Counted as the eighth of the ten Mahavidyas, the set of ten forms of the supreme Goddess in Shakta tantra.
Source Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten MahavidyasDavid R. Kinsley
Counted as the fifth of the ten Mahavidyas, the set of ten forms of the supreme Goddess in Shakta tantra.
Source Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten MahavidyasDavid R. Kinsley
Devotion to the Goddess, expressed in hymns such as the Devi Mahatmya, is Shaktism's primary devotional mode and path to liberation.
Source The Secret of the Three Cities: An Introduction to Hindu Sakta TantrismDouglas Renfrew Brooks
Counted as the fourth of the ten Mahavidyas, the set of ten forms of the supreme Goddess in Shakta tantra.
Source Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten MahavidyasDavid R. Kinsley
Shaktism identifies Brahman, ultimate reality, with Shakti, dynamic divine power, against schools that treat ultimate reality as inert consciousness alone.
Source Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious TraditionDavid R. Kinsley
Counted as the sixth of the ten Mahavidyas, the set of ten forms of the supreme Goddess in Shakta tantra.
Source Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten MahavidyasDavid R. Kinsley
The Devi Mahatmya is Shaktism's central scripture, the clearest textual statement of the Goddess as supreme reality.
Source Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious TraditionDavid R. Kinsley
Derived: this work depicts a figure already recorded as belonging to this tradition; the work-to-tradition link is inferred from that live depicts edge and the figures own attested tradition affiliation, not independently sourced beyond it.
Counted as the seventh of the ten Mahavidyas, the set of ten forms of the supreme Goddess in Shakta tantra.
Source Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten MahavidyasDavid R. Kinsley
Derived: this work depicts a figure already recorded as belonging to this tradition; the work-to-tradition link is inferred from that live depicts edge and the figures own attested tradition affiliation, not independently sourced beyond it.
Derived: this work depicts a figure already recorded as belonging to this tradition; the work-to-tradition link is inferred from that live depicts edge and the figures own attested tradition affiliation, not independently sourced beyond it.
Derived: this work depicts a figure already recorded as belonging to this tradition; the work-to-tradition link is inferred from that live depicts edge and the figures own attested tradition affiliation, not independently sourced beyond it.
Derived: this work depicts a figure already recorded as belonging to this tradition; the work-to-tradition link is inferred from that live depicts edge and the figures own attested tradition affiliation, not independently sourced beyond it.
Derived: this work depicts a figure already recorded as belonging to this tradition; the work-to-tradition link is inferred from that live depicts edge and the figures own attested tradition affiliation, not independently sourced beyond it.
Source Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious TraditionDavid R. Kinsley
Devi, in one of her many forms, is the ishta-devata of Shaktism, worshipped as Brahman itself rather than as a consort or lesser power.
Source Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious TraditionDavid R. Kinsley
Kali, Deities Counted as the first of the ten Mahavidyas, the set of ten forms of the supreme Goddess in Shakta tantra.
Source Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten MahavidyasDavid R. Kinsley
Kali, Figures Source Devi Mahatmya (Durga Saptashati)Anonymous
Derived: this work depicts a figure already recorded as belonging to this tradition; the work-to-tradition link is inferred from that live depicts edge and the figures own attested tradition affiliation, not independently sourced beyond it.
Source The Sakta PithasD. C. Sircar
One of the shakta pithas, and among the most important of them.
Source The Sakta PithasD. C. Sircar
Counted as the tenth of the ten Mahavidyas, the set of ten forms of the supreme Goddess in Shakta tantra.
Source Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten MahavidyasDavid R. Kinsley
Shaktism accepts the law of action and result while holding that the Goddess, as the power behind all action whatever, may release the devotee from its consequences through her grace.
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Hindu Tantric and Sakta Literature (Teun Goudriaan and Sanjukta Gupta)Teun Goudriaan and Sanjukta Gupta
Counted as the third of the ten Mahavidyas, listed as Shodashi or Tripura Sundari, the set of ten forms of the supreme Goddess in Shakta tantra.
Source Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten MahavidyasDavid R. Kinsley
Source Hindu Tantric and Sakta Literature (Teun Goudriaan and Sanjukta Gupta)Teun Goudriaan and Sanjukta Gupta
Counted as the ninth of the ten Mahavidyas, the set of ten forms of the supreme Goddess in Shakta tantra.
Source Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten MahavidyasDavid R. Kinsley
Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Shaktism describes liberation as union with the Goddess, and its tantric schools teach that this may be reached through ritual and the awakening of inner energy rather than by withdrawal from the world.
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Mudiyettu enacts the central myth of the Bhadrakali/Kali cult, part of the wider Shakta devotional tradition.
Source Mudiyettu (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
For Shaktas these nine nights are the central festival of the year, each night given to a form of the Goddess and read as her battle with the buffalo demon, culminating in Bengal in Durga Puja and everywhere in the tenth-day victory.
Source Devi Mahatmya (Durga Saptashati)Anonymous
Shakta puja is offered to the Goddess and frequently uses a yantra, a geometric diagram, alongside or instead of an image; some lineages offer animal sacrifice, which most other Hindu traditions do not.
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source Raji: An Ancient Epic (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Shaktism holds the round of rebirth to be the play of the Goddess, whose power both spins the world out and, when she wills, releases the devotee from it.
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Shaktism's defining doctrine: Shakti, not a subordinate consort but Brahman itself, the ultimate reality from which the universe and the gods proceed.
Source Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious TraditionDavid R. Kinsley
Shaktism is bound to tantra more closely than any other Hindu tradition, working with mantra, yantra and ritual to rouse the divine energy within, and some of its lineages keep the transgressive left-hand rites that the orthodox refuse.
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Counted as the second of the ten Mahavidyas, the set of ten forms of the supreme Goddess in Shakta tantra.
Source Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten MahavidyasDavid R. Kinsley
Shaktas honour the cow as other Hindus do, though some Shakta communities, notably in Bengal and Nepal, offer animal sacrifice to the Goddess, which sets them apart from vegetarian traditions.
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Shaktism takes the Goddess as ultimate reality rather than consort to a male god, worshipped as Durga, Kali or Parvati, with the male deity understood as inert without her power.
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Source The Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Act, 1988Legislature of Jammu and Kashmir