To begin as we had earlier intended to continue – there exists a recurrent occurrence within the Indo-European both mythology and ritual praxis for the immersion of the Goddess figure. This comes in several semi-overlapping expressions, contingent upon the local requirements and developments for their mythology. For instance – we in the Hindusphere know of both the notion for ‘ritual purification’ via bathing (via which the Black and Terrific Form of the Goddess becomes the Golden and Beneficent Visage as to Her) … and also for the ‘Visarjan’ of Her Image via which the Devi is farewelled to return to Her Home at the conclusion of particular observances (like NavRatri for instance). 

Meanwhile, in Eastern Europe and the Celtic realms, Christianization has seen what was evidently once something of the same nature … twisted in its interpretation. As applies the former, Frazer tells us of the baleful ‘Marzana’ figure – also known as ‘Death’ – that is represented in female effigy form, then sent out into a nearby river or water-body to be “drowned” to bring Winter to a close (in some cases, other ‘disposal’ methods for the ‘killing’ might also be occurrent). Interestingly, Frazer makes mention for a custom amidst the “Saxons of Braller, a village of Transylvania” for the ‘Death’ in question to in fact be represented as *young* (rather than old), described as carried by the “school girls” of the village with the boys “[taking] no part in the procession, but [trooping] after it gazing with open-mouthed admiration at the “beautiful Death.” “.

Following this, it should often prove the custom that another female effigy is then brought *into* the village – this often expressly being the (potentially ‘younger’, often more ‘beautiful’ in perception) figure of ‘Spring’ (‘Dziewanna’, per Frazer – c.f. ‘Devana’) or ‘Summer’ ( ‘Líto’, again per Frazer) ; which, as applies the Transylvanian exemplar mentioned above, is actually “one of [the village girls from the processional] now dressed in all the finery which had been worn by the effigy”, a situation also occurrent amidst the Germans of Moravia where “one of the girls was next dressed in the gauds taken from the effigy of Death, and with her at its head the procession moved back to the village.” In either case, we have the ‘old’ and ‘winter’ and ‘deathly’ [often, interestingly enough, also ‘Disease’, in-line with Devi Bhagavata Purana III 26 & Taittiriya Brahmana I 6 10 4, viz. Chandika / Ambika Devi] being ‘replaced with’ the ‘young’, ‘light’, and ‘life’ – a most intriguing dimension as applies the role being assumed by a living human young woman in those Germanic folk-ways cases. 

The Celtic exemplar aforementioned concerns that figure of the Cailleach Bhéarra (aka Buí , the Wife of Lugh, per other tellings). Who is this ‘Cailleach’ to us? Well, my instinct had always been to declare a cognate for our most familiar (in multiple senses to this term) PIE *ḱel- => Kali. The aforesaid *ḱel- referring to a ‘Veil’, ‘Covering’ – a la that ‘dark-veiled’ or ‘black cloaked’ (κυάνεον δὲ κάλυμμα – ‘kuaneon de kalumma’ and κυανόπεπλος – ‘kuanopeplos’) quality for Demeter Erinys / Demeter Melaina, per Her Homeric Hymn (κάλυμμα / ‘kalumma’ is likewise derived from PIE *ḱel-; whilst κυάνεον / ‘kuaneon’ (related to modern English ‘Cyan’) connotes a potentially rather blue black). I was therefore eminently pleased to read the work of Matasovic – wherein Old Irish ‘Caile’ is indeed derived from PIE *keh₂l (‘dark’ – assumedly a variant reconstruction for *ḱel-), rendering this linguistically cognate with  Sanskrit ‘Kāla’ (‘dark blue’, sic.).

And as applies Her Immersion … per a prominent recounting from the surviving folklore (attested through the work of folklorist G.J. McKay), She had been supposed to undertake a ritual bathing once every hundred years at Loch Bà in order to restore Her youthful and beautiful form, with this having to occur at dawn and before any other being had stirred with sound due to the day. Unfortunately, in the version that has come down to us, a dog’s bark disrupts the rite and therefore leads to the Cailleach allegedly collapsing as a corpse. Presumably, the telling went from an original *looks* like a ‘Corpse’, ‘Deathly’, etc. through to ‘actually being dead’. 

