Tag: origin of das mahavidya

Mythological · Spiritual

Hindu Goddess Kali, Chief of all the ten Tantric Goddesses (Das Mahavidya)

Chanchal Chandra BhattacharyyaLeave a comment

Mata Kali is the principle deity among Das Mahavidya of Goddess Parvati. As Mahamaya (in the form of Sati), she could alarm the great Lord, Mahadeva Siva, her husband. When Devi Sati desired to go to her father’s house to see the Great Yajna arranged by him, she was not allowed by Siva. They were not invited as Prajapati Dakshya intended to insult them. Sati being furious, showed her originality in ten forms These ten forms of the divine mother are known as Das Mahavidya.

Kali is the initial form. She is Adi Devi. She is the destroyer of the evil forces. She protects all her innocent children, every living being on earth. She is known as ‘Shakti’ (strength) and the community who follows her is called ‘Shakta’.

Kali is worshiped by the Tantric Devotees as the divine Mother. She is worshipped by Hindus, Buddhists and the Tantric sects, and many others irrespective of their religion as the ultimate reality, Adi Shakti. She helps attain liberation, Moksha.

Kali is the feminine figurine of ‘Kal’, the eternal time. Kal or Mahakal, as she is described in Mahabharat, controls the universe. She is the supreme controller of life and death. She controls every event in this universe. Her companions are the spirits. She wears a chain of skulls. Goddess Kali has a dark blue complexion. In portraits and idols, she is found to be with Lord Siva.

We find the mention of Kali for the first time in Atharva veda. She is Trigunatit, or beyond the control of the nature and all levels of wisdom (Sattwa, Rajasik and Tamasik). In Mundak Upanishad Kali is not shown as a Goddess but as the dark blue tongue of the seven tongues of Agni, the fire God.

Ma Kali represents feminine quality and is called ‘Prakriti’ – the nature. According to the legends, she is the slayer of demons, the evils.

Let the blessings of Ma Kali protect every individual on this Earth.

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Mythological · Spiritual

Das Mahavidya

Chanchal Chandra BhattacharyyaLeave a comment

Goddess Mahamaya, the creator of this Universe is beyond the cycle of death and birth. She is the mother of all the living beings. She rules and protects Trilok– Swarga, Marta, and Patal. Devi Mahamaya has taken birth on earth several times at different era to destroy evils and save her creation. This fact was described by Sage Medhos to king Surath.

In Tantra Sastra it is stated that Goddess Mahamaya has revealed her ten forms of power, representing female energy in the form of Mother and creator to destroyer. The entity of strength and truth. Again, ten Mahavidya (great wisdom) are ten forms of Devi Mahamaya representing the ‘divine spiritual wisdom’ and showing the path of liberation.

In Chamunda Tantra, the names of the ten forms of the Devi (bolded) can be found in the following stotra:

Kali Tara Mahavidya Shodashi Bhubaneswari,
Bhairavi Chhinnamasta cha Vidya Dhumavati tatha.
Vagala Sidhdhavidya cha Matangi Kamalatmika
Ete Dus Mahavidya Sidhdhavidya Prakirtita.

The story depicting the origin of Das Mahavidya as per legend

Prajapati Dakshya, one of the descendants of Lord Brahma, wanted to get Devi Mahamaya as his daughter and began a strong tapasya. Devi gave her consent with a condition that She would leave Her earthly body and return to Her abode if anybody misbehaved with Her. Following this, Devi took birth as the daughter of the queen Prasuti wife of King Dakshya and was named Sati. Sati married Lord Siva against the wishes of her father Dakshya, which made her father very angry. Prajapati Dakshya performed a great yajna. With an intension to insult Lord Siva, he invited all the Gods and Goddesses except Siva.

Lord Siva was aware of the event but ignored to maintain peace. However, knowing that her father is performing Yajna, Sati desired to visit the event and see her parents. She sought permission from her husband, Lord Siva, who denied granting her permission to meet her father and explained Dakshya’s prime intension. Lord Siva in turn, warned Devi Sati that she might get insulted there following which her father might be in danger. Sati became very furious at this and thought that Siva considered her an innocent lady and was not aware of the fact that she was an incarnation of the Mother of the universe. She was so angry that she wanted to teach her husband a good lesson by showing her original form of strength and eternity. She took the form of the Divine Mother, Devi Mahamaya.

Seeing the violent, strong, and immensely bright Divine Motherly aura of her original form, the nature started behaving unnaturally. The rivers, lakes and oceans became turbulent responding to violent thunder, storm, and heavy rain. It was dark everywhere unnaturally mixed with a fiery red light. Lord Siva was scared to see her and wanted to flee from her but found himself guarded on all ten sides by the ten forms of the Goddess. These ten forms are popularly recognized as ‘Das Mahavidya’.

When Sati met her parents on the day of the Yajna, she was welcomed by her mother but was insulted by her father. Her father used filthy words to insult her and Lord Siva. She could not tolerate this misconduct and left her mortal body, simply to say she lost her life.

Lord Siva through his third eye when saw the incident was furious. He created the strong Veerbhadra out of his own hair and sent him to Dakshya’s yajna bhumi with the task of killing Dakshya. Veerbhadra and the army of Lord Siva killed Dakshya and ransacked the yajna bhumi, and the palace.

Lord Siva started his ‘Tandab’ dance with Sati on one of his shoulders, as he took the form of the destroyer. Everyone was scared. The nature lost its balance. To calm Siva down, Lord Visnu used his famous Sudarshan Chakra and cut the lifeless body of Devi Sati into pieces which got grounded at different places. These places later came to be known as Sati pitha.

At present Das Mahavidya are worshipped among the Hindus. The 51 Sati pitha spread across different places of India and Nepal primarily are the auspicious places where the Devi is worshipped in different forms by Hindus and Buddhists.

I will speak in detail about the Das Mahavidya and about all Sati pitha in my future blogs.

Hope you liked to know the origin of Das Mahavidya.

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