Nanda Devi is a
Hindu Mountain deity and Himalayan Shivalik Goddess.
Nanda Devi is the name of one of India's highest mountains,
towering above 25,000 feet in the Kumaon Himalayan area.
Nanda Devi is another name for the Goddess associated with
the mountain.
Divinity and the natural environment are intricately linked
for Nanda Devi, as they are for many other Indian deities.
Nanda Devi, a Himalayan goddess who rules over the Garhwal
and Kumaon areas, is a local deity.
People in the area see her as a "daughter" of the
area who was forced to relocate when she married the deity Shiva.
Nanda Devi's songs and ceremonies have significant ties to
Himalayan women's life-cycle trips.
Nanda Devi's songs depict the hardship of transitioning from
her birth home to her married home, which is a reality for many Himalayan
women.
Nanda Devi's pilgrimages, which highlight trips across the
hills around the mountain, are modeled by the women's periodic journeys back to
their native villages.
The adoption of an abandoned buffalo calf, subsequently
proven to be a demon in buffalo form, is a prominent component of Nanda Devi's
mythology.
Nanda Devi ultimately slays the buffalo demon, which has
become huge and unpleasant.
This myth corresponds to the story in the Devimahatmya, the
Goddess's oldest and most significant source of mythology; it is the most
influential scripture in Nanda Devi's devotion.
See William Sax's Mountain Goddess, 1991, for further
information about Nanda Devi, her ceremonies, and her link to Himalayan
civilization.