Now, the reason why I declare much of the above to be a ‘distortion’ of what could not be fully suppressed, ought prove rather readily apparent. A Goddess is … unlikely to be vulnerable to ‘death’ at the hands of a few village-men and standing water (whether, as Frazer attests in various cases, they are flinging curses in Her direction nor otherwise) – and similarly, the ‘twist’ to the Cailleach tale wherein the immersion is not only i) a once-in-a-hundred-years operation but also ii) disrupted by such a thing as a dog’s barking … these are quite clearly departures from the core underlying typology. Even in Scotland, a Winter does not last a century – and the *affinity* for the Goddess with Hounds should appear most readily in evidence elsewhere, with the cyclical passing of the seasons also not (thus far, at any rate) proving meaningfully dysjunct. 

In both these suites of Eastern European and Celtic exemplars, that which has come down to us has now become the story of a religion and its true adherency sadly twisted into the *active rejection* of Her – and either continual & cyclic or once-off-and-narrativized-to-confine-to-the-past congealments for this as the Goddess (Who *Is* ‘Death’) being declared cast down, powerless, effectively ‘irrelevant’ … and, er, ‘Dead’. 

The antidote? 

Engagement with more authentic understandings to the situation. Such as those handily preserved for us (even if in somewhat fragmentary fashion, upon occasion) amidst those *non-* or *pre-* Christianized Indo-European spheres.

Something which also unlocks for us a truly remarkable suite of concordancy – as we shall soon behold. 

Speaking of which, let’s get on with it. 

To but briefly address this typology – Pausanias  declares the following with reference to Demeter Erinys [‘The Furious’] / Demeter Melaina [‘The Black’] :

“At first, they say, Demeter was angry at what had happened, but later on She laid aside Her Wrath and wished to bathe in the Ladon. So the Goddess has obtained two surnames, Fury [Erinys] because of Her Avenging Anger, because the Arcadians call being wrathful “being furious,” and Bather (Lusia) because She bathed in the Ladon. […] Demeter, they say, had by Poseidon a daughter”. 
[VIII 25 6-7, Jones & Ormerod translation]

And to this, I think, we ought add the detail apparently from the  ‘New History’ of Ptolemy Chennus given in Photius’ Bibliotheca [190, Pearse translation] that: “Concerning the water of the Styx in Arcadia he recounts the following: while Demeter was mourning for Her Daughter, Poseidon intruded on Her Sorrow and She in Anger metamorphosed into a Mare; She arrived at a fountain in this form and detesting it She made the water Black.”

You’ll see why shortly. Suffice to say it’s … sufficiently salient as to afford us quite some forbearance for that *particular* source even amidst some of its other and more … peculiar assertions (for instance, the swiftly following line about Alexander the Great’s father actually being a man named Draco – and therefore euhemerizing away the serpentine Zeus progenitorial myth for him, upon the basis of precious little whatsoever). 

Meanwhile, a short accounting of the relevant cognate Hindu conceptry is to be found at Shiva Purana VII 1 25 (amidst many alia) … which the Shastri translation, rather straightforwardly entitles “The Goddess (Devī) attains fair complexion”.

This, She does via bathing and related purificationary activities – culminating in the situation at verse 38 that we shall now quote herein:

” Thus requested by Brahmā, the Goddess, Daughter of the Mountain, cast off Her Outer Skin and became White.

The outer sheath thus cast off became Kauśikī Who is known as Kālī, the virgin with the lustre of the black cloud.”

The word translated as ‘Virgin’ there by Shastri, viz. ‘kanyakā’ , can also quite comfortably mean ‘Daughter’, or ‘Young Girl / Maiden’. That is to say .. ‘Kore’ in Ancient Greek’. And, as we have just seen – it is a situation of ’emanation’ (indeed, ‘reduplication’, after a form), wherein Devi, being in wrathful and dark Aspect as Kali … proceeds to emanate out via ‘shedding of exterior form / skin’ *another* Kali (i.e. Kaushiki) , and so in the process regain Her fair (‘Gauri’) complexion of great radiance, beauty, and light. 

We would additionally note the situation recounted at Skanda Purana III 58 2 [this is in the Yokochi rendition]:

“Through the power of Her tejas, the pure water swells to become a pond, as the knowledge passed on to a disciple by his teacher increases due to his intelligence.
Plunging into the pond, She is as brilliant as the midday sun, She sloughs off Her dark skin (krsnām kośīm), and when She is free of it, She gleams like a digit of the moon in autumn.
Out of the dark sloughed skin, Kauśikī is born, as Rātri (the Goddess Night) was born from the body of the Creator-of-the-world (Dhātr, i.e. Brahmā).” 

Interesting that it’s an *Autumn* Moon which is the point of comparison here , for reasons that shall become readily apparent in due course. 

