Goddess Chamunda

Goddess Chamunda

 Bhopal Museum.

            Goddess Chamunda is said to be a manifestation of Goddess Durga. Sambhu  and Nishambu were two great demons who constantly fought with the gods and tortured humanity. All the Gods combined their energies and from their energies Goddess Durga appeared. She fought with the demons. Sambhu and Nishambu had two generals: Chanda and Munda. To kill them, a goddess appeared from the brow of Durga, Chandika.  When She killed Chanda and Munda She came to be known as Chamunda. 

        Of the Seven Mothers ( Saptamatrikas ) Chamunda is the most ferocious.  She is easy to recognise as She is depicted as skeletal, with flat drooping breasts, with sunken eyes, with a garland of skulls, with eight or ten or twelve arms carrying different weapons, and corpse as her vehicle. She was popular in Tantrism as a Goddess who frequented the cremation ground and one who drank liquor and ate meat. During Dashehra festival animals are sacrificed to her. 

           According to historians, originally she was a tribal goddess of the Vindhyas region who was assimilated into mainstream Hinduism. She was also adopted into Jainism, but as a benevolent goddess. She is the Kuldevi  ( the family goddess ) of the Oswal Jain.  

           She was misunderstood by the Westerners who mistook her for a witch. She was also seen as a hedonistic goddess and thus a symbol of a  barbaric civilisation.  But they failed to realise that at times Nature takes on a demonic features in order to destroy evil itself. The Mother continues to be loving and kind, but to fight evil She appears to be angry and grotesque.  But underneath the ferocious form is the serenity and compassion of a Mother.