Elements of Hindu Iconography v3.c19.7

v3.c19.7

The goddess Dēvī is worshipped in many forms. She is variously named sometimes according to her imagined age; thus, when she is worshipped as an year old baby, she is known by the name of Sandhyā; if she is conceived to be two years old, she is called Sarasvati; if of seven years of age, Caṇḍikā; if of eight years of age, Sāmbhavi; if of nine years of age, Durgā or Bālā; of ten years of age, Gauri; of thirteen, Mahālakshmi; and of sixteen, Lalitā. Sometimes she is named in recognition of one or other of her heroic achievements; for instance, she is called Mahishāsuramarddani in consequence of her having destroyed the Mahishāsura. There are special forms of images corresponding to these various ways of conceiving the goddess Dēvi. In the Dēvimāhātmya found in the Mārkaṇḍeya-purāṇa, the Dēvi herself is made to say “In the Vaivasvata-manvantara, at the end of the Dvāpara-yuga and the beginning of the Kali-yuga, a new set of asuras called by the names Śumbha and Niśumbha, would be born; and then I shall also be born as Nandā to the cow-herd Nanda-gōpāla, and shall take up the Vindhya mountain as my abode. Thereafter, at the end of the Dvāpara-yuga, I shall kill the asuras born in the family of Viprachitta and eat them up; then my teeth, hair, body and weapons will all become red with their blood and for that reason they will call me in the world as Rakta-Chāmuṇḍa. Then there would occur a famine of a hundred years' duration in the world, when there would not be available in it even a drop of water. In response to the prayers of the Munis I shall at that time come out of the body of Pārvatī with a hundred eyes; and then people would call me by the name of Śatākshī. In the fortieth *yuga* of the Vaivasvata-manvantara I shall protect all the beings in the world with such vegetables as are necessary for the maintenance of life and relieve them from the famine. People would then call me Śākambharī. In this form of mine I shall kill an *asura* named Durgama, and shall thenceforth be known as Durgādēvī. I shall then proceed to the Himalayas and assume the terrific form of Bhīmā. There will then appear an *asura* by name Aruṇa; and in the sixtieth *yuga* I shall, with the aid of a swarm of wasps (*bhramaras*), attack him and kill him. I shall, for this reason, be called Bhrāmarī”. In this way the Mārkaṇḍēya-purāṇa gives the clue to some of the names of Dēvī, indicating that they often depend upon the achievements that are attributed to her.