Later on in the same (Skanda) Purana, we encounter at III 67 19 the rather intriguing detail of this Kaushiki wishing to see Her Father & Mother, these being identified as Shiva & Uma / Bhavani … however, we must also observe that, slightly later again (in the immediately ensuing section 68), this very same Kaushiki is *also* the Devi Who is responsible for the Destruction of the Buffalo-demon, Mahishasur. This being the deed of Durga – and showing once more that this is not a ‘Daughter’ in the sense of a different Goddess descended thusly from the Devi – but rather, another (Warrior / Dread) Form thereof, emanated accordingly. This would also fit with the observed situation encountered in the Ancient Greek for both Persephone and Demeter to  be referred to utilizing ‘Dual’ theonymics (c.f. the work of Stallsmith in this area) – wherein the Goddess(es) are encountered being hailed pointedly in ‘dual’ format via single theonymics. 

And, speaking of emanations, we have often had cause to make mention of the immediately preceding passages [viz. section 68] – wherein the Kaushiki Devi in question also ’emanates’ out a further suite of ‘Matrikas’ / emplaced Devi-Forms , including my great enthusiasm, the Crow-visaged Goddess, Vayasi, amidst the ‘Yavanas’ [‘Ionians’ – (Indo-)Greeks, but potentially, we might suggest, ‘Europeans’ as a whole. Long story, have examined somewhat elsewhere]. 

The same broad scenario – of Devi undertaking a ritual purification & bathing – is also occurrent at Skanda Purana III 69 (particularly viz. 37 & 51 onward – again, in the Yokochi edition), although with the focus there having shifted toward the blessed reunification of Shiva and His Wife following this washing off of Her Dark and Wrathful Visage. Indeed, at Skanda Purana III 69 54 & 62-63 we hear quite directly of this exterior of Hers having not only slid off from Her Form – but also to have produced a pool, which Shiva declares shall be known (for rather obvious reasons) as Nīlakuṇḍa (that is to say, the ‘(Dark) Blue Pool’). 

Rather remarkably, we also hear of an identically named Pool or Spring in Kashmir – and I say ‘rather remarkably’ due to the cluster of associations attributed to it per the Nilamata Purana in syzygy with the famed Rajatarangini. The latter (clarified via the footnoting to I 28 in the Stein translation) attests this to be the origin for the River Vitasta – this river being identified as another form to Gauri (Rajatarangini I 29) / Sati (Nilamata Purana 262), and resultant from the (archaic, foundational) application of the Divine Spear of Shiva in rather *agricultural* utilization as a ‘plough’ (in order to ‘rend the earth’; apparently with a view to removing that ‘blue’ covering to the fertile land which was the Water named as Sati’s : ‘SatiSara’), with the water in question flowing from the Underworld [ Rasātala ] and having significant saliency viz. purificationary rites of bathing etc. (Nilamata Purana 251-264); said Spring of the (Kashmirian) Nilakunda also providing the dwelling (or ‘royal parasol’, apparently) for a certain draconic/serpentine water/spring spirit, the Naga Nila (Rajatarangini I 28) – Who is also stated, at Nilamata Purana 217-218, to have to divide His time for half of the year dwelling amidst Men and the other six months amidst Pishachas [i.e. Demons , notably Corpse-associated].

Why’s all that ‘rather remarkable’? 

Because on Sicily, said to be very much the land of both Demeter and Persephone (and most especially the latter – see Pindar’s 1st Nemean Ode, and Diodorus Siculus’ Bibliotheka V for the attestation of Sicily having been granted to Her as a wedding-present by Zeus Himself) not least in relation to its archaic (and pre-eminent / leading / originating) agricultural saliency. And there, we hear of the Spring of Kyane (again, like ‘Cyan’ ; πηγὴν […] Κυάνην being the original Greek utilized in Diodorus Siculus’ account, at V 4 1) – this being the apparent location wherein Hades / Plouton is reputed to have ‘Rent the Earth’ ( γῆν ἀναρρήξαντα , at V 4 2; we assume, perhaps, with His Mighty Spear / Bident ) so as to head down into the Underworld with His Intended Bride … with this also therefore causing the upwelling of the aforementioned ‘Kyane’ Spring as the direct result. [I should perhaps clarify at this point that the image posted with this (A)Arti-cle is *not* the Kashmiri locale – but instead, the Kaal Rudra Murti situated at the Rudra Mahadeva ShivMandir in Manikaran, His Trishula pointed down toward a hot-spring bubbling immediately afore He. It was chosen precisely due to the overt visual resemblance between this depiction and the shared Shiva – Hades conceptry for opening up a Water-mediated Roadway of the Underworld via Trishul (Trident) / Bident application.] 

