Chamunda, India, Madhya Pradesh, 10th–11th century, sandstone. Metropolitan Museum of Art
Chamunda is the dreadful goddess of death and destruction in Hindu mythology. So no wonder she is one of the most horrid looking deity in the Hindu pantheon. Standing on a corpse of a man or seated on defeated demons or a corpse, she has a skeletal body with three eyes, a terrifying face, drooping breasts, protruding teeth, long nails and a sunken belly. She wears a garland of severed heads or skulls. She has four, eight, ten or twelve arms, holding a drum, trident, sword, a snake, skull-mace, thunderbolt, a severed head and drinking vessel or skull-cup, filled with blood. Chamunda is depicted adorned by ornaments of bones, skulls, serpents and scorpions, symbols of disease and death. Her hair is piled up into a chignon tied with snakes and decorated with a tiara of skulls. Sometimes, a crescent moon is seen on her head.
Chamunda, Nepal, 14th century. Copper with traces of gilding and paint; inlaid with gemstones. Los Angeles County Museum of Art
She is surrounded by skeletons or ghosts and beasts like jackals, who are shown eating the flesh of the corpse, the goddess sits or stands on. The jackals and her fearsome companions are sometimes depicted as drinking blood from the skull-cup or blood dripping from the severed head, implying that Chamunda drinks the blood of the defeated enemies.
Chamunda sculpture from the Kamakhya temple, Assam. Photo courtesy William Clark
According to traditional mythology goddess Devi created this terrifying form of herself to defeat the demons Chanda and Munda. Originally named Kalika the goddess too a second name to memorialize her victory over the demons.
Chamunda dancing on a jackal (associated with the cremation grounds) beneath a flayed tiger skin. A sculpture from the Chasath Yogini Temple, Hirapur. Photo source
The goddess is extraordinary popular figure among Hindus and Buddhists, who worship her alone or as one of seven, eight or nine mother goddesses of whom she is typically the principal figure.
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