Shankaranarayanan the author of The Ten Great Cosmic Powers attribute Chhinnamasta to Vedic (ancient Hindu) antecedents. In the Chhinnamastakalpa, she is called Sarvabuddhi (all-enlightened) her attendants retain their Buddhist names.īhattacharyya concluded that the Hindu Chhinnamasta originated from the Buddhist Chinnamunda, who was worshipped by at least the 7th century. In the Sadhanamala, the goddess is called Sarvabuddha (all-awakened), and is attended by Vajravaironi and Vajravarnini in the Hindu Tantrasara, she is called Sarvasiddhi (all-accomplished), and is accompanied by attendants Dakini, Vaironi, and Varnini.

He determined that the Hindu Chhinnamasta and the Buddhist Chinnamunda were the same goddess, in spite of the fact that the former wears a serpent as a sacred thread and has an added copulating couple in the icon. The goddess Vajrayogini also appeared in this form and danced with them.Īnother story recalls how the Mahasiddha princess Lakshminkara, cut off her head as a punishment from the king and roamed with it in the city, where citizens extolled her as Chinnamunda-Vajravarahi.

However, she is a significant Tantric deity, well known and worshipped among esoteric Tantric practitioners.Ĭhhinnamasta is closely related to Chinnamunda the severed-headed form of the Tibetan Buddhist goddess Vajrayogini.Ĭhinnamunda is the severed-head form of goddess Vajrayogini (or Vajravarahi, a ferocious form of Vajrayogini), who is depicted similar to Chhinnamasta. Though Chhinnamasta enjoys patronage as one of the Mahavidyas, temples devoted to her (found mostly in Nepal and eastern India) and her public worship are rare. The legends of Chhinnamasta emphasise her self-sacrifice sometimes coupled with a maternal element sexual dominance, and self-destructive fury. The goddess conveys spiritual self-realization and the awakening of the kundalini spiritual energy. She represents death, temporality, and destruction as well as life, immortality, and recreation. She is considered both a symbol of sexual self-control and an embodiment of sexual energy, depending upon interpretation. She symbolises both aspects of Devi: a life-giver and a life-taker.

Three jets of blood spurt out of her bleeding neck and are drunk by her severed head and two attendants.

Kamakhya moola mantra