Chinnamasta

(“She whose head [masta] has been cut
off [chinna]”) Particular manifestation
of the Goddess, one of the Mahavidyas
(a group of ten powerful goddesses), and
an important deity in the esoteric ritual
tradition known as tantra. The image of
Chinnamasta is one of the most striking
in Hindu iconography: a naked headless
woman often seated on a copulating
couple, holding her head on a platter
and gushing three streams of blood
from her neck—two into the mouths of
Chinnamasta’s attendant deities and
one into the lips of her own severed
head. The story behind this figure is that
Chinnamasta severs her own head to
satisfy the demands of her attendants
because they have not drunk their fill of
blood in battle. This image graphically
portrays the interconnections between
nourishment, sex, and death and the
power of the Goddess over all of
these things. Although Chinnamasta is
powerful, she does not have many
temples dedicated to her. One of the
most important is the temple of the
goddess Chintapurni, identified as a
form of Chinnamasta in the Shiwalik
Hills. For further information see
David R. Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses, 1986;
and Kathleen Erndl, Victory to the
Mother, 1993.