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Concept
Chandi
Summary
Chandi (चण्डी, ) or Chandika () is a Hindu deity. Chandika is another form of Mahadevi, similar to Durga. Chandika is a powerful form of Mahadevi who manifested to destroy evil. She is also known as Kaushiki, Katyayani, Asthadasabuja Mahalakshmi and Mahishasuramardini.
or is the name by which the Supremely divine is referred to in Devī Māhātmya. Chandi represents the killer of Chanda. Chanda and Munda were Ashur's strong army generals. The word Chandi also refers to the fiery power of anger of the Brahman. Bhaskararaya, a leading authority on matters concerning Devi worship, defines Chandi as 'the angry, terrible or passionate one'. While scholars debate whether an old Goddess was Sanskritized or a suppressed Goddess was reclaimed, the fact remains that since the very early days, the Devi was worshiped in the subcontinent regardless of whether she appears as a supreme deity in Sanātanī texts. Scholars who trace her tracks show that she was very much a part of an early theistic impulse as it was being crystallised in the Indic mind. C. Mackenzie Brown writes:
"Hymns to goddesses in the late portions of the great Mahabharata epic and in the Harivamsa (AD 100-300) reveal the increasing importance of female deities in Brahminical devotional life.... The re-emergence of the divine feminine in the Devi-Mahatmya was thus both the culmination of centuries-long trends and the inspirational starting point for new investigations into the nature of feminine transcendence."
When she does appear in Markandeya Purana, in the section known as Caṇḍī Pāṭha or Devī Māhātmya, she proclaims her preeminence:
I resemble in form Brahman
From me emanates the world
Which has the Spirit of Prakriti and Purusha
I am empty and not empty
I am delight and non-delight
I am knowledge and ignorance
I am Brahman and not Brahman
This text recounts the tale of male demons and their destruction by the Great Goddess and traces its lineage through the Devīsūkta in the Rigveda and also connects with the Samkhya Prakriti to establish itself as a canonical text for the Shaktas.
Official source
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