Chandi

Chandi
Warrior form of goddess Parvati
Devanagari	चण्डी
Sanskrit transliteration	Caṇḍī
Affiliation	Adi Parashakti
Mantra	ॐ ऐं ह्रीं क्लीं चामुण्डायै विच्चे oṁ aiṁ hrīṁ klīṁ cāmuṇḍāyai vicce
Consort	Samhaara Bhairava
Mount	Lion

Chandi (Sanskrit: Caṇḍī) or Chandika (Caṇḍīka) is a Hindu goddess. Chandi is the combined form of Lakshmi, Saraswati and Durga, the ferocious form of Parvati. She is said to be the most ferocious incarnation of Adi Parashakti. Chandika form is said to be extremely ferocious and inaccessible because of her anger. She cannot tolerate evil acts. Chandika does not like evil doers and becomes terribly angry on seeing them. She slays evil doers without mercy. Her anger is expressed in Devi Mahatmya. A seven-year-old girl is also known as Chandika in Sanskrit scriptures.

Caṇḍī or Caṇḍīika is the name by which the Supreme Goddess is referred to in Devi Mahatmya. Chandi represents the shakti or power of Brahman. The word Chanda hints at extraordinary traits and thus refers to the Brahman, who is extraordinary due to his complete independence with respect to time and space. 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 Brahminic texts. Scholars who trace her tracks show that she was very much a part of an early theistic impulse as it was being crystallized 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 reemergence 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.