Devi, the Great Goddess Most of Hindu goddesses, their Puranic and post puranic myths and folk lore are all come from one fountainhead---the...

Devi, the Great Goddess

Most of Hindu goddesses, their Puranic and post puranic myths and folk lore are all come from one fountainhead---the mythology of the Great Goddess herself—Mahadevi. The following is a extracted from The Markandeya Purana and a later addition to it--a text-called the Devi Mahatmaya. In this text, three interconnected yet independent stories told in succession establish the Goddess as the Supreme Being.

Mahamaya myth

The first story begins with a king named Suratha who had lost his kingdom and a merchant named Samadi who had lost this wealth. They both went to one of the chief sages, Rishi Medhas asking for his help. He told them that this is all a play of the Mahamaya the great illusion, and that they should pray to her. He said that although she was eternal, she manifested herself in many forms. He then told them that at the time of creation when Vishnu was floating, asleep on the eternal serpent Vasuki, two demons, Madhu and Kaithabha were born from the dirt of his ear and attacked Brahma, preventing him from the act of creation. Brahma then prayed to the Goddess Yoganidra (sleep of Yoga) begging her to awaken Vishnu from his eternal sleep so that he could destroy the demons. Brahma extolled the goddess by calling her the “creator, preserver and destroyer as well as Prakrti (primordial matter energy). He called her both Great Goddess Mahadevi and great Demon (Mahasuri). Praised by Brahma, the goddess emerged from Vishnu’s body and battled with the demons for five hundred years and destroyed them. Only then Brahma could begin his act of creation. Hence the goddess indirectly enters the act of creation.

Second story--Durga

The second episode is where the goddess displays her role of preservation. This myth is perhaps, one of the most important, not just in the evolution of the Great Goddess but also in establishing her as the nucleus of goddess traditions in India. In this episode, the goddess destroys the terrible buffalo demon Mahisa. Here is how the story goes: In the battle of gods and demons, gods destroyed all the sons of the demon mother Diti. Diti was so angry that she bid her daughter to do great penance so that she could beget a son more powerful than the gods. The daughter took the shape of a buffalo and went into the forest to do penance. She performed such severe penance and with such asterism that the very heavens shook. Then Brahma (the Creator) appeared before her and gave her the boon of a son more powerful than any being in the three worlds. This son, Mahisa, (which means buffalo) had the head of a buffalo and the body of a man, and no immortal could match his strength. Soon he began to take over the heavens. Terrified of utter annihilation, the gods knew they would not be able to defeat him with their individual powers, so they decided to combine their energies and create the Goddess. From Shiva the destroyer, she got her head; from Vishnu (the Preserver), her arms; from Varuna (the god of the Waters), her waist; from Brahma (the Creator), her feet; from Yama (the god of Death); her hair, from the Moon, her breasts; from Agni, her eyes; from, Twilight, her eyebrows, from Vayu, (the Wind god), her ears. Then the gods furnished her with their most effective weapons. Shiva gives her his trident, Vishnu gave her his discus, The Mountain Himalaya gave her a lion for her mount, and Indra give her his lightening bolt. This was Durga, and with the combined attributes and energies of all the gods, the goddess became invincible, the mighty warrior goddess and she began to battle Mahisa and his armies, while her lions began devouring them. Then, when she finally faced Mahisa, who also had the power of shape-shifting, he first became a lion himself, then a buffalo again and then an elephant, and then a man holding a sword. But when he became Mahisa, the buffalo again, the goddess put a foot on his neck and pinned him to the ground. As she pierced him with her trident, the demon tried to escape through the mouth of the buffalo, but she cut of his head with a sword and destroyed him.

The gods then thanked her profusely and extolled her as the Supreme preserver and the Great Mother who forgives even while she kills, because even though the demon had been destroyed, he had attained salvation, because she had touched him with her weapons.

Third story--Kali

This then brings us to the third and final episode of Devi Mahatmya. The story moves close to “terrestrial plane” to the Himalayas which are considered the boarder land between mortals and immortals.

Once again the gods were under attack by demons--this time by the brother Sumbha and Nisumbha. Remembering that the goddess had promised to return if they needed her, the gods called upon her again, by again extolling her name and supremacy, by calling upon her feminine energy that exists in all beings. Jus then goddess Parvati happened to come by and asked why they were calling her. When the gods told her about the demons, the serene and beautiful form of her called Ambika emerged from Parvati’s own body and because she emerged from the sheath of the body she was called Kausiki. Losing Kausaki, Parvati became black in complexion and since then has been called Kalika.

At this time two servants of the demon brothers came to the scene. These were the demons Chanda and Munda. They saw the beautiful Ambika-Kausiki and returned to their master Sumbha and Nisumba and praised her beauty. The two brothers, fascinated by the goddess’ description sent the two servants back to ask her if she would marry either one of them. The goddess refused, saying that she had made a vow she would marry only him who defeated her in battle. So the brothers sent their general Dhumralochan—smoky eyed-- to battle with her, but the goddess killed him. So Chanda and Munda returned to the scene and continued to harass her with their armies. Angry at them, the goddess frowned, and from the frown emerged a terrible black goddess with bloodshot eyes, naked except for a garland of skulls around her neck and open disheveled locks. She killed Chanda and Munda and got the name Chamunda. However, the battle continued, and the goddess began to lose ground. Then, she evoked saktis (energies) from the seven male gods. These saktis were not their consorts but their feminine essence. Evoking another sakti from her own essence and combining it with the gods’ saktis, the goddess Kali begins to battle. Now a new demon entered the scene—Raktabhija who had the boon that how many ever drops of his blood fell on the ground, would each give birth to ten thousand demons. Kali cut off Raktabhija’s head and before the blood could fall to the ground, she lapped it up with her tongue. Then she went to battle with Nisumbha and Sumbha who jeered at her and said that her power was derived not from her own being but from the saktis she had taken from the gods. Kali laughed at the demons and drew all the saktis within her self, proving that they were all her manifestations. Then she destroyed the demons.

In a variation of this myth in the Skanda Purana. After the deed, when Kalika perceived the massacre around her, she laughed in madness and in her madness, she danced, the dance of utter death and destruction. This is when she truly became Kali, the great black goddess. Kali's dance rose to such a crescendo that the very universe was at the point of annihilation. Now the gods grew afraid of this black goddess and begged Shiva to stop her. Shiva, took the form of a newborn infant and laid himself at her feet, but Kali did not stop. When her feet fell upon the infant, he immediately became the form of Shiva. That is when Kali ceased dancing, proving to the world that the goddess in her terrible form has the power to crush all, even the greatest of gods under her feet..