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Goddess, the female counterpart and an equivalent of the devata, is perhaps the single unique and wonderful aspect not only in the Indian but also in the world theistic beliefs. She continues to rule H over the imaginations and actions of her devotees the world over. A general understanding of the female is to refer to her as the fairer sex or as the delicate one. But, what interests all is to know that the socalled docile and tamely-natured one has another aspect- that of terror, terrifying both the devotees as well as those who incite her wrath and are the culpable and punishable ones. God is adored and worshipped as the mother, the great universal -mother or Jagadamba' because in this aspect God is active, produces, and sustains all. This power or the active aspect of God is addressed to as Sakti or Siva'. The belief that focuses upon the principle of Sakti-the female energy-is Saktism and the devotee of the Goddess or Sakti is known as a sakta. The term 'Sakti' is personalized into a proper noun when the Woodroffe John, Sakti and Sakta; Madras-1951, p.9 1

lo chapter 1. Introduction 2 referent is a woman or the goddess². The goddess or devi is such a wonderful and an all-encompassing canvas that every one or, say any one under the Sun, from the lay man to the realized souls, have contributed in expressing Her and still this canvas is neither disturbed, nor is it distorted and disoriented. And (because of this allencompassing and all-inclusive nature of the goddess has indeed made her dear, more popular, and easily and the most frequently approachable one than any other. And since everyone has his say, he adores her, and also deploys her to fulfil his wish. This adoration, seeking for her help or intervention, even using her for certain personal tasks - all these have evolved a certain worship-pattern in turn. These patterns of practices, ritual or prayer have evolved through a sufficiently large span of time, to be reckoned as, methods of worship. They are broadly classified as the tantra-mode, mantra-mode and the yantra-mode. These modes by themselves are both independent as well as dependent. 1 inter L Independent, in the sense that it is the goddess alone who is at the centre of worship and that she can be worshipped without the utilization of any of these three modes. At the same time these modes by themselves can, singly be used as yantra-upasana, as mantraupasana, or as murti-upasana and can be done without mutual dependence for her worship. At the same time these modes are well dependent and in fact they supplement and complement each other in 1 Llynn E. Gattwood, Devi and the Spouse Goddess; New Delhi-1985, p.59.

chapter 1. Introduction 3 the worship process. They all either singly or as a combination serve as the channel for attaining the supreme goddess which is the ultimate goal of all worship. The amount of dependence may vary from method to method, tradition to tradition, according to the region, the guru etc... The aim of the study is simple, to understand the dual aspect of the Devi- how she is visualized in the mantra, developed in the yantra, and bloomed in the tantra. The two major aspects of nature being- (i) Benign and benevolent. (ii) Malevolent and terrifying. The malevolent and terrifying aspects which essentially form a part of the complete picture of the goddess are also under the scanner of Study. Thus, the studies about either the benign or the malign aspects are from the point of the devotee. Both these aspects are important to have a complete understanding of the goddess. Thus, based on the dependence, inter-dependence, intra-dependence as well as independent nature of the goddess and the three modes, their rotation as well as revolution around the goddess and thereby the impact, through a long span of time, is the theme of this research work. Beginning any work with a a brief and comprehensive introduction is to enable one to have a clear understanding of the topic. Brief introductions of all the major terms used in the title or in the thesis are deliberated upon.