The priceless 10th century, eight-armed sculpture of Goddess Durga in pristine green granite was handed over by the visiting German Chancellor Angela Markel to Prime Minister in New Delhi on October 5, 2015 as a mark of German’s respect for the cultural fund of India and the goodwill which the people of Germany abundantly have for the Indians.
The authorities of Baden-Württemberg state of Germany returned the sculpture to the Indian Embassy in Berlin on September 23 last year. The sculpture — Durga as Mahishasuramardini with eight arms — was brought to New Delhi and was displayed at the Hyderabad House, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the media after chairing the third round of inter-governmental consultations in October 2015. The Prime Minister had then said, “A very special word of gratitude to Chancellor Merkel and the people of Germany for the return of the 10th century statue of Durga in her Mahishasuramardini avatar from Jammu & Kashmir.”
Students of Indological studies are aware that ancient Kashmir has richly contributed to the growth and development of Indian civilization. The architectural remains of Hindu period in Kashmir and the sculptures and other artifacts, all are a proof of our assertion. The mythology tells us the story of the significance of this sculptural rarity. Rambha, the king of Asuras was enticed with the beauty of a she-buffalo. Eventually he married her. Out of this bestiality union, was born a child which was half buffalo and half human. This child was named Mahishasura (Mahisha literally means buffalo+ asura). Mahishasura, being an Asura wanted to wage war against their arch-enemies, the Devas; to make his self invincible he performed prayers to Brahma and requested that he be granted immortality. Brahma refused him the boon of immortality and instead gave him a boon such that his death would happen only at the hands of a woman. Mahishasura considered he was immortal since he felt that it was impossible for a woman to slay a person of his strength. Thus with this belief, Mahishasura started a war with the Devas and a battle took place. The Devas led by Indra were defeated. The Devas requested the trinity of Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu requesting help. Subsequently, they combined their powers and created a woman. The Goddess thus created was Durga and she eventually led a battle against Mahishasura and killed him, thus fulfilling the prophecy that he would meet his death at the hands of a woman. Durga is represented with eighteen arms symbolic of various powers she was gifted with.
India has a long tradition of women warriors. They served in the army of Chandragupta Maurya as soldiers or bodyguards. Even Akbar had a bitter taste of their ferocity when he fought with Rani Durgavati the Chandela Queen. Rani Rudrama Devi of Kaketya dynasty and Rani Jhansi were two other important queens who became famous for their valour. They were not namesake like the queens of Europe but real queens who marched into the battlefield with large armies and fought real battles.
This Durga sculpture was stolen from a temple at Tengpora in the Pulwama district of Jammu & Kashmir in the early 90s and was subsequently smuggled out of the country. In 2000, the Linden State Museum for Ethnology at Stuttgart in Germany spent $ 250,000 to buy the statue from one Subhash Kapoor, an art-dealer based in New York. It was later revealed that Kapoor is the kingpin of an international antique smuggling network. Kapoor was arrested at the Frankfurt International Airport in October 2011 and extradited to India in July 2012 on charges of handling stolen artefacts from temples in the country.
Finally, the Jammu and Kashmir Government deputed a team of departmental experts along with a crew of J&K Police Department to retrieve back the rare sculpture belonging to Kashmir from Archaeological Survey of India and it is now under the custody of Jammu and Kashmir Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museums. The sculpture will be displayed in the new building of SPS Museums Srinagar, which will be soon opened for visits by the general public. The Department placed on record appreciation for its recovery to the authorities of the Archaeological Survey of India as well as Director General of J&K Police for all cooperation and help for its safe custody.
It is to be reminded that at the time when the sculpture was stolen, Pulwama police had recorded an FIR about the theft. It was this FIR which helped German authorities to establish the ownership of the sculpture and then the Archaeological Survey of India pursued the matter of its retrieval. It is very unfortunate that there are bad social elements within the country that are willing to vandalize national cultural wealth. There have been many reports of theft of precious artifacts from the temples and worshiping places and their export to art centres in Italy and other countries. It is necessary the State Government takes full care of protecting the temples and their properties in Kashmir where there are still sculptures and artifacts of immense value. It is true that an FIR was lodged at the time of the theft of the sculpture from Tengpora temple. But the question is why was not the theft pursued later on vigorously? It was a freak of chance that the ASI got the information that the sculpture was located in Germany and then the action of its retrieval followed. We are thankful to the German authorities and particularly, the Chancellor Madam Markel for returning the precious artifact back to us.
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