> [York, Michael](York.md). "Post-smallpox Survival of the Hindu Smallpox Goddess". *"Ambivalent Goddesses" Colliquium*, King Alfred's College, Winchester (25-27 March 1997). > [michaelyork.co.uk](http://www.michaelyork.co.uk/Domus/CV/confpapers/cp-32.html) #have #link ## Relavance > "Embedded within Euro-linguistic culture, however, is a fundamental but collectively forgotten double ambivalency: the ambivalence between `good' and `bad' and the ambivalence between reality and oblivion. Sîtalâ may be a goddess `on the edge', but she is divine inasmuch as she embodies the positive and the negative of creation, the polar components of reality. Our Indo-European and even Levantine mythic heritage, however, also comprehends a dynamic between positive-negative creation and absolute nothingness. In the mythological register, the requirements of metaphor dictate that the empty cosmic abyss can only be represented through the images and symbols taken from creation itself, whether positive or negative. It is for this reason that not all goddess personifications can be `reducible' to some archetype of `The Goddess'. My own investigations have uncovered that some goddesses essentially represent the anti-mother, the personification of absolute chaos or emptiness which seeks the full annihilation of all creation, both the positive and the negative, the feminine and masculine, the luminous and the dark, the spiritual and the physical.[2] Such anti-goddess prototypes are to be found in the figures of the Vedic Aditi, the Anatolian Magna Mater, the Akkadian Ishtar or the Canaanite Asherah among others. The point is that symbols carry hidden, latent baggage, and without an understanding of the invisible implications retained by a metaphor, its use as a worshipped or thought-shaping device may have unforeseen and unwanted consequences for the unwary. > <br> > Sîtalâ, as originally a pre-Aryan deity of the Bhîls, descends from a different mythological register - as do such other ambivalent Hindu goddesses like Kâlî or Châmundâ. Even Shiva himself retains pre-Indo-European elements despite his primary development from the Vedic gods of Indra, Rudra and Agni. But inasmuch as Sîtalâ and other indigenous figures have been adopted by Hindu peoples, they may be interpreted - or used - as divinely ambivalent deities rather than oppositional/subversive anti-gods. Sîtalâ's immense power - and hence the durability of her cult - may in fact be a result from the goddess's close proximity to both ambivalences: the positive-negative ambivalence and the pleorama-nihilation ambivalence. But like the earth-mother Gaia herself who comes next after Chaos first came into being, Sîtalâ in practice and cult would appear to represent the terra mater who is both gateway and barricade between us and utter oblivion. She allows what we may wish, but she also protects us from the potentially inundative terrors of ultimate and abysmal incomprehensibility. ## Abstract > The smallpox‑goddess Sîtalâ originates from the torrid jungles of Bengal. She personifies the fever accompanying smallpox as well as the divine power which could, if favourably propitiated, save or release one from the disease. During the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries ‑ if not earlier as well ‑ Sîtalâ's cult rose in popularity in Bengal from where it spread to other regions of northern India. As a microcosm of all India, a siginificant and sizeable Bengali community is to be found in the holy city of Varanasi. Here too, on the banks of the Ganges at the city's centre and on the most accessible of the river's ghats is the Sîtalâ Mandir. This Dashashvamedh temple became immensely popular during the times India was frequently ravaged by the plague of smallpox. Today, however, Sîtalâ's worship on the part of both local residents and the ubiquitous throngs of pilgrims who come to Varanasi is as equally fervent and shows no signs of abating. This paper seeks to question who is Sîtalâ and how does she fit into both the official and vernacular pantheons of Hinduism, why has her cult survived the eradication of smallpox and what roles does Sîtalâ assume in the guise of her post‑smallpox survival.