set up for D u r g a Puja also reinforces the tradition that the Mahavidyas arise to help Durga defeat demons and restore the stability of the cos-mos. At the D u r g a Saptasati temple in Nagawa, just outside Varanasi (a temple dedicated to the Devi-mdhdtmya, popularly known as the Saptaiati), paintings of the Mahavidyas on a wall of the inner shrine also dramati-cally associate the Mahavidyas with D u r g a , and specifidramati-cally with Durga as she appears in the Devi-mdhdtmya. F r o m these examples it is easy to conclude that the Mahavidyas are forms of Durga, and as D u r g a is pri-marily a battle queen, it is also logical to assume that the Mahavidyas play the role of supporting Durga in her attempts to protect the cosmic order.5 1
T h i s version, then, differs markedly from the first three in its view of the role and nature of the Mahavidyas. T h i s version does not mention marital tension, the goddesses do not appear in order to frighten or con-trol Siva, they are not associated with magical powers, and they are in a battlefield rather than a domestic setting. T h e i r association with the avatdras of Visnu is heightened and stressed.
Stories associated with individual Mahavidyas also tend to suggest this fourth version of their origin. An image maker in Varanasi, for example, told me that DhumavatI was created by Durga in her battle with Sumbha and Nisumbha and that she helped defeat these demons by employing acrid smoke, "like tear gas," against them. DhumavatI, "she w h o abides in smoke," is here interpreted as having a special weapon with which she defeats demons for the welfare of the world. Similarly, I have been told that Bagalamukhl has often appeared in battles, where she has deluded the enemy (often the Pakistanis) into making critical blunders. Swami Sadhananda Shastri, a tantric practitioner from Varanasi, w h o m I men-tioned earlier as comparing the Mahavidyas to the avatdras, noted a world-maintaining function for each of the Mahavidyas.5 2
Several people have also told me that famous gods and heroes of Hindu mythology employed the Mahavidyas, or the powers gained through wor-shiping them, in their conquest of demons. Siva killed Taraka, Krsna de-feated Karhsa, Rama killed Ravana, and Indra killed Vrtra with the help of the Mahavidyas. Likewise, Hanuman, with the aid of the Mahavidyas, defeated the female demon who tried to stop him from jumping to Lanka.
T h a t is, by propitiating the goddesses he was able to acquire the magi-cal power of becoming very small and thus was able to enter the mouth of the female demon and destroy her from inside.5 3 Indeed, at the Sankat M o c h a n temple in Varanasi, a famous H a n u m a n temple, the Mahavidyas are depicted around the ceiling of the porch in front of the shrine con-taining the main Hanuman image.
THE MAHAVIDYAS AS A GROUP 35
W h e n we look at the individual Mahavidyas in detail, as we shall do below, it also becomes apparent that they are often associated with Durga the demon slayer and the Devi-mahdtmya myths, lb take just one exam-ple at this point, Bhuvanesvari in her sahasrandma stotra in the Rudraydmala has among her names several that directly identify her with Durga, the forms Durga takes in the Devi-mahdtmya, and the actions she performs there. She is called She W h o Destroys M a d h u and Kaitabha, She W h o Slays Mahisasura, and She W h o Slays Sumbha and Nisumbha, T h e s e three names, that is, identify her with all three episodes of the Devi-mahdtmya as the slayer of the principal d e m o n s .5 4 She is also called Sivaduti, Camunda, and She W h o Destroys Raktablja, all of which are epithets of Durga or one of Durga's forms in the Devi-mdhdtmya. She is also called by the name Durga itself.5 5
5 . T H E M A H A V I D Y A S A S F O R M S O F S A T A K S I
T h e fifth version of the origin of the Mahavidyas is told in the Devi-bhdgavata-purdna. As in the fourth version, they arise to de-fend the world against demons. O n c e upon a time the demon Durgama gained control over the universe and forced the gods into subservience.
T h e gods appealed to the Mahadevi for help. She appeared in a form hav-ing innumerable eyes, all of which shed tears on seehav-ing the pitiable plight of the gods, human beings, and the earth as a result of demonic oppres-sion. She was duly named Sataksi (she w h o has one hundred eyes). She then distributed fruits and vegetables from her own body to feed the starv-ing bestarv-ings of the earth, which was sufferstarv-ing from drought. For this rea-son she was named Sakambhari (she w h o bears vegetables). A fierce bat-tle then began between the goddess and the demon and his armies. T h e goddess created several groups of goddess allies to help her in this fight, and among them were the Mahavidyas. T h e text says that these goddesses are her principal saktis and have emerged directly from her body. It names them in the following order: Kalika, Tarini, Tripura, BhairavT, Kamala, Bagala, Matarigi, Tripurasundari, Kamaksa, TulajadevT, Jambhini, M o -hinl, and Chinnamasta.5 6 T h e Devi-bhdgavata-purdna does not mention the Mahavidyas again. At the end of the battle the goddess is named Durga because she killed the demon Durgama.
T h e r e are two important points to note about this version of the ori-gin of the Mahavidyas. First, they are created to defeat demons and de-fend the cosmic order, as in version 4. In this sense they function like the avatdras of Visnu. T h e y are forms of the Mahadevi created for a specific
3 * T H E MAHAVIDYAS AS A GROUP
purpose. Second, they are mentioned along with other groups of god-desses: the Guhya-kalis, who are said to number ten thousand, and two other groups, numbering thirty-two and four. The group of sixty-four may allude to the sixty-sixty-four yoginis. According to the text, the god-dess (called Mahadevi, Mahesvari, Sataksl, Sakambharl, and Durga, among other names) has many forms and multiplies herself as needs arise.
