Chamunda
Chamunda ( Sanskrit : चामुण्डा , Cāmuṇḍā ), also known under the names Chamundi , Chamundeshwari or Charchika , is the horrific and terrifying aspect of Devi or Mahadevi , the 'Great Goddess' of Hinduism and is therefore closely related to the goddesses Kali , Durga but also with the kind Parvati . At the same time, she is often one of the so-called matrikas ('mothers'), a group of seven ( Sapta Matrikas ) or eight ( Ashta Matrikas ) female deities.
Legends of origin
As is usual with Indian gods, there are also several origin myths for Chamunda:
Fight against Sumbha and Nisumbha
One of the most important writings about the goddess, the Devi Mahatmya , tells the following legend: The two Asuras (demons) Sumbha and Nisumbha had received a promise from Shiva as a reward that they would be inviolable because of their strict ascetic practices . From then on, in the certainty of their inviolability, they even rose up against the gods. Chandika Jayasundari , a goddess of unearthly beauty , then sprang from the angry forehead of the goddess Ambika (also called Kaushika ) . The servants or generals of the two Asuras, Chanda and Mundi , told Sumbha about it, whereupon he wanted to take this goddess as his wife. She agreed but insisted on a duel with Sumbha before the wedding. During the fight armed gods sprang from her hair and she roared so loudly that the demons were destroyed in droves. Ambika's angry forehead sprang up another figure to support her - a terrible form of Durga, of ghastly appearance. This killed all demons including the two servants Chanda and Mundi; their name Chamunda (also Chamundi) arose from the two names of the two servants.
Another version of the same legend reports that Chandika Jayasundara brought the severed heads of the two demons Chanda and Munda to the Kaushika / Ambika. She was delighted and gave her creature the honorary title 'Chamunda'.
In other - probably later - versions of the same legend, in which demons are also slaughtered, Chamunda is equated with the goddess Kali, but also with Parvati.
Fight against Andhaka
In the Matsya Purana , the myth of Chamunda is presented differently: together with other female deities, the Matrikas , she helped Shiva in his fight against the demon Andhaka . He had the power to let new demons arise from his blood, which dripped down to earth, which ultimately made him indestructible. Chamunda drank - depending on the version of this legend, with or without the help of the other Matrikas - the blood of Andhaka, which made her body turn a blood-red color. After the victorious battle, Chamunda began a world-destroying dance. She played on a musical instrument, the shaft of which was Mount Meru , the strings of which was the cosmic serpent Shesha and whose belly or sounding body was a crescent moon. She tuned this huge instrument during a flood that destroyed the world and played it during the night of the end of the world.
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iconography
The iconography of Chamunda is partly based on the depictions of Kali and the attributes of Shiva and Bhairava .
Chamunda is mostly depicted as a naked and extremely ugly old woman with a skeletal, emaciated, black or blood-red body and sagging breasts. Her head is covered with flame hair, her eyes often roll out, her mouth is sometimes wide open and her tongue stuck out. In some cases she also shows a hideous grin. Often she sits on a corpse or on her mount ( vahana ), a lion, and holds a severed head and / or a skull bowl in her hands. A garland of skulls usually hangs around their necks. In her hands she often holds a trident and an hourglass drum ( damaru ) and / or a skull staff; their weapons are the sword (sign of knowledge) or a club ( gada ). The arms are sometimes adorned with snake bracelets.
meaning
Chamunda's origins are likely to be in pre-Aryan, rural India, where natural deities and demons were worshiped to a high degree. As a form of the Mahadevi , it is closely connected to creation, which, however - according to Kinsley and other researchers - can only be kept going if the goddess's own, self-consuming energy is constantly renewed through the blood of human and animal sacrifices becomes. Like Shiva, Chamunda is creator and destroyer in one; both aspects are inextricably linked: "Life and death form a process of giving and receiving, a process by which the Mahadevi energy is continually renewed."
See also
literature
- Anneliese and Peter Keilhauer: The Imagery of Hinduism. The Indian world of gods and their symbolism. DuMont, Cologne 1983, ISBN 3-7701-1347-0 .
- David Kinsley: Indian Goddesses. Female deities in Hinduism. Insel, Frankfurt 1990, ISBN 3-458-16118-X .
