History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.32.5

v7.c92.32.5

There are two great hymns addressed to Durgā in the Mahābhārata,¹⁶⁸² viz. in Virāṭaparva (chap. 6) by Yudhiṣṭhira and the other in Bhīṣmaparva (chap. 23) by Arjuna, but they are discarded as apocryphal in the Poona critical edition. The Gangadhara stone Inscription of Viśvavarman of 480 of the Mālava era (424 A.D.) refers to Mātṛs (Mother Goddesses) and Tantra.¹⁶⁸³ The Bṛ S. 57. 56 mentions the groups of Mātṛs. The Vṛddha-Hārīta-smṛti recommends that the householder should not enter places of Śaiva, Bauddha, Skānda and Śākta¹⁶⁸⁴ cults. The Viṣṇupurāṇa¹⁶⁸⁵ (one of the earliest among extant Purāṇas) speaks of the whole world as that of Viṣṇu, who is the highest *Brahma* and is endowed with Śakti, enumerates some of the names of Durgā as Āryā, Vedagarbhā, Ambikā, Bhadrā, Bhadra-kālī, Kṣemadā, Bhāgyadā and winds up by stating that when Durgā is worshipped with offerings of wine, flesh, various kinds of foods, she, being pleased, would fulfil all desires of men. In the Kādambarī of Bāṇabhaṭṭa there is a long description of the temple of Caṇḍikā at a few days' journey from Ujjayinī, where there was an old Draviḍa devotee, in which the following points deserve to be noted, viz.