Colourful faces, fierce expressions and accessories that are out of this world. Indian goddesses are possibly the most intriguing icons to worship. Some are depicted with multiple arms, one has a necklace of skulls and another rides a tiger. Images you definitely won’t find in Western religions. In the popular monotheistic religions there is only room for one god who has a male form and women take a backseat.

The female aspect of the divine is slowly leaving this world and the only place you’ll find it is India, says Dutch author Marnel Breure. For her new book Daughters of Durga, published this week, she travelled across India following the path of the holy Ganges.

She met powerful women who influenced her way of thinking and who changed her life for good. However, she started her journey with something else in mind.

Durga’s daughter
“In India I expected to find a very rich religious culture in which goddesses play a major role, but I also thought that in real society, women would have a very submissive position,” she told RNW. “I was proven wrong.”

The women she met on her journey and who are featured in her book, all turned out to be incredibly strong individuals, who are in no way inferior to the Indian goddesses.

Exceptional
“The women I met are exceptional women. They are very powerful ladies who are not afraid to take a stand against tradition. They refuse to accept the limited position that many women in India still have,” Ms Breure says.

Physical boundaries
She started her journey at the source of the Ganges in Gaumukh. At one of the holiest places in India she learned her first lesson - following the Ganges means exploring your physical boundaries as well as discovering your primal strength, she says.

“At first I felt very strongly that I had to do this trip on my own. Without the help of other people. After all, the goddess needs to be surrounded by strong women. But during my journey I discovered that spirituality is about connecting with other people.”

Vague
The connection that the writer makes with her subjects goes quite far at some points. The lines between researcher and subject often become vague.  In Varanasi for example, she connected with her yoga teacher who spends her days teaching people how to achieve cosmic orgasms by breathing.

But the most extreme female she met must be Lakshmi Tripathi, a Hijra from Bombay. Meeting a she-male liberated something inside the Dutch traveler.

“Lakshmi Tripathi is a totally crazy person,” Ms Breure says. “She does whatever she wants to do. If a Hijra is behaving in a female manner she is doing it. If she feels like kicking the shit out of you, she is doing that too.  I like that, because being a Hijra in this way gives you so many possibilities. The whole issue of gender roles collapses.”

An interesting read
In her book Ms Breure describes in detail how intimate the relationship with Lakshmi becomes. For most Indians, who only see hijras for a few seconds at the traffic light, this part of the book would provide a shocking read.

Unfortunately, as of yet there are no plans to translate the book in English. But Marnel Breure is convinced that the stories of Durga’s daughters should also be heard in their own country.

Shakti
“I think what Indian readers could learn from this book is that female strength, or Shakti as it is called, should not be confined to the religious domain. It is something that is there in society as well. It is something that is there in women and you should honour that.”