Devimahatmya

(“Greatness of the Goddess”) The
earliest and most important mythic
source for the cult of the Goddess as
the supreme divine power. The
Devimahatmya is itself a section of a
larger Sanskrit (sacred language) text,
the Markandeya Purana, and is generally accepted to have been composed in
the Narmada River region in the fifth or
sixth century. The Devimahatmya is
most notable for its assertion that God is
female. This notion has no clear source
in the earlier Hindu tradition, in which
female deities exist but are insignificant.
This conviction must have existed at
some level, because it emerges fully
developed in the Devimahatmya, and
the idea must have spent some time
developing before its full fruition in
this text.
The Devimahatmya itself is a text of
700 verses, hence its other common
name, the Durgasaptashati (“700 verses
to Durga”). The text begins with a frame
story, in which a king and a merchant,
each beset by worldly trials, seek refuge
in the peace of the forest. There they
meet a sage, who listens to each of their
stories, and explains that all of their
troubles are due to Mahamaya (an epithet of the Goddess). This is an epithet
for the Goddess as the wielder of illusion, who is the sole power behind the
universe. When pressed for further
details, the sage tells three mythic stories, each describing the salvific activity
of the Goddess. These three tales form
the bulk of the text and the basis for the
worship of the Goddess.
The first story retells the myth of the
demons Madhu and Kaitabha, who are
born from the god Vishnu’s earwax during the period of cosmic dissolution
(pralaya). As the creation of the world
begins anew, a lotus sprouts from
Vishnu’s navel. It opens to reveal the creator-god Brahma, who is immediately
menaced by Madhu and Kaitabha. The
story of these two demons also appears
in the mythology connected with
Vishnu, but there are significant differences in this version. In all versions of
the myth, Brahma appeals for help, and
Vishnu eventually slays the demons. But
in the Devimahatmya, Brahma’s hymn
of praise is to the Goddess, who in her
form as Yoganidra (“sleep of yoga”) has
lulled Vishnu into a cosmic stupor,
rendering him unable to come to
Brahma’s aid. Pleased by Brahma’s
praise, the Goddess withdraws her
influence over Vishnu, he awakens and
slays the demons.
The second story centers around the
buffalo-demon Mahishasura, who is so
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powerful that none of the gods can conquer him. One day, when the gods are
recounting their defeats at the demon’s
hands, each of the gods begin to give off
a great radiance. This radiance collects
into a single glowing mass, and from it
the figure of the Goddess emerges. This
myth portrays the Goddess as the concentrated essence of all the gods, and
thus superior to any one of them. This
motif is accentuated by each of the gods
giving her a copy of their weapons, so
that symbolically she wields all of their
divine powers. The Goddess takes up
arms against Mahishasura and his army,
and after a terrifying battle, slays him.
The third story also portrays the
Goddess as a warrior-queen. In this
episode, she fights and destroys the
demon armies of Shumbha and
Nishumbha, along with their minions
Chanda, Munda, and Raktabija. This
story is notable for the first appearance of
the fierce goddess Kali, who springs forth
from the forehead of the Goddess as her
anger personified. Kali helps the Goddess
to defeat the demon armies by stuffing
them into her mouth and consuming
them. Kali is also instrumental in destroying the demon Raktabija, who has been
granted the wish that whenever a drop of
his blood falls to the ground, it will be
transformed into another full-sized copy
of himself. This makes him impossible to
kill by conventional means. Kali is able to
thwart this special power by drinking
Raktabija’s blood before it reaches the
ground. As with the second book, this
story has extended descriptions of
battlefield carnage.
All of these stories describe the
Goddess as the supreme divine power,
far superior to the male gods in the pantheon. The frame story ends with an
extended hymn of praise to the
Goddess, and descriptions of the benefits gained from her worship. Both the
king and the merchant begin to worship her, and after three years both are
granted their desires. The king asks for a
larger and unconquerable kingdom,
alluding to the Goddess’s power to
bestow worldly wishes. The merchant,
however, requests final liberation, showing his awareness of her power over illusion, and the ultimate spiritual goal. For
further information see Thomas B.
Coburn, Devi Mahatmya, 1984.