Chinnamasta / Chhinnamunda Painting

Chhinnamasta / Chhinnamastika / Chhinnamunda is one of the most mysterious, misunderstood and feared Tantric goddesses. She has been shrouded with such enigma and she inspires so much dread in the heart of people because of her sexually explicit and violent iconography. Imagine nature as the embodiment of feminine force - Naked, wild, untamed, nurturing and destructive at the same time. She has the power to create life, destroy it and create again, while providing nourishment throughout this cycle to herself and her creation. She is formed of air, wind, earth, fire and space and she also brings forth these elements from within her to create the universe. She is self sufficient and requires no one else to support her in this process. She is devoid of ego. She is devoid of shame. She is devoid of greed. She wants to conquer no one, and in turn can’t be conquered. She is limitless like the horizon and yet she is a grain of sand. She is the universe and the universe is her creation. She seems to be chaos, the churning of contradictions through which she keeps the world in balance. Chhinnamasta embodies the age old wisdom of people who have been connected to nature. She reveals the intricate relationship between life, sexual energy and death. Life needs to end, die and decay to provide nourishment for new life to begin. Death nourishes new life and life harbours death. It is an eternal cycle of transformation.Imagine if she was given the form of a woman. That is exactly the form given to the ‘Dasa Mahavidyas’ (10 cosmic wisdoms) – of which ‘Chhinnamasta’ is one such goddess. What kind of threat would such a woman pose to the dominance of ‘man' and patriarchal control? This is exactly the reason why her worship has been limited and her image as a self sacrificing mother upheld which is but only one aspect of her vast symbolic interpretation. I have used watercolors on handmade paper and then created the details with a pen using waterproof ink.