page_title: History of Shaktism
section_title: Devi Mahatmya
hierarchical_section_title: History of Shaktism / Philosophical Development / Puranas / Devi Mahatmya
caption_attribution_description: English: Goddess Durga, fighting Mahishasura, the buffalo-demon (Hindu Mythology) . In the clouds the Devas, celestial beings watching the event, are seen. The story is written in the Devi Mahatmya and Devi Bhagavata and is the background of the Durgapuja, the annual Hindu festival in autumn.
context_page_description: The roots of Shaktism – a Hindu denomination that focuses worship upon Shakti or Devi, the Hindu Divine Mother – penetrate deeply into India's prehistory. From the Devi's earliest known appearance in Indian Paleolithic settlements more than 20,000 years ago, through the refinement of her cult in the Indus Valley Civilization, her partial eclipse during the Vedic period, and her subsequent resurfacing and expansion in Sanskrit tradition, it has been suggested that, in many ways, "the history of the Hindu tradition can be seen as a reemergence of the feminine."
  Shaktism as it exists today began with the literature of the Vedic Age, further evolved during the formative period of the Hindu epics, reached its full flower during the Gupta Age, and continued to expand and develop thereafter. Devi Mahatmya, an important text in Shaktism, was composed around fifth or sixth century CE. Here, for the first time, "the various mythic, cultic and theological elements relating to diverse female divinities were brought together in what has been called the 'crystallization of the Goddess tradition.'"
context_section_description: By far, the most important text of Shaktism is the Devi Mahatmya (also known as the Durga Saptashati, Chandi or Chandi-Path), found in the Markandeya Purana. Composed some 1,600 years ago, the text "wove together the diverse threads of already ancient memory and created a dazzling verbal tapestry that remains even today the central text of the Hindu Goddess." Here, for the first time, "the various mythic, cultic and theological elements relating to diverse female divinities were brought together in what has been called the 'crystallization of the Goddess tradition.'"
  As the earliest Hindu scripture "in which the object of worship is conceptualized as Goddess, with a capital G", the Devi Mahatmya also marks the birth of "independent Shaktism"; i.e. the cult of the Female Principle as a distinct philosophical and denominational entity.
  "The influence of the cult of the Female Principle [had already] placed goddesses by the sides of the gods of all systems as their consorts, and symbols of their energy or shakti. But the entire popular emotion centering round the Female Principle was not exhausted. So need was felt for a new system, entirely female-dominated, as system in which even the great gods like Vishnu or Shiva would remain subordinate to the goddess. This new system – containing vestiges of hoary antiquity, varieties of rural and tribal cults and rituals, and strengthened by newfangled ideas of different ages – came to be known as Shaktism."
caption: Devi portrayed as Mahishasura Mardini, Slayer of the Buffalo Demon – a central episode of the Devi Mahatmya, and one of the most famous in all of Hindu mythology.
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