Chamunda

Chamunda (Devanagari: चामुण्डा, IAST: Cāmuṇḍā), also known as Chamundeshwari, Chamundi or Charchika, is a fearsome form of Chandi, the Hindu mother goddess, aka Shakti and is one of the seven Matrikas. She is also one of the chief Yoginis, a group of sixty-four or eighty-one Tantric goddesses, who are attendants of the warrior goddess Parvati. The name is a combination of Chanda and Munda, two monsters whom Chamunda killed. She is closely associated with Kali, another fierce aspect of Parvati. She is identified with goddesses Parvati, Kali or Durga. The goddess is often portrayed as residing in cremation grounds or near holy fig trees. The goddess is worshipped by ritual animal sacrifices along with offerings of wine. The practice of animal sacrifices has become less common with Vaishnavite influences. Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar says that Chamunda was originally a tribal goddess, worshipped by the tribals of the Vindhya mountains in central India. These tribes were known to offer goddesses animal as well as human sacrifices along with liquor. These methods of worship were retained in Tantric worship of Chamunda, after its assimilation into mainstream Hinduism. He proposes the fierce nature of this goddess is due to her association with Rudra (Shiva), identified with the fire god Agni at times. Wangu also backs the theory of the tribal origins of the goddess. The black- or red-coloured Chamunda is described as wearing a garland of severed heads or skulls (Mundamala). She is described as having four, eight, ten or twelve arms, holding a Damaru (drum), trishula (trident), sword, snake, skull-mace (khatvanga), thunderbolt, a severed head and panapatra (drinking vessel) or skull-cup (kapala), filled with blood. She stands or sits upon the corpse of a man (shava or preta), a defeated demon or corpse. She is adorned with bones, skulls, and serpents. She also wears a Yajnopavita (sacred thread) of skulls. She wears a jata mukuta, that is, a headdress formed of piled, matted hair tied together with snakes or skull ornaments.