In Devi Mahatmya, Chandi, Chandika, Ambika and Durga have been used synonymously. It is the most common epithet used for the Goddess. The designation of Chandi or Chandika is used twenty-nine times in the Devi Mahatmya, which is agreed by many scholars to have had originated in Bengal, the primary seat of the Shakta or Goddess tradition and tantric sadhana since ancient times. As Chandi, the destroyer of opposition, she can be invoked for removing obstacles, to allow us to attain Puruṣārtha, the four goals of human life. Ĭhandi, the fiercest form of the Goddess, is the main deity of the famous Devi Mahatmya, a great poem of seven hundred verses (also called Durga Saptashati or Chandi Patha) which celebrates how she fights and destroys the greatest demons. 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. Which has the Spirit of Prakriti and PurushaĬhandika Devi temple at Kothi, Himachal Pradesh. When she does appear in Markandeya Purana, in the section known as Caṇḍī Pāṭha or Devī Māhātmya, she proclaims her preeminence:
"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." 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.
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 Brahminic texts. Bhaskararaya, a leading authority on matters concerning Devi worship, defines Chandi as 'the angry, terrible or passionate one'. The word Chandi also refers to the fiery power of anger of the Brahman. The word Chanda hints at extraordinary traits and thus refers to the Brahman, who is extraordinary due to its complete independence with respect to time and space. Chandi represents the shakti or power of Brahman. Caṇḍī or Caṇḍikā is the name by which the Supremely divine is referred to in Devī Māhātmya.
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