head.

1 Satyendra ('49: 377), explaining ‘hingalāj kī īsurī’ (the goddess of Hinglāj) in a song, states: ‘Hingulaj is in Bilochistan (West Pakistan: author), about twenty miles from the sea shore at the bank of the river Aghor or Hingul or Hingulā, in a corner of a mountain called ‘Hingulā’. It is one of the pīṭhas of Devī. Here the brahma-randhra (fontanelle) of the ‘Satī’ had fallen. Here Durgā is known as the Mahāmāyā or Koṭṭarī’. For a long time now this famous shrine is maintained by the Muslims as a sacred place of their Pīrs. See also the song about the worship of Hinglāj by Emperor Akbar (H.S.B.I. Chattīsgaṛhī: 289).

2 Perhaps Kāmākṣā temple, the centre of the tantric worship and an important pīṭha of Śakti in Assam.

3 It is not clear whether this is Vṛndāvana or Vindhyāvana. If Vṛndāvana, it is not certain which temple is meant, unless it is the pedestal of Tulasī (see p. 40), which is also called Vṛndāvana (vide Kosambi '62: 56). On the other hand there is an important pīṭha of Śakti in the Vindhya hills near Mirzapur which seems more likely to have been meant here as it is in the homeland of the immigrants.