#chamunda

ওঁ জয়ন্তী মঙ্গলা কালী,

ভদ্রকালী কপালিনী,

দুর্গা শিবা ক্ষমা ধাত্রী,

স্বাহা স্বধা নমোস্তুতে

Goddess Cāmuṇḍā  

North India

11th century

“The Goddess is emaciated with protruding eyes, and wears a skull headband and a high bun. She is eight-armed, showing various attributes: three of her hands are preserved, showing a small snake (nāgapāśa) and dagger (kartrī) against her chest in her left hands, and blood cup (kapāla) in her front right hand.”

Chamunda: Goddess of war, epidemics of pestilent diseases, famines, and other disasters

The black or red coloured Chamunda 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 skull-cup, filled with blood. She stands on a corpse of a man or seated on a defeated demon or corpse. She is adorned by ornaments of bones, skulls, and serpents. She also wears a thread of skulls and headdress formed of piled, matted hair tied with snakes or skull ornaments. Sometimes, a crescent moon is seen on her head.