Devi Mahatmyam

The ''Devi Mahatmya'' or ''Devi Mahatmyam'' () is a Hindu philosophical text describing the Goddess, known as Adi Parashakti or Durga, as the supreme divine ultimate reality and creator of the universe. It is part of the Mārkandeya Purāna (chapters 81 to 93).

''Devi Mahatmyam'' is also known as the ''Durgā Saptashatī'' () or Śata Chandī (शत् चंडी) and ''Chandi Path'' (). The text contains 700 verses arranged into 13 chapters. It is one of the most important texts in Shaktism, along with ''Devi-Bhagavata Purana'' and Devi Upanishad. The text is one of the earliest extant complete manuscripts from the Hindu traditions which describes reverence and worship of the feminine aspect of God.

The ''Devi Mahatmyam'' describes a storied battle between good and evil, where the Devi manifesting as goddess Durga leads the forces of good against the demon Mahishasura—the goddess is very angry and ruthless, and the forces of good win. The verses of this story also outline a philosophical foundation wherein the ultimate reality (Brahman in Hinduism is the Divine Mother).

It is recited during Navaratri celebrations, the Durga Puja festival, and in Durga temples across India.

Etymology

''Devi Mahatmyam'' means 'Glorification of the Goddess'. The text is also called ''Durga Saptaśati'' (literally a collection of seven hundred" or something that contains seven hundreds in number), as it contains 700 shlokas (verses).

It is also known as ''Candi Patha.'' '' '' or ' is the name by which the Supreme Goddess is referred to in ''Devī Māhātmyam''. According to Hindu Scriptures, ' is "the Goddess of Truth and Justice who came to Earth for the establishment of Dharma", from the adjective ', "fierce, violent, cruel for evil forces not for good forces". The epithet has no precedent in Vedic literature and is first found in a late insertion to the Mahabharata, where ' and ' appear as epithets."

History

''Devi Mahatmyam'' is a text extracted from ''Markandeya Purana'', and constitutes the latter's chapters 81 through 93. The Purana is dated to the ~3rd century CE, and the ''Devi Mahatmyam'' was added to the ''Markandeya Purana'' either in the 5th or 6th century.

The Dadhimati Mata inscription (608 CE) quotes a portion from the ''Devi Mahatmyam''. Thus, it can be concluded that the text was composed before the 7th century CE. It is generally dated between 400–600 CE. Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty dates the ''Devi Mahatmya'' to , and the rest of the ''Markandeya Purana'' to .

Hymns to goddesses are in the ancient Hindu epic ''Mahabharata'', particularly in the later (100 to 300 CE) added ''Harivamsa'' section. Thomas Coburn states that the archaeological and textual evidence implies that the Goddess had become as much a part of the Hindu tradition as God by about the third or fourth century.

C. Mackenzie Brown states that the ''Devi Mahatmyam'' is both a culmination of centuries of Indian ideas about the divine feminine, as well as a foundation for the literature and spirituality focused on the feminine transcendence in centuries that followed.

Philosophy

The ''Devi Mahatmya'' is a devotional text, and Thomas Coburn states that its aim is not to analyze divine forms or abstract ideas, but to praise. It accomplishes this with a philosophical foundation, wherein the female is the primordial creator; she is also the Tridevi as the secondary creator, the sustainer, and destroyer. She is described in the text as the one who dwells in all creatures, as the soul, as the power to know, will and act. She is further described as the consciousness of all living beings, intelligence, matter, and all that is form or emotion.

The text includes hymns to ''saguna'' (manifest, incarnated) form of the Goddess, as well as ''nirguna'' (unmanifest, abstract) form of her. The ''saguna'' hymns appear in chapters 1, 4 and 11 of the ''Devi Mahatmya'', while chapter 5 praises the ''nirguna'' concept of Goddess. The ''saguna'' forms of her, asserts the text, are Mahakali (destroyer, desire principle of mother, Tamasic), Mahalakshmi (sustainer, evolution principle of mother, Sattvic) and Mahasaraswati (creator, action principle of mother, Rajasic), which as a collective are called ''Tridevi''. The ''nirguna'' concept (''Avyakrita'', transcendent) is also referred to as Maha-lakshmi. This structure is not accidental, but embeds the Samkhya philosophy idea of three Gunas that is central in Hindu scriptures such as the ''Bhagavad Gita''.

The Samkhya philosophical premise asserts that all life and matter has all three co-existent innate tendencies or attributes (Guṇa

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