‘Mary Poppins’, the West's Hindu Mother Goddess

FLAVORWIRE
By Michelle Dean

HOLLYWOOD---This is a week chock-full of anniversaries, so here’s another: 49 years ago, the film version of "Mary Poppins" premiered to much fanfare at L.A.’s Grauman theatre. Much-anticipated at the time, it garnered rapturous critical reception, but in recent years people have complained it was an overly sugary version of the original P.L. Travers book. Travers once said she probably (albeit unconsciously) modeled Mary Poppins on a figure from Hindu mythology. Not long ago, a young person, whom I don’t know very well, sent a message to a mutual friend that said: “I’m an addict of Mary Poppins, and I want you to ask P. L. Travers if Mary Poppins is not really the Mother Goddess.” So, I sent back a message: “Well, I’ve only recently come to see that. She is either the Mother Goddess or one of her creatures — that is, if we’re going to look for mythological or fairy-tale origins of Mary Poppins.” [link]