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The Mahavidya (Sanskrit: महाविद्या, IAST: Mahāvidyā, lit. Great Wisdoms ) are a group of ten Hindu [ 1 ] Tantric goddesses . [ 2 ] The ten Mahavidyas are usually named in the following sequence: Kali , Tara , Tripura Sundari , Bhuvaneshvari , Bhairavi , Chhinnamasta , Dhumavati , Bagalamukhi , Matangi and Kamalatmika . [ 3 ]
Dhumavati is always considered a widow, and thus, is the only Mahavidya without a consort. Though associated with Shiva, having eaten him, he has since left her. [3] [20] Having destroyed the male element in the universe, she is left with nothing, but she is still Shakti, the female element with latent energy.
The word Bhuvaneshvari is a compound of the words Bhuvana Iśwari, meaning "Goddess of the world" or "Queen of the universe", where the worlds are the tri-bhuvana or three regions of bhūḥ , bhuvaḥ and svaḥ (Heavens).
Besides the Mahavidya Bagalamukhi, Matangi is the other Mahavidya, whose worship is primarily prescribed to acquire supernatural powers. A hymn in the Maha-Bhagavata Purana asks her grace to control one's foes, while the Tantrasara says that recitation of her mantra, meditation on her form and her ritual worship gives one to the power to ...
An 18th-century painting from Rajasthan depicts Chhinnamasta as black, as described in the Pranatoshini Tantra legend. She is seated on a copulating couple. Chhinnamasta is often named as the fifth [24] [25] [26] or sixth [1] [27] [20] Mahavidya (Mahavidyas are a group of ten fearsome goddesses from the Hindu esoteric tradition of Tantra), with hymns identifying her as a fierce aspect of Devi ...
Tripura Sundari means the most beautiful woman in the three worlds. Tripura could also mean the three cities crafted by Mayasura and destroyed by Tripurantaka, thus meaning "She who is beautiful to the destroyer of the Three Cities". She is known as Tripura as her mantra has three clusters of letters.
In her Mahavidya context, she is also rarely associated with incarnations of Lakshmi such as Sita and Rukmini, though she is identified as two of the Saptamatrikas who are also forms associated with Vishnu, Varahi, and Vaishnavi.
The commonly known origin of Tara is from the 17th chapter of the Rudrayāmala which describes the initial unsuccessful attempts of the sage Vasiṣṭha in worshipping Tara, and the subsequent meeting with the god Vishnu in the form of Buddha in the region called Mahācīna (China) and his eventual success by the means of kaula rites.