Random Meditations Through Her 1,000 Names - VI 

The sixth name speaks of her as Udyadbhanusahasrabha - the one who is as bright as the thousand rising suns or she who is as the luminescence of the dawn with thousand rays. This is because the term sahasra can be taken together either with the sun or with the rays of the sun. Traditional commentary makes a very significant point here that it is her vimarsa form that has been described in this name. Ananthakrishna Sastry, in his translation of the commentary of Bhaskararaya, quotes the Svacchandatantra as saying that as the self, she is prakasa and when she is the red of the dawn it is her vimarsa form. Sastry translates vimarsa as ‘secondary form’. However, vimarsa is not just that.

In verse 57 of Vijnanabhairava, the ideal of realisation that is emphasised is 'Siva-vypati' which is a fusion with Shiva who is both prakasa and vimarsa. Jaidev Singh explains that 'in this realization, the universe is not negated but seen sub specie eternitatis, under the form of the Eternal, as an expression of the vimarsa aspect of Siva.' (Vijnanabhairava or Divine Consciousness, 1979)

What is Shiva for the Saiva literature is the goddess in the Shakthic literature. So vimarsa is very important and the essential aspect of the realisation of the consciousness without which it is not complete. It may be also considered as the form that can be seen. The goddess has three forms: the sthula, sukshma and para. Of these, the sthula is the physical form, the sukshma – subtle and para is the supreme form. With red colour of the dawn the vimarsa and the sthula form of the goddess is described here.

The identification of the goddess with the dawn is very ancient in India. It comes from the Vedic times. It is prevalent throughout India across space and time.

In the next two 250 years, this song would define Shaktha worship in Tamil Nadu, both for the general public and serious seekers. The very first verse of the Anthathi starts describing her as the ‘dawning red sun/ray’. And then the 99th verse again speaks of her as the ‘dawning sun’ associating her with the Himalayas.

The view of the rising sun is even today one of the major spiritual and tourist attractions of Kanyakumari – the southernmost end of Indian mainland and a Shakthi Peetha. That Abirami Anthathi starts with her as dawn and then provides the penultimate verse with the description of the goddess as dawn in the Himalayan context shows the entire land as the land of the goddess.

The dawn as the goddess comes to us from the Vedas themselves. Rig Veda sings of Ushas the goddess of dawn thus:

Inspired, he would produce many spectacular paintings of the Himalayan dawn.