Chamunda

Presiding deity of the Chamunda Devi
shrine on the banks of the Bana Ganga
in the state of Himachal Pradesh, and
one of the nine goddesses whose shrines
are scattered through the Shiwalik Hills.
Although each of these goddesses has a
separate identity, they are all ultimately
seen as differing manifestations of a single Goddess. Chamunda’s charter myth
is drawn from events in the
Devimahatmya, a Sanskrit text that
describes the Goddess’s several different
forms and is the earliest and most
important mythic source for the cult of
the Goddess. The Devimahatmya’s seventh book tells how the goddess
Ambika’s anger takes material form as
the terrifying goddess Kali, who
advances into battle against the demon
generals Chanda and Munda, whom
she eventually beheads. Since the shrine
on the Bana Ganga marks the place
where both Chanda and Munda were
destroyed, the goddess is worshiped
here as Chamunda.
The name Chamunda designates a
fierce and dangerous goddess who has
often been identified with the goddess
Kali. In the poet Bhavabhuti’s eighthcentury drama Malatimadhava, the
heroine, Malati, is kidnapped by devotees (bhakta) of the goddess Chamunda
to be offered as a human sacrifice to
her. The events in the drama reflect the
ambivalence with which such powerful
goddesses—and their devotees—have
been seen. For further information see
David R. Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses, 1986;
and Kathleen Erndl, Victory to the
Mother, 1993.