Maa Shakambhari

01The Devi’s promise

At the end of the Devi Mahatmya (chapter 11), the Devi tells the devas the forms she will take in future ages. When rain fails for a hundred years and the earth is without water, she says, she will be born not of a womb, and will look upon the munis with a hundred eyes, and be called Shatakshi. Then she will sustain the whole world with life-giving vegetables grown from her own body until the rains return, and be famous as Shakambhari. And there she will slay the great asura Durgama, and be called Durga.

02Durgama and the Vedas

The Devi Bhagavata Purana (7.28) fills in the katha. The asura Durgama won the Vedas from Brahma by tapas, and with the Vedas gone, no yajna could be offered, the devas weakened and the rains stopped. The brahmins went to the Himalaya and prayed to the Devi. She appeared covered in eyes and wept for nine days and nights; her tears became rivers. She fed the starving with roots and greens from her hands, then destroyed Durgama’s army and restored the Vedas.

03Her seats

Shakumbhari Devi in the Shivalik hills of Saharanpur district keeps her with Bhima, Bhramari and Shatakshi, and a Navaratri fair is held there. At Sambhar in Rajasthan, by the salt lake, she was the kuladevi of the Chauhans of Shakambhari, and the lake itself takes her name. In Karnataka she is Banashankari of Badami, where the Banashankari jatre in Pausha runs for weeks. Shakambhari Navaratri runs from Pausha Shukla Ashtami to the full moon, Shakambhari Purnima, when vegetables and fruits are offered to her.

In the texts

• Devi Mahatmya, chapter 11
• Devi Bhagavata Purana 7.28

Utsav: festivals