Her name is Chamunda. Originally she
was worshipped by the Munda peoples of central India, later she joined the teeming throngs of Hindu goddesses. Chamunda, the name, comes from the combined names of two monsters called Chanda and Munda, who were killed by this mystical femme fatal when they tried to capture her. The goddess
changed form and became ghastly and ferocious, she killed and swallowed whatever and whoever came into her path, soldiers, elephants and even weapons.
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| Found in Jajpur dated 8th Century AD |
She Drinks Blood
She was robed in a tiger skin and adorned in a necklace
of human heads. The story goes that Chamunda was created by Shiva, to help him destroy the demon Andhakasura. She drinks blood, her skin turns blood red and then it is time to perform a dance of destruction.
In times past, the tribal people offered human and animal sacrifices to Chamunda, to placate this goddess who is depicted as having up to 12 arms. Often she is described as drinking from a skull cup and standing on a corpse. She is frequently adorned in ornaments featuring bones, skulls, serpents and scorpions and symbols of disease and death.
Chamunda is first mentioned in writing, in the work of a Sanskrit poet, where flames shoot from her eyes. She is covered in snakes as she dances maniacally, surrounded by goblins. But there is another description of her with a jackal at her feet crunching on a corpse, as she looks about with her third eye. She
associated with war,
death and destruction and if you want to find her, Chamunda is said to be found haunting such places as cremation grounds.