Ovid’s Metamorphoses presents the situation as one of the Sicilian Spring being the demesne of a Nymph, the eponymous Cyane, Who ‘dissolves’ into the waters following the passage of Pluto & Persephone via this pool’s way. As Ovid himself puts it – ” Haud ultra tenuit Saturnius iram, /  terribilesque hortatus equos in gurgitis ima / contortum valido sceptrum regale lacerto / condidit. Icta viam tellus in Tartara fecit / et pronos currus medio cratere recepit.” That is to say – the ‘[Son] of Saturn’ , no longer containing His Fury, drove His Dread Horses for the depths of the whirlpool/abyss ; a mighty twist of His Royal Scepter [‘Sceptrum Regale’] thrust by His Arm making the Earth [Tellus] bear a Way [Viam] down into Tartarus, His Chariot turning forward and down as the middle to the Crater [i.e. (Offering) Bowl, or Volcanic .. er .. Crater – body of water, in any case, particularly] received Them. 

As I say – sounds *suspiciously* familiar to the above suite of Hindu conceptry viz. Nīlakuṇḍa …the major point of difference being that Cyane is, in these Classical interpretations, a (Water) Nymph – whereas we would instead suggest the ‘Dark-Blue’ to be the (Blue-Black) Exterior Visage as to Devi (and c.f. that earlier-aforementioned detailing from Ptolemy Chennus viz. Demeter turning the water of the Styx which flows in Arcadia black in what most likely would have been Her Bathing therein).

This ‘exterior visage’ conceptry musters additional support when one considers the description for Demeter in Her Homeric Hymnal as being shrouded within a ‘Cyan’ Cloak or Veil ( κυάνεον δὲ κάλυμμα / κυανόπεπλος – ‘kuaneon de kalumma’ / ‘kuanopeplos’; κάλυμμα / ‘kalumma’, as noted above, being also from PIE *ḱel-, and therefore correlate with ‘Kali’, etc.) … this Cloak / Visage being ‘cast aside’ ( ἀπωσαμένη / ‘aposameni’ – ‘thrusting away’) as She ‘changes form’ (εἶδος ἄμειψε – ‘eidos ameipse’), Her ‘old age’ (γῆρας / ‘giras’) becoming replaced with the rather literally radiant beauty (κάλλος / ‘kallos’ – cognate with Sanskrit कल्य ‘kalya’ (‘auspicious’, ‘healthy’, etc. – and figuratively can mean ‘Daybreak’, a seemingly apt summation of the situation of Demeter’s ‘unveiling’) and कल्याण ‘kalyana’ (‘beautiful’, ‘agreeable’, ‘lovely’, ‘charming’, etc.)). 

Although, again, thinking of the ‘Black / Deathly Exterior’ as being *just* a garment is to do a fundamental disservice to the comparative conceptry we appear to have at hand here. Instead, in both the cases of the Kyane (‘Blue-Black’ and a Water-Nymph) and the Kaushiki [‘Sheath’] that is also Kali (‘Blue-Black’, ‘Death’ – and, fittingly for ‘Time’, not infrequently presented as of ‘Aged’ or ‘Corpse’ style visage) Emanation of the Goddess … we have the overt remembrance of just exactly that: an *emanation* from Her (c.f. the ‘Daughter’ phrasing of reference – ‘kanyakā’ and ‘kore’; the latter in application, of course, to Persephone / Despoina). As well as, it must be said, a certain ‘Guardian Spirit’ – viz. the Naga , Nila (Dark Blue / Blue-Black), encountered at the Kashmirian Nīlakuṇḍa (‘Blue-Black Pool’), in presumably much the same fashion as the Sicilian Spring of Kyane having an identically eponymous Dweller Therein. 

No two of the various Hindu nor Hellenic narratives *exactly* match up in all detailing and all permutations – even *within* either of the Hellenic or Hindu spheres, as it should happen.

Yet this does not disrupt the fact that existing *between* all of these aforementioned data-points we may yet glimpse the *constellation* of what is clearly, in essence, the same tradition – as ‘refracted’ out and occasionally (with particular regard to certain of the Hellenic / later Classical presentations) admittedly a bit ‘jumbled’. 

Nevertheless, the quite frankly *remarkable* degree of clear concordancy between those circumstances occurrent in both Sicily and Kashmir should serve as a tangible reminder: that even across significant distances of both place and time, the shared essences as to the Indo-European religious heritage can nevertheless shine through. 

Jai Mata Di.