The Origin Story Of Ten Mahavidyas

The Origin Story Of Ten Mahavidyas The story about the origin of Dasa Mahavidhya goes like this. Sati, the wife of Shiva was the daughter of Daksha Prajapati, a descendant of Brahma. Sati had married Shiva against the wishes of her father. The vain Daksha performed a great yagya with the sole aim of insulting Shiva, to which he invited all of the gods and goddesses except his son-in-law, Lord Shiva. Sati learned about her father’s yajna from Narad Muni. She asked Shiva’s permission to attend the yajna, saying that a daughter did not need an invitation from her father. Shiva said that Daksha was trying to insult him, and so even if Sati attended the yajna, the fruit of the sacrifice would not be auspicious. Therefore, he advised Sati not to attend the yajna. Sati became furious – She thought that Shiva was treating her like an ignorant woman and not as the mother of the Universe. So to show Shiva who she really was, she assumed a different form – the one of the Divine Mother. The oceans raged, the mountains shook, and the atmosphere was filled with the wonder of her form. Shiva began to shake and tried to flee. But in every direction that he tried to escape, the Divine mother stopped him. The Divine Mother had multiplied herself into ten different forms, guarding each of the ten directions, the 4 cardinal directions, the 4 ordinal directions, above and below and no matter how Shiva tried, he could not escape from her, as she had blocked every escape route. These ten forms of Divine Mother are known as the Das Mahavidyas. Each form has its own name, story, quality, and mantras. The Das Mahavidyas are Wisdom Goddesses. Das means ten, maha means great, and vidya means wisdom. The Das Mahavidyas are considered forms of Divine Mother Kali, who is the first of the ten Mahavidyas. The Das Mahavidyas are: Kālī (Sanskrit: काली), Bagalāmukhī (Sanskrit: बगलामुखी), Chinnamastā (Sanskrit: छिन्नमस्ता) , Bhuvaneśvarī (Sanskrit: भुवनेश्वरी), Mātaṃgī (Sanskrit: मातंगी), Ṣodaśī (Sanskrit: षोडशी), Dhūmāvatī (Sanskrit: धूमावती), Tripurasundarī (Sanskrit: रिपुरसुन्दरी), Tārā (Sanskrit: तारा), Bhairavī (Sanskrit: भैरवी)