Chandi | EPFL Graph Search

Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?

Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.

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.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related concepts (27)

Chandi

Matrikas

Matrikas (Sanskrit: मातृका (singular), IAST: mātṝkās, lit. "divine mothers") also called Matar or Matri, are a group of mother goddesses who are always depicted together in Hinduism. The Matrikas are often depicted in a group of seven, the Saptamatrika(s) (Seven Mothers). However, they are also depicted as a group of eight, the Ashtamatrika(s). In the Brihat Samhita, Varahamihira says that "Mothers are to be made with cognizance of (different major Hindu) gods corresponding to their names.

Devi

Devī ('deivi; Sanskrit: देवी) is the Sanskrit word for 'goddess'; the masculine form is deva. Devi and deva mean 'heavenly, divine, anything of excellence', and are also gender-specific terms for a deity in Hinduism. The concept and reverence for goddesses appears in the Vedas, which were composed around the 2nd millennium BCE. However, they do not play a vital role in that era. Goddesses such as Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Parvati, Radha, Saraswati, and Sita have continued to be revered in the modern era.