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Hinduism - Who Is Subhadra?

 

The deity Jagannath's celestial sister, who is always shown beside him and their brother Balabhadra.

The Jagannath temple in Puri, where Jagannath is the reigning god, is the most significant venue for these three deities.

Despite his association with the god Krishna, Jagannath is widely regarded as an autochthonous ("of the land") deity who was formerly the native deity of Puri.

His identification with Krishna has incorporated him into the Hindu pantheon.

The deities' invariable appearance, with Jagannath (Krishna) on the right, his brother Balabhadra (Balarama) on the left, and Subhadra as a lesser figure in the middle, is one piece of evidence supporting this notion.

Such a triadic arrangement is almost unheard of in Krishna devotion, which tends to focus on either Krishna alone or Krishna and Radha as a celestial pair.

Subhadra's feminine figure is particularly distinctive, since as Jagannath's sister, she is ineligible for the romantic adventures connected with Krishna.

Despite the fact that Jagannath is the most significant of the three gods, the identifications with the other two reflect greater syncretistic inclinations.

Subhadra is often identified as the mighty goddess Durga, while Balabhadra is sometimes described as a manifestation of the deity Shiva.

Puri's holy triad therefore represents the three most prominent Hindu gods.

The Cult of Jagannath and the Regional Traditions of Orissa, 1978, by Anncharlott Eschmann, Hermann Kulke, and Gaya Charan Tripathi, is the greatest source for further information about Subhadra and her brothers.

~Kiran Atma


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