Devi Mahatmya
[9] 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.
[10][11][12] The verses of this story also outline a philosophical foundation wherein the ultimate reality (Brahman in Hinduism) can also be female.
[27] 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.
[27] 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.
[30] 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.
[30] The Samkhya philosophical premise asserts that all life and matter has all three co-existent innate tendencies or attributes (Guṇa), whose equilibrium or disequilibrium drives the nature of a living being or thing.
[29] This acknowledgment of Samkhya dualistic foundation is then integrated into a monistic (non-dualistic, Advaita) spirituality in Devi Mahatmya, just like the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavata Purana and other important texts of Hinduism.
[37] The framing narrative of Devi Mahatmya presents a dispossessed king Suratha, who has lost his kingdom and a merchant named Samadhi, who is betrayed by his family.
Disturbed by these events, both men decide to renounce the world and escape to the forested ashram of sage Medhas to find peace.
[36] Most famous is the story of Mahishasura Mardini – Devi as "Slayer of the Buffalo Demon" – one of the most ubiquitous images in Hindu art and sculpture, and a tale known almost universally in India.
Among the important goddess forms the Devi Mahatmyam introduced into the Sanskritic mainstream are Kali and the Sapta-Matrika ("Seven Mothers").
Brahma sings to the Great Goddess, asking her to withdraw from Vishnu so he may awaken and slay the demons.
[40] Devi agrees to withdraw and Vishnu awakens, fights the demons for five thousand years and vanquishes them.
Feeling angered and helpless, the gods release energy which combines into a singular mass of light and strength which takes the form of a goddess, Durga.
[43] Durga rides the lion into battle and captures and slays the buffalo demon by cutting off its head.
She then destroys the inner essence of the demon when it emerges from the buffalo's severed neck, thereby establishing order in the world.
[44][45][46] In the final episode (chapters 5–13) the demons Shumbha and Nishumbha conquer heaven and the gods go to the Himalayas to pray to Devi.
[36] Devi, pleased with the devas, grants them a boon that she will always destroy the demons and bring peace to earth.
[50] Kali states that the evil adversaries of the Goddess symbolize the all-too-human impulses, such as pursuit of power, or possessions, or delusions such as arrogance.
The angas are chiefly concerned with the ritual use of Devī Māhātmya and based on the assumption that the text will be recited aloud in the presence of images.
[67] It is in Devi Mahatmya, states C Mackenzie Brown, that "the various mythic, cultic and theological elements relating to diverse female divinities were brought together in what has been called the 'crystallization of the Goddess tradition.
The Devi Māhātmyam is treated in the cultic context as if it were a Vedic hymn or verse with sage (ṛṣi), meter, pradhnadevata, and viniyoga (for japa).
It has been approached, by Hindus and Western scholars, as scripture in and by itself, where its significance is intrinsic, not derived from its Puranic context.
