Chhinnamastika

Chinnamastika is a goddess in Hindu mythology. This is one of the forms of the goddess Durga, and is one of the ten Mahavidyas. This form of the goddess is headless, nude, holding her own beheaded head in her left hand and khadag (a kind of scimitar) in her right hand, drinking blood flowing from one of the three streams while two other streams are being drunk by her two maids standing nude beside her, all the three wearing long necklaces of human skulls for ornaments apart from few others. She is usually depicted standing on a copulating divine couple, the female over the male, lying on a lotus bed. One of her attendant is depicted in dark and the other in fair colour. The goddess is depicted in fair but tinged with pink or red colour. The colour of the copulating divine famale is fair and the male is dark.

There are other depictions of this goddess and her several female attendants in cloths, sometimes without the copulating divine couple. The depictions have esoteric meanings known only to the people initiated in the tantric tradition. There are several interpretations given by scholars which are mainly philosophic, but different from its esoteric meaning which suggest a particular way of conduct during tantra practice. Observance of celibacy or suppression of sexual urge is common in both. For a Yogi, the two blood streams flowing in the mouths of two attendants symbolize - Ingla and Pingla, and the third Sushumna. The head in the hand symbolizes the self, while the two attendants symbolize the brighter and darker aspects of life. The goddess on the copulating divine couple symbolize full control over sexual urge. Severing the head symbolizes making the self free from the bondage of worldly desires haunting our life. The two attendants symbolize the hunger for worldly things that are being fed by our own blood.

She is one of the important goddess in the tantric tradition, particularly in Eastern India. The famous temple of Chhinnamastika is at Rajrappa in Ramgarh district of Jharkhand in India.

As per the tradition, when she was wandering in the deep forest in Rajrappa, both of her maids became extremely hungry. They wanted to have something to eat. Finding nothing there, the goddess cut her head with the khadag causing three streams of blood flowing from her neck. Two of them falling in the mouths of her female attendants while the third in her own mouth, the severed head being held in her left hand.

There is also a famous temple of this goddess in Nepal.