Legends about Goddess Matangi

Sati, the daughter of Daksha and the first wife of Lord Shiva, was insulted that she and Shiva were not invited to Daksha’s yagna. She insisted on going there, though Shiva told her not to. When she goes there, she transforms into the Mahavidyas, including Matangi. The Mahavidyas then surround Shiva from the ten cardinal directions; Matangi stands in the northwest. Another similar legend replaces Sati with Kali (the chief Mahavidya) as the wife of Shiva and the origin of Matangi and the other Mahavidyas. The Devi Bhagavata Purana describes Matangi and her fellow Mahavidyas as war-companions and forms of the goddess Shakambhari.

Lord Vishnu and his wife Lakshmi visited Shiva and his second wife Parvati (a reincarnation of Sati) and gave them a banquet of fine foods. While eating, the deities had dropped food on the ground, from which arose a beautiful maiden who asked their left-overs. The four deities granted her their left-overs as prasad, food made sacred by having been first consumed by the deity. This is often seen to be the Ucchishta of the deity. Shiva ordered that those who chant her mantra and worship her will have their material desires satisfied and gain control over foes, declaring her the giver of boons. From that day, the maiden was known as Ucchishta-matangini.

The Pranotasani Tantra narrates that once Parvati longed to go back to her maternal house for some days and asked Shiva’s permission to do so. Shiva agreed on the condition that if she did not return in a few days, he would come to fetch her. Parvati agreed and went to her father Himalaya’s place, where she stayed for many days. Shiva went to Himalaya’s abode disguised as an ornament seller and sold shell ornaments to Parvati. To test her fidelity, Shiva asked for sex in return. Parvati was about to curse the ornament-seller, when she realised that it was Shiva. She agreed to grant sexual favours but at the appropriate time. In the evening, Parvati returned to Shiva’s abode disguised as a Chandala huntress. She dressed in red and had a lean figure with large breasts and performed a seductive dance to lure him. She told Shiva that she had come to do penance. Shiva replied that he was the one gives fruit to all penance and took her hand and kissed her. Further, they made love when Shiva himself changed into a Chandala and recognised the Chandala woman as his wife. After the love-making, Parvati asked Shiva to grant her wish that her form as a Chandalini (the Chandala female form in which Shiva made love to her) might last forever as Ucchishta-Chandalini and that her worship in this form precede his for his worship to be considered fruitful. This tale is also found in many Bengali Mangalkavyas.

Another tale is associated with the temple dedicated to Kauri-bai – an aspect of Matangi. Kauri-bai was a goddess who was obsessed with the Brahmin ways and purity and abhorred Shiva’s heterodox practices like dwelling in cremation grounds, partaking of intoxicants and being in the company of ghosts and goblins. While Shiva simply ignored Kauri-bai’s words at first, after his marriage his wife Parvati could not bear Kauri-bai’s abusive words toward her husband and cursed Kauri-bai to be reborn in and spend her entire lifetime within an “untouchable” area of Varanasi which Kauri-bai considered polluted. Consequently, Kauri-bai was indeed reborn in the low-caste area of Varanasi and felt very unhappy. She pleaded Shiva – the Lord of Varanasi – who granted her the boon that no pilgrimage to Varanasi would be deemed complete without her worship.