The origins of Kumari

It is difficult to know when and how the living goddess Kumari was born. There are no clear records of her birth, and her existence is a complex interplay of various elements throughout Nepal’s long history, including the worship of young girls, the worship of the goddess Kumari, Buddhism, Hinduism, indigenous gods, goddesses introduced from abroad, and connections to the royal power. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the exact origin of Kumari.

According to tradition, when Jayaprakash Malla, the last king of the Malla dynasty, was playing a dice game called Tripasa with the goddess Taleju, the guardian deity of the country, he developed feelings for Taleju’s beauty that he shouldn’t have. The goddess became angry and disappeared from the king’s sight. Taleju appeared to the repentant king in a dream and told him that she would appear again in the body of a Shakya girl (a descendant of Buddha). Therefore, it is believed that the living goddess Kumari in her current form existed during the king’s reign, around 1736-1768.

For Hindus, Kumari is considered the national guardian deity, Taleju, and the worship of Taleju is said to have begun around 1324 when the queen of the Thiruhut Kingdom brought it to the Kathmandu Valley with her. However, Kumari worship did not begin with Taleju worship; the worship of the virgin goddess Kumari is recorded in the ancient Indian Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, compiled around the 4th century BC to the 4th century AD. However, this was merely the virgin goddess Kumari who defeated demons, and not the same being as the living goddess Kumari we know today.

In Nepal, Kumari was initially worshipped as stones or holes. This eventually transformed into the worship of a human-shaped god-statues, a phenomenon also seen in Japan. Kumari is a virgin goddess, and it is because of her virginity that she has maintained her power. Originally, there was a belief that mystical power resided in young girls, and I don’t know whether the virgin goddess Kumari was superimposed onto this idea, or whether the worship of the virgin goddess Kumari as a young girl began from the start. However, in Tantric Buddhism, there is Shakti, which is considered the source of the universe and all life, and is the energy of the mother woman, opposite to male deities such as Shiva, and is believed to reside in the body of an innocent young girl in its purest and most perfect form. In that sense, it may have been a natural progression for Kumari to be identified with powerful goddesses such as Durga and Taleju as a symbol of Shakti.

By becoming associated with Taleju, who became the guardian deity of the nation, Kumari became deeply connected to royal power, and until the abolition of the monarchy in 2008, she was the guardian deity of the nation, bestowing the tika upon the king and signifying his qualification to rule the country. She can be said to be the guardian deity of royal power and a symbol of power.

Some say that with the abolition of the monarchy, the Kumari’s major role in relation to royal power was lost, and that the meaning of her existence had disappeared. However, I believe that her connection to royal power was merely a later development, and that the original meaning of the Kumari’s existence lies in Shakti, the mother of all. The living goddess Kumari has existed, changing form along with the transformation of Nepal. When and how was she born, and where is she headed? To learn about the Kumari is to learn about the history of Nepal, and about its future.