Matangi

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Matangi (Maatamgi) is one of the ten Mahavidyas who are various manifestations

of goddess Parvati or Kali. Matangaka was the name of the chief of Chandalas.

Chandalas are one of the lowest among the castes, according to lore. In a game

of impersonation, "fool me, fool me not," Siva impersonated a traveling jewelry

salesman, sold some ornaments to Parvati while she was visiting with her father,

and suggested that she could pay him by sexual favors. Parvati without missing a

beat said, "Yes, but not now." She had the intuitive divine vision that the

traveling salesman was her husband in disguise. Siva went on his way and sat

down on the banks of Manas Lake for meditation and worship. Parvati assumed the

appearance of a nubile outcaste (Chandala) girl with a shapely body accentuated

by a red dress, and beautiful and beguiling eyes, and danced in front of Lord

Siva jiggling her moon-like breasts. Siva's ravenous eyes imbibed Parvati's

beauty in motion and gently asked her who she was. Parvati in the sweetness of

youthful voice replied with the utmost bashfulness, "Swami, I am a Chandala

girl. I came to do penance." Siva is the Yogi of Yogins. Who else is more fit

to teach penance? Siva gently took her lotus hand and pressed it tenderly

against his lotus petal-soft lips. Then he proceeded to make love to the

captive but willing Parvati, whose identity was unknown to Siva. While they

were in the conjugate embrace in Siva's mind and conjugal embrace in Parvati's

mind, Parvati morphed Siva into a Chandala (in embrace with a Chandalini). Siva

in a flash realized that Matangi (Chandala girl) was no other than his dear

wife.

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Parvati reaped her sweet vengeance, laid open utter lowness of her action and

sexual submission, and begged Siva to accept her in his heart as "Ucchista

Chandalini."

Ucchista = rejected (once used commodity), remnants of food in the mouth after

eating, that are spit out of the mouth; food sticking in the mouth and hands

after eating, therefore impure; remainder of sacrificial food; left over

crumbs. Siva accepted to honor her supplication. She is thus called Matangi (a

woman from a degraded mountain tribe or hunter-gatherers, who became Sudras

from neglecting all prescribed rites, mlecchas).

 

Parvati and Siva in their role as Chandala and Chadalini (low mixed castes worse

than dogs according to definition) have moved out of their orbit and entered the

world of the loneliest, the least, and the last, the refuse of the society. The

Varna system is based on purity and pollution: Brahmins originate from the

mouth of the Lord, Ksatriyas the hands, vaisyas the thighs and Sudras the feet.

Siva makes conscious contact with polluting things, such as corpse, crematorium

and the rest. The question of interracial marriage also is illustrated here. God

Siva consciously enters into a liaison with a Chandala girl, the lowest of a

different race. When Siva has sex with a Chandala girl (Parvati in disguise),

he morphs into a Chandala; this transformation, according to some, speaks of

the Vira who seeks transformative spiritual experience while having sex with a

low-caste woman, when his wife is

incompetent for any reason.

 

Here pollution belongs to a very broad category: pollution with regards to race,

caste, food, habits, marriage, association, cohabitation, education.

Matangi lives among the polluted people and near the garbage dumps, marked by

identifying marker stones according to Nepalese source.

 

Matangi's association with impure filthy leftovers takes us to another myth that

she actually likes to receive Ucchista from the unkempt and the unwashed;

goddess admires them for not rinsing the mouth and the hands after eating, when

they offer leftover food to the goddess against the established rules of

worship. She likes to eat fish, meat, cooked rice and milk. Eye-rolling black

Matangi is inebriated and slouches around in aimless circles.

 

Once upon a time, Parvati invited her sister-in-law Kauri Bai to her house.

Kauri refused to visit Parvati saying that she disliked her brother's bad habit

of visiting the cremation grounds, associating with ghosts and goblins, smearing

himself with ash and drinking intoxicants. She remembered Siva leaving

crematorium ash, dust, and grime in his footprints on the newly cleaned floors

of their house before his marriage to Parvati. Having heard an earful of

complaints about Siva, Parvati laid a curse that Kauri Bai would be born in a

Dalit Community in Varanasi and live in the midst of dirt, grime and garbage.

The reborn Kauri, knowing her curse, went to her brother Siva and received a

boon that pilgrims to Varanasi would stop in and pay her homage at her shrine

before the pilgrimage is considered complete. That is Matangi, the

pollution-loving goddess.

 

Food is goddess; goddess is food.

