DWAITA HAZRA GOSWAMI goswami.dwaita@gmail.com
FOREST GODS AND GODDESSES ACROSS CLASSICAL TEXTS AND VERNACULAR TERRITORIES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ARAṆYĀNĪ, ARAṆYA ṢAṢṬHĪ, AND BENGAL’S REGIONAL FOREST-DEITY CULTURES
This paper explores the evolution and transformation of forest deities in the Indian subcontinent, tracing the trajectory from the Vedic personification of the wild to the localized, socio-cultural protectors of Bengal’s agrarian and maritime fringes. At the centre of this study is a comparative analysis of the Vedic goddess Araṇyānī—the elusive, “incorporeal” spirit of the deep woods—and the later Puranic and vernacular manifestations such as Araṇya Ṣaṣṭhī. While the classical Sanskrit tradition often frames the forest (araṇya) as a space of asceticism or liminal danger, regional Bengal traditions domesticate and negotiate this wildness through deities like Olādevī (regional Bengali goddess associated with cholera, epidemics, and protection from sudden diseases), Banabibi, (forest guardian goddess of the Sundarbans mangrove region of India–Bangladesh),” Dakṣiṇ Rāy” (tiger-god and the supernatural lord of the Sundarbans forest). This study argues that the shift from the abstract Araṇyānī to the ritualistic Araṇya Ṣaṣṭhī represents a transition from “Nature as Mystery” to “Nature as Sustenance.” By examining primary Sanskrit epics alongside Bengali Mangalkavyas and oral folk traditions, the paper highlights how “Vernacular Territories” create a hybrid theological space where Brahmanical structures and indigenous forest-dwelling belief systems overlap. The research aims to contribute to the DICSEP 2026 theme by demonstrating how the forest is not merely a setting for the Epics and Purāṇas, but an active, deified participant in the legal and spiritual history of South Asia.
Methodology
This research employs a diachronic, philological approach combined with regional ethnographic analysis. First, the Ṛgvedic Araṇyānī-Sūkta (10,146) will be analysed to establish the earliest conceptualization of the forest as a numinous, autonomous divine entity. This is then contrasted with the Brahmavaivarta–Purāṇa (Prakṛti-Khaṇḍa), which serves as a textual pivot where the ‘wild’ is subsumed into the Brahmanical framework of domesticity and lineage protection. Finally, the study utilizes comparative vernacular mapping by examining Bengali Mangalkāvyas (specifically the Chaṇḍīmangal) and Vrata-kathā oral traditions. By documenting the shift from the abstract Araṇyānī to the ritualistic Araṇya Ṣaṣṭhī, the methodology seeks to identify how regional forest cultures negotiate space between classical Sanskrit orthodoxy and indigenous ecological realities.
Primary Sources
Brahmavaivarta–Purāṇa. Prakṛti-Khaṇḍa, Chapter 43.
Kāśyapa-Saṃhitā. Revatī-Kalpa.
Ṛgveda-Saṃhitā 10,146 Araṇyānī-Sūkta
Primary Sources – Regional (Bengal)
Caṇḍīmaṅgal
Translations and editions of the primary texts
Doniger, Wendy, tr. 1981. The Rig Veda: An Anthology. London: Penguin Classics.
Nagar, Shantilal, tr. 2003. The Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇam. New Delhi: Parimal Publications.
Sen, Sukumar, ed. 1955. Chandimangal. Calcutta: Sahitya Akademi
Sharma, Hemaraja, tr. 2010. Kāśyapa Saṃhitā, or Vṛddha-Jīvakiya Tantra by Vṛddha Jīvaka. Varanasi: Chaukhambha Sanskrit Sansthan.
Secondary Sources
Bhattacharya, Asutosh. 1978. The Folklore of Bengal. New Delhi: National Book Trust.
Feldhaus, Anne. 2003. Connected Places: Region, Pilgrimage, and Geographical Imagination in India. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
McDaniel, June. 2003/2004. Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal. New York: Oxford University Press.
Niyogi, Tushar K. 1987. Aspects of Folk Cults in South Bengal. Calcutta: Anthropological Survey of India.
Nugteren, Albertina. 2005. Belief, Bounty, and Beauty: Rituals Around Sacred Trees in India. Leiden: Brill.
Sen, Aditi. 2014. Sasthi: Between the Forest and the Lying-in-Chamber. Journal of South Asian Studies 24(2): 145–162.
Sen, Sukumar. 1960. History of Bengali Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.
Sinha, Binod Chandra. 1979. Tree Worship in Ancient India. New Delhi: Books Today.