Chandi (, ) or Chandika () is a Hindu deity. Chandika is another form of Mahadevi, similar to Durga. Chandika is a powerful form of Mahadevi who manifested to destroy evil. She is also known as Kaushiki, Katyayani, Asthadasabuja Mahalakshmi and Mahishasuramardini.
History
or is the name by which the Supremely divine is referred to in Devī Māhātmya. Chandi represents the killer of Chanda. Chanda and Munda were Ashur's strong army generals. The word Chandi also refers to the fiery power of anger of the Brahman. Bhaskararaya, a leading authority on matters concerning Devi worship, defines Chandi as 'the angry, terrible or passionate one'. While scholars debate whether an old Goddess was Sanskritized or a suppressed Goddess was reclaimed, the fact remains that since the very early days, the Devi was worshiped in the subcontinent regardless of whether she appears as a supreme deity in Sanātanī texts. Scholars who trace her tracks show that she was very much a part of an early theistic impulse as it was being crystallised in the Indic mind. C. Mackenzie Brown writes:
"Hymns to goddesses in the late portions of the great Mahabharata epic and in the Harivamsa (AD 100-300) reveal the increasing importance of female deities in Brahminical devotional life.… The re-emergence of the divine feminine in the Devi-Mahatmya was thus both the culmination of centuries-long trends and the inspirational starting point for new investigations into the nature of feminine transcendence."
When she does appear in Markandeya Purana, in the section known as Caṇḍī Pāṭha or Devī Māhātmya, she proclaims her preeminence:
This text recounts the tale of male demons and their destruction by the Great Goddess and traces its lineage through the Devīsūkta in the Rigveda and also connects with the Samkhya Prakriti to establish itself as a canonical text for the Shaktas.
Chandi, the fiercest form of the Goddess, is the main deity of the famous Devi Mahatmya, a great poem of seven hundred verses (also called Durga Saptashati or Chandi Patha) which celebrates how she fights and destroys the greatest demons. As Chandi, the destroyer of opposition, she can be invoked for removing obstacles, to allow us to attain Puruṣārtha, the four goals of human life.
The designation of Chandi or Chandika is used twenty-nine times in the Devi Mahatmya, which is agreed by many scholars to have had originated in Bengal, the primary seat of the Shakta or Goddess tradition and tantric sadhana since ancient times. It is the most common epithet used for the Goddess. In Devi Mahatmya, Chandi, Chandika, Ambika and Durga have been used synonymously.
The basis for Chandi worship is found in the Devi Bhagavata as well as in the Markandeya Purana containing the well-known Saptashati. This narrates the three tales of Chandika fighting and destroying the evil forces in the forms of Madhu & Kaitabha, Dhumralochana, Chanda and Munda, Raktabeeja, Shumbha & Nishumbha, and Mahishasura. These stories are narrated in thirteen chapters in the form of seven hundred stanzas or half stanzas. Each of these is considered as an independent mantra, by repeating which one attains profound benefits.
Goddess Chandi is associated with the nine-lettered Navakshari mantra that has its basis in the Devi Upanishad, one of the five Atharva Shirsha Upanishads. It is also called Navarna Mantra or Navavarna Mantra. Besides the Sri Vidhya mantras, it is one of the principal mantras in Shakti worship. It is customary to chant this mantra when chanting the Devi Mahatmya. She is supposed to live in a place called Mahakal, which is close to Kailasa
Named after the goddess is the city of Chandigarh (literally: 'fort of Chandi'), the joint capital of the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.
Legends
Chandika is an avatar of Durga. The three principal forms of Durga worshipped are Mahagauri, Chandika and Aparajita. Of these, Chandika has two forms called Chandi and Chamunda who is created by the goddess Kaushiki for killing demons Chanda and Munda.
She is known as the supreme goddess Mahishasuramardini or Durga who slayed the demon Mahishasura. She has been affiliated with and also considered as Katyayini, Kaushiki or Ambika who killed Shumbha, Nishumbha and their fellow demons. "The great Goddess was born from the energies of the male divinities when the devas became impotent in the long-drawn-out battle with the asuras. All the energies of the Gods became united and became supernova, throwing out flames in all directions. Then that unique light, pervading the Three Worlds with its lustre, combined into one, and became a female form."