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| MUKTAKESHEE - THE FIERCE
ANNIHILATOR |
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| JAGADGUREE - JAGATMATA |
Durga assumed the form of a beautiful woman and first enticed the minds of the
two demons. Both of them sought to capture her and sent his best generals with
a huge army to capture this female. These two generals named Chundu and Mundu
went to the Himalayas but were defeated and killed by the goddess Durga and her
mount, the divine lion.
Now the two giants, Shambhu and Nishambhu, themselves
marched to the Himalayas to capture Durga. These two demons had a general who
had a blessing that the drops of blood falling on the ground from his body would
create thousands of demons. At last Durga could annihilate him only when Durga's
two forms namely Chandee and Kali both combined to neutralize this blessing.
In the fierce engagement the goddess opened her mouth and drank every drop of
blood before it fell on the ground while the other counterpart fought the demons
and that general together. Eventually both the giants were killed.
Markandeya Purana places the ten forms of Durga in the following order:
DURGA - the goddess who first received and showed her beautiful face to entice
the demons
DASHBHOOJA - in this form she destroyed a part of the army of demons
SINGH-VAHINEE - in this form she fought with Rakta-Vijay, the general whose drops
of blood created thousands of demons
MAHISHA-MARDINEE - in this form she slew Shambhu, the demon, who had taken the
form of a buffalo
JAGDHATREE - in this form she overcame the army of demons
KALI - in this form she destroyed Rakta-Vijay by drinking the drops of blood
and not allowing them to fall on the ground
MUKT-KESHEE - in this form with flowing hair she again overcame another army
of the demons
TARA - in this form she killed Sambhu
CHINNAMUSHTIKA - in this form she killed Nishambhu
JAGADGUREE - in this form she was worshipped by all the gods on their salvation
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| TARA - THE FIERCE SLAYER |
In the form of Singh-Vahinee, Durga is benign as well as
belligerent. She is
represented as the goddess with yellow garments and a glittering crown. She is
sitting on a lion with four, eight or ten hands. One hand is always shown bestowing
a blessing on the worshippers.
In the shape of Tara, the goddess is shown as a fierce black
woman with four arms with one foot on the breast of Shiva, her consort. In one hand she holds
a sword covered with blood; in another she has a demon's head while the remaining
two are holding other lethal weapons. The foot on Lord Shiva's breast denotes
a story that when bloodthirsty Durga' s anger against the demons could not be
controlled and she continued destruction, Lord Shiva squatted on her path. When
she put her foot on him, she immediately realized that she was treading upon
her consort and her anger subsided.
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