#Thread
Dhumavati is the seventh Mahavidya and widow devi. In Sanskrit Dhūmāvatī means "the smoky one". She represents the fearsome aspect of Devi portrayed as an old, ugly widow, and is associated with things considered inauspicious and unattractive.
Dhumavati is the seventh Mahavidya and widow devi. In Sanskrit Dhūmāvatī means "the smoky one". She represents the fearsome aspect of Devi portrayed as an old, ugly widow, and is associated with things considered inauspicious and unattractive.
She carries a winnowing basket in one hand which is supposed to carry poverty away from her followers.
She is the devi of strife, loneliness, unfulfilled desires and inauspicious things.
Dhumavati’s thousand-name hymn relates her positive aspects as well as her negative ones.
She is the devi of strife, loneliness, unfulfilled desires and inauspicious things.
Dhumavati’s thousand-name hymn relates her positive aspects as well as her negative ones.
Dhumavati hardly has an independent existence outside the Mahavidya group. There is no historical mention of her before she is included among the Mahavidyas.
In a story from the Shakta Maha-Bhagavata Purana, which narrates the creation of all the Mahavidyas.
In a story from the Shakta Maha-Bhagavata Purana, which narrates the creation of all the Mahavidyas.
There, Sati, the daughter of Daksha and first wife of Bhagwan Shiva, feels insulted that she and Shiva are not invited to Daksha’s yagna ("fire sacrifice") and insists on going there, despite Shiva’s protests.
After futile attempts to convince Shiva, the enraged Sati transforms into the Mahavidyas, who surround Shiva from the ten cardinal directions. Dhumavati stands in the southeast.
Another similar legend replaces Sati with Kali as the wife of Shiva and origin of other Mahavidyas.
Another similar legend replaces Sati with Kali as the wife of Shiva and origin of other Mahavidyas.
A legend from the Shaktisamgama-Tantra describes that Sati commits suicide by jumping in Daksha’s yagna and Dhumavati rises with a blackened face from the sad smoke of Sati’s burning body. She is "all that is left of Sati" and is her outraged and insulted avatar.
The Pranatosini-Tantra explains the widowhood of Dhumavati. Once, Sati asked Shiva to give her food. When Shiva declines, Mata Sati eats him to satisfy her extreme hunger. When Shiva requests her to disgorge him, she obliges. Shiva then curses her to assume the form of a widow.
The Pranatosini-Tantra version stresses Dhumavati’s destructive aspect and hunger, which is satisfied only when she consumes Shiva, who himself contains or creates the universe. It brings out her inauspicious status as a widow and her self-assertion on her husband.
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