THE MAGIC TRIANGLE OF DURGA YANTRA

This is the magic triangle of the Indian goddess
Durga. It is a
yantra (magical diagram) that appears on numerous postacrds, gilded prints, and
posters of the goddess, usually positioned beneath the feet of her vehicle, a
lion or tiger. It is also worn in India in the form of a metal amulet. The
example shown here comes from a poster depicting the multi-armed, weapon-bearing
Durga riding a
tiger in a flowery field; i scanned it and eliminated the tiger's claws and a
few flowers to make the background cleaner, but other than that, i did not
change any part of it. The little squiggles in the triangle are numbers, but for
many years, i did not know which numbers they were.

In May, 1999, working on the theory that, like most magic squares, the design
utilizes only sequential numbers (in this case from 1 through 9) with three of
the numbers doing double-duty in two rows of sums, my partner
nagasiva decided to
"solve" the Durga
triangle as if it were a mathematical puzzle. He worked out four different
solutions, each of which can be rotated along three axes, to produce a total of
12 different arrays. One array is shown here, in which the numbers in each leg
totals to 17. As it turned out, this was NOT the array that the actual numbers
represented, but it is still a legitimate solution to the "puzzle."

In a side-note, it should be mentioned that our consultation with the classic
text "Magic Squares and Cubes" by W. S. Andrews et al (Open Court Publishing
Co., 1917, reprinted by Dover Publications, 1960) reveals quite a few magic
squares with religious import from India and Asia, but NO magic triangles of any
kind, although the book contains many magic pentagrams, hexagrams, and spheres.
Furthermore, Andrews has no examples of "crossword puzzle" style magic diagrams
such as this one, that is, arrays in which some numbers are counted twice, due
to the "acrostic" nature of the row layouts. So, all in all, the
Durga magic
triangle is as interesting mathematically as it is religiously.

Meanwhile, Seth Melchert, writing in the
sacred landscape e-list,
identified the symbol in the center of my
Durga triangle as
the Sanskrit word "Shreem" (alternatively spelled "Sreem" or "Shrim"), which
means "power." Sri is the name of an ancient Vedic goddess who bestowed kingship
or rulership upon people and deities. In post-Vedic times the kingship-bestowing
goddess Sri became fused with the luck-bestowing goddess Laksmi, under the name
Sri-Laksmi, an Indian equivalent to the Roman goddess Fortuna or the
Irish-American character Lady Luck. Sri-Laksmi, however, is no longer
iconographically associated with this magic triangle; it is now the distinct
emblem of Durga.
Thus the word "Sreem" in the center of the magic triangle probably refers to the
"power" of Durga, a
goddess who is conceived by some of her devotees as the supreme Mother and
Godhead and by other worshippers as Sakti, the consort and "energy" of Lord
Siva, the supreme
Godhead.

Eventually, after this web page had been online for a while, a knowledgeable
person came along who told us the actual numbers used in the
Durga triangle. His
name is "gsmith" and not only did he give me permission to copy his very pretty
red-and-white images of the
Durga Triangle, he translated the numbers as they actually appear in
the diagram. In this "official" array, each leg's numbers total to 20. Says
gsmith, "In India you can get little copper plates and medalions with this
symbol. Their meaning goes beyond simple 'luck.' The symbol Shreem which you
have in your triangle is not uniformly present in all representations. Some have
Hreem, others have Om. These are all bija (pronounced beej) [seed] mantras.
Shreem is the sound representation of Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune. Hreem is
the sound representation of Maya, the Matrix of the universe. Om is the
primordial sound of Brahman."

Another helper, named "Laylah," prvided references to a book by L. R.
Chawdhri called "Practicals of Yantras" (Sagar Publications, New Delhi, 1994) in
which the name for the
Durga triangle is given as "Shri
Durga Navaran Beesi
Yantra" and its purpose is said to be "to bestow wealth, good health, and
victory over enemies." The making of a yantra is a religious act and in this
case it is to be accompanied by puja (worship) consisting of reciting the mantra
(magical chant) "Aim Hrom Klom Chamundaye Vichche" 108 times daily. In drawing
the triagle, one is instructed to start with the outer lines, then draw inner
ones, and finally fill in the numbers from the lowest to the highest, while
reciting the bija mantra "Sreem."