Upaniṣads · Devī 18
॥
Devanāgarī
यस्याः परतरं नास्ति सैषा दुर्गा प्रकीर्तिता । दुर्गात्संत्रायते यस्माद्देवी दुर्गेति कथ्यते
Transliteración (IAST)
yasyāḥ parataraṃ nāsti saiṣā durgā prakīrtitā | durgātsaṃtrāyate yasmāddevī durgeti kathyate
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
यस्याः परतरं न अस्तिyasyāḥ parataraṃ na astithan whom nothing higher exists
सा एषा दुर्गा प्रकीर्तिताsā eṣā durgā prakīrtitāshe is proclaimed Durgā
दुर्गात् संत्रायते यस्मात्durgāt saṃtrāyate yasmātbecause from calamity she rescues
देवी दुर्गा इति कथ्यतेdevī durgā iti kathyatethe Goddess is called Durgā
Traducción
«Than whom nothing higher exists — she is proclaimed Durgā. Because she rescues from calamity, the Goddess is called Durgā».
Versión
d7ba6d8d1fef · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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The name is explained: durgāt saṃtrāyate yasmāt, “because she rescues from calamity.”
Durga means “hard to pass, a fortress, a strait, a calamity”; trai — “to rescue, to deliver.” The name, then, is read as “she who draws one out of a strait,” and this is an interpretation by root, nirvacana, discussed examining the Tripurātāpinī (40).
Note that this name describes an act done for another, not a property in itself. Not “inaccessible,” not “fearsome,” not “impregnable” — though all this is present in the word durga — but precisely the one who delivers. Of two possible readings of one word, the one chosen is the one in which there is someone being rescued.
This choice is telling and repeats itself across every living faith. The names by which the Highest is addressed in calamity are almost always names of help: Kṛṣṇa — “the attracting one,” Hari — “the one who takes away,” Acyuta — “the unfaltering one”; and all of them speak not of what He is in Himself, but of what is expected from Him.
Worth noting, too, is the first half of the line: yasyāḥ parataraṃ na asti, “than whom nothing higher exists.” Grammatically this is the comparative degree: not “the highest,” but “than whom there is no higher.” There is a difference: a comparison presupposes a series in which the comparison is made, and hence others — and so even here, in the book's strongest assertion, stands a word that demands a second.