 

Vishnu and Lakshmi, upon invitation from Siva and Parvati, brought some food,

upon which they all dined. A few morsels of food fell on the floor; from the

droppings arose an young girl with auspicious qualities. She begged to eat the

leftover food (Ucchista); the divine couples gave her the leftovers as Prasada

(boiled rice offered to an idol; food leftover after eaten by a deity). Siva

addressed her as follows: "whoever worships you with your Mantra, their prayers

and activities will bear fruits. They will get what they want and defeat their

enemies."

That is the origin of Ucchista Matangi.

 

She sits on a corpse; her ornaments and clothes are red; She is sixteen and well

endowed; She holds a skull and a sword in her two hands; she loves ucchista

(left-over offerings). Her complexion is blue; a full moon adorns her forehead;

She has three eyes and sits on a jeweled throne. In her presentation as a

four-armed goddess, she holds a club, a goad, a noose, and a sword. Other times

she is portrayed differently. She sits on an alter with a smiling face and green

complexion. She wears a garland of Kadamba flowers, long hair, and a moon on her

forehead. She shines and glows in her face from the incipient perspiration. She

is fully decked out in ornaments in the ears, waist, and wrists. She is the

repository of 64 arts and two flanking parrots enhance the ambience. Kadamba =

Anthocephalus cadamba.

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Ucchista is a no-no according to Hindu tradition and worship. The living

tradition to the present day is that Hindus eat in their own micro environment,

involving their own caste people whenever it is possible or when they are not

traveling. Even among Brahmins, there are restrictive family, group or

community eating; one sect may not mix with the other or eat each other's food.

During secular gatherings, each group may segregate into little conclaves.

Matangi breaks all traditions and loves to eat polluted food from polluted

people. She rose above all pettiness and differences in caste, creed, race or

profession; to her purity and pollution are variables of the same Brahman. She

is (liberated from conventionality and) liberating.

 

http://www.bhagavadgitausa.com.cnchost.com/MAHAVIDYAS.htm

 

 

 

 

 

Matangi Skt., Intoxicated Desire

 

This goddess represents - on the one hand - sovereignty and royal dominion,

attributes based on her being the ancient "Mother of Elephants", highly

regarded and sacred animals in India. On the other hand, Matangi is the

"incarnation of emotional frenzy" who stumbles around like a wild and drunken

elephant, her eyes rolling in their sockets and her dark body reeling with

longing and desire for sexual union.

 

In the Indian province of Tamil Nadu, a matangi is a woman regarded as possessed

by a goddess Mathamma. Once chosen, she holds this position for life.

 

http://www.yoniversum.nl/dakini/matangi.html

 

 

 

 

 

Mâtangi is the intelligible manifest sound. The primordial throb (Adya spanda)

which originates by the self-volition of the Supreme, starts a series of

vibrations that take the form of nâda. This is the Eternal Word, the creatrix

of manifestation. The manifestation takes place in four steps: sthula (gross,

matter principle), sukshma (subtle, life principle), Kârana (causal, mind

principle), and mahâ kârana (great causal, original rythm). These steps

correspond to the four steps of jâgrat (waking state), swapna (dream state),

sushupti (deep sleep state), and turiya ( transcendental state).

 

Tântrics locate the four steps of sound in the nervous system: parâ, pashyanti,

madhyama, and vaikhari.

 

Parâ: the first and supreme source, it is unmanifest, but turned towards

manifestation (Târa).It is the mahâ kârana seated at the mulâdhâra.

Pashyanti: the word that percieves. This is the kârana, located at the manipura chakra.

Madhyama: the word in the middle subtle region between the navel and the throat (anâhata chakra).

Vaikhari: the expression of speech, Goddess MAtangi.

 

Mâtangi is greenish dark in complexion (Syâmala). Her tender limbs have the glow

of sapphire. She is known as Ucchista Chândâli. Sage Mâtanga was a Chandâla by

birth. Goddess of Speech manifested as the daughter of the sage and hence Her

name Chandâla Kanya.

 

Mati is the thinking mind and mata is thought. The unmanifest Word percieves

itself for manifestation and then reaches the thinking mind for expression

(MAtanga). When the word fashioned by the heart and formulated by the mind is

expresed it is Mâtangi. The Word of pristine purity becomes colored during

expression (varana). The speech descends from the Supreme Source, bringing into

expression only part of its Glory, hence the name Uchhista¹ Chândâli.

 

By catching the tail-end of the Word (articulated speech), one can get to the

source. The worship of Mâtangi leads one to the realization of the residual

above (Lalita). She is the mantrini of Lalita. She represents the power of

attraction of Lalita. Her main purpose is to lead aspirants to Lalita upâsana.

Mâtangi is the Akarshna. Lalita uses Her mantra to attract devotees to Her.

 

(left-overs)

http://www.srividya.org/Dasamahavidya/matangi.html