In the Devi-bhdgavata-purdna this is a very common theme. Throughout this treatise on goddess mythology and philosophy, a central theme is the overarching reality of the Mahadevi, the highest principle in the universe, indeed, the universe itself. According to this text, she manifests herself in many female forms, and all goddesses are manifestations of her.57
C O N C L U S I O N S
Having reviewed these five versions of the origin of the Mahavidyas, we can now draw some general conclusions about what they tell us about these goddesses.
The Mahavidyas are related to Siva. The goddesses from whom the Mahavidyas are created are usually associated with Siva as his spouse. The first three versions feature Satl, Parvati, and Kali as his wife or consort.
Several of the individual Mahavidyas, as we shall see below, also have strong associations with Siva, reinforcing this point.
Siva is subordinate to the goddesses. In versions 1-3, the Mahavidyas limit, frighten, or control Siva. Indeed, this is the reason they were created in these three versions. The Mahavidyas demonstrate the superior might of the goddess in question, her ability to overpower Siva. Versions 1-3, that is, emphasize the superiority of the goddess to Siva. A common theme in s'akta theology, and in many tantric texts as well, is that Siva is ulti-mately dependent upon s'akti. This theme is succinctly and vividly ex-pressed in the well-known saying, "Siva is a mere s'ava (corpse) without s'akti." This theme of Siva's dependence upon s'akti is perhaps expressed most clearly in version 2, which features Kali as the source of the Mahavidyas. In this version, Siva wishes for independence. He wants to leave Kali but cannot, because she pervades the cosmos in her various forms. There is nowhere that she is not. It is impossible to exist apart from her. This theme is also implicit in versions 1 and 3.
The Mahavidyas are fierce goddesses. In version 1, the Mahavidyas as a group are dreadful and frightening. Versions 2,3, and 4 imply their fierce nature but do not make it explicit. The frightening nature of the
Maha-T H E MAHAVIDYAS AS A GROUP 37 vidyas is also attested in most descriptions of individual Mahavidyas. Kali, Tara, Bagala, Dhumavatl, and Chinnamasta are nearly always frighten-ing, terrible, and fierce. Tripura-sundari (Sodasi), Bhairavi, Matarigi, and Bhuvanesvari are often said to have fearsome characteristics. Only Ka-mala is consistently presented as benign. In characterizing tantric reli-gion generally as "more rugged than tender,"58 the authors of a recent book on Tantrism might well be describing the Mahavidyas, who in fact feature prominently in tantric religion.
The Mahavidyas are associated with magical powers. Version i explicitly, and versions 2 and 3 implicitly, link the Mahavidyas to magical, medita-tive, or yogic powers. Many other texts about the Mahavidyas empha-size this association, particularly in the case of certain individual Maha-vidyas, such as Bagalamukhi. These powers are often used to control other people, usually adversaries, and include the power to bring about what-ever one wills, to attract other people to oneself, to immobilize someone or make that person mute, to cause someone to flee, to make others grow old prematurely while remaining young oneself, and to kill someone sim-ply by willing it. The fact that in versions 1-3 a goddess is able to con-trol Siva with the Mahavidyas reinforces the idea that they are associated with magical or meditative powers. We might say that in these three ver-sions, the goddess in question controls Siva with her magical or medita-tive powers.
Male-female tensions and female independence. In versions 1 and 2, the Mahavidyas emerge against a background of male-female tensions, and there may be the implication of such tension in version 3 as well. This tension arises when the goddess feels abused, ignored, or insulted by her father or husband. In version 1, Satl becomes furious and transforms her-self into such a horrible, frightening being that Siva can barely stand to look at her. The Mahavidyas are forms of this being, further personifi-cations of Sati's wrath. Version 1 makes clear, and versions 2 and 3 im-ply, that the goddess, Siva's spouse in each case, has a will of her own and is perfectly capable of exercising that will even if it means going against her husband or father. The point cannot be missed in version 1: Satl is not content to remain a passive, obedient, submissive wife if she is suffi-ciently provoked. She contains aspects and powers that easily overwhelm and frighten her husband.
The fact that the individual Mahavidyas are not submissive consorts of male deities reinforces the emphasis in versions 1-3 that the goddess is an independent being. Most of the individual Mahavidyas are not de-picted with a male consort, and when they are, as in the case of Kali, Tara,
3« T H E MAHAVIDYAS AS A GROUP
and Tripura-sundari, for example, they dominate him (both Kali and Tara are shown standing on the supine body of Siva, while Tripura-sundari is usually shown sitting on him).
World maintenance. Versions 4 and 5 differ markedly from versions 1-3 in stressing the world-maintaining function of the Mahavidyas. Versions 4 and 5 cast the Mahavidyas in the familiar role of forms of the goddess Durga or the Mahadevi, created by her to defeat demons who have usurped the position of the gods. The extent to which individual Maha-vidyas are described or featured as world maintainers or demon slayers varies a good deal. Kali is well known as a demon slayer and is often fea-tured in the role. Others, however, such as Dhumavatl and Bagala, are only rarely described in this capacity. For the most part, with the excep-tion of Kali, world maintenance is a minor theme in stories of the indi-vidual Mahavidyas.
Group versus individual character of the Mahavidyas. Finally, it is im-portant to note that the Mahavidyas as a group in these five versions of their origin often function or are described quite differently from the in-dividual Mahavidyas. As was just noted, the world-maintaining aspect of the Mahavidyas is stressed in versions 4 and 5 but figures only weakly in the worship, mythology, and symbolism of the individual Mahavidyas.
Version 1 implies that all the Mahavidyas are associated with magical pow-ers and that they all create conflict among people. However, the extent to which the individual Mahavidyas are characterized this way varies a good deal. Bagalamukhi, for example, is strongly associated with these characteristics, but Kamala hardly at all.