Goddess of the week : DHUMAVATI

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The seventh Mahavidyas, Dhumavati is ugly, unsteady and angry. She is

tall and wears dirty clothes. Her ears are ugly and rough, she has

long teeth, and her breasts hang down. She has a long nose. She has

the form of a widow. She rides on a chariot that has a banner on top

decorated with a crow emblem. Her eyes are fearsome, and her hands

tremble. In one hand she holds a winnowing basket, and with the other

hand she makes the gesture of conferring boons. Her nature is rude

and she is always hungry, thirsty and looks unsatisfied. She likes to

create strife and she is always frightful in appearance.

 

Original myths

 

There are two myths that tell of Dhumavatis' origin

 

She was born when Sati burned herself to death on her father's

sacrificial fire or was burned on that fire after she committed

suicide by willing her own death. Dhumavati was created from the

smoke of sati's burning body. "She emerged from that fire

with

blackened face, she appeared from that smoke". Born in such

circumstances, embodying both the mood of the insulted, outraged

Goddess Sati at the time of her death and her funeral smoke,

Dhumavati has, in the words of the priest at the Dhumavati temple in

Varanasi, " a sad frame of mind". In this version, then,

Dhumavati is

a from of sati, indeed the physical continuation of her in the form

of smoke. She is "all that is left of Sati" : sad smoke.

 

The second version says that once, when Siva's spouse Sati was

dwelling with him in Himalayas, she became extremely hungry and asked

him for something to eat. When he refused to give her food, she

said, " Well then I will just have to eat you". Thereupon she

swallowed Siva. He persuaded her to disgorge him, and when she did he

cursed her, condemning her to assume the form of the widow

Dhumavati. In this myth she represents the aggressive, assertive

aspect of Sati. When Siva does not acquiesce to her wish, she turns

on him and consume him. This myth underlines Dhumavati's

destructive

nature. Her hunger is only satisfied when she consumes Siva. She too

is said to represent the perpetual hunger , thirst and the

embodiment of "unsatisfied desires". Her status as a widow in

the

myth is an act of self-assertion and independence, for she makes

herself one by swallowing Siva. On the other hand, she does not

assume the form of widow until Siva curses her.

 

 

Adapted from The Ten Mahavidyas. Tantaric Visions of the Divine

Feminine. David Kinsley.

 

 

OM ParaShaktiye Namaha