Banashankari

About Banashankari

Banashankari is the form of Durga enshrined at Badami in Karnataka, where a black-stone idol shows her seated on a lion crushing the demon Durgamasura. Her eight hands hold a trident, sword, bell, damaru drum, shield, palm-leaf book, skull-cup and a severed head — the exact arsenal her dawn hymn, the Pratah Smaran Stotram, lists limb by limb. The Devi Bhagavata Purana tells why: when Durgama stole the Vedas and caused a hundred-year drought, she wept a hundred eyes of tears and fed the starving from greens grown on her own body, earning the names Shatakshi and Shakambhari. Her January Banashankari Jatre draws lakhs to the Haridra Tirtha tank.