Cite
MLA
“Maa Chamunda.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/devata/chamunda/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Maa Chamunda. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/devata/chamunda/
ॐ ऐं ह्रीं क्लीं चामुण्डायै विच्चे॥
oṃ aiṃ hrīṃ klīṃ cāmuṇḍāyai vicce ||
Gaunt to the bone, with sunken eyes and belly, three eyes, bared teeth and wild hair, dressed in an elephant or tiger hide and hung with skulls, bones, snakes and scorpions. She may have up to twelve arms, holding the trishula, sword, skull-cup and a severed head. She sits on a corpse, or rides an owl, and the owl or eagle marks her banner. Odisha’s sculptors of the 8th and 9th centuries made her most terrible, seated, emaciated, smiling.
01In the Devi Mahatmya
In the seventh chapter of the Devi Mahatmya, the generals Chanda and Munda come with an army to seize the Devi for their masters Shumbha and Nishumbha. Ambika’s face darkens with anger, and from her brow leaps Kali, gaunt, in a tiger skin, with a skull-topped staff. She swallows elephants and chariots whole, seizes Chanda by the hair and beheads him, then Munda. When she lays the two heads before Ambika, the Devi names her: because you have brought me Chanda and Munda, you will be known in the world as Chamunda. In the eighth chapter the same Devi drinks the blood of Raktabija so that no new asura can rise from it.
02Among the Matrikas
Chamunda is one of the Saptamatrikas, the seven Mothers, each the shakti of a deva: Brahmani, Maheshvari, Kaumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Indrani, and she herself. Lists of the Matrikas appear in the Mahabharata, the Devi Purana and the Vishnudharmottara Purana, and in the Matsya Purana Shiva brings them forth to fight the asura Andhaka. In the rock-cut caves of Ellora and Elephanta the seven sit in a row and Chamunda is usually last, at the right end. Her old images fill museums: an 8th-century Chamunda from Jajpur in the Odisha State Museum, one of the 8th or 9th century in the British Museum, Paramara work of about the 12th century in the National Museum, Delhi.
03Chamundi Hill to Kangra
Mysuru takes its name from Mahishasura, and on the hill above the city stands Chamundeshwari, family Devi of the Wodeyars. Dodda Devaraja Wodeyar laid the thousand steps and set up the great Nandi on the way in 1659, and on Vijayadashami her murti is carried through Mysuru on the golden howdah of the Dasara elephant. In Himachal she is Chamunda of Kangra, worshipped with Shiva as Nandikeshwar. In Gujarat she sits on the hill of Chotila, and at Dewas in Malwa the Tekri hill holds her as Chhoti Mata beside Tulja Bhavani. In Jodhpur, Rao Jodha brought her to his new fort of Mehrangarh in 1460. In Bhubaneswar the 8th-century Vaital Deula is her temple.
In the texts
- Devi Mahatmya (Durga Saptashati), chapters 7 and 8, Markandeya Purana
- Matsya Purana (the Andhaka katha)
- Vishnudharmottara Purana
