THE DUS MAHAVIDYAS
The Dus Mahavidyas are the ten Wisdom Goddesses. The Literal meaning of Dus Mahavidya is 'Das' means ten, 'Maha' means great and 'vidya' means wisdom or knowledge. These ten transcendental forms of Goddess Parvati, the Adi Parashakti. The other perspective is that these are ten different forms of Divine Maa Kali, who is the first of the Ten Mahavidyas that manifested from Devi Parvati. Worship of Maa Shakti is referred to as Mahavidya, with each form having their own background story, attribute and Mantras. The 10 Devis are significant in Tantra Sadhana and are also known as Tantric forms of Devi Shakti. The Todala Tantra describes all the Dus Mahavidyas and all other details about each Devi form. Successful Tantric worship of these Mahavidyas bestows several boons to the devotees.
The Dus Mahavidyas are (1) Kali, (2) Tara, (3) Shodasi or Maha Tripura Sundari (Sri Vidya), (4) Bhuvaneshvari, (5) Bhairavi, (6) Chinnamasta, (7) Dhumavati, (8) Bagalamukhi, (9) Matangi, (10) Kamala. These ten forms of Shakti are the epitome paradigm of the entire universe. They are a guide to spiritual awakening for devotees. The Devis also have specific directions in which they reside, like, Goddess Kali and Tara Maa are for North direction, Devi Bhuvaneshvari is West direction, Shodasi (Tripura Sundari) is the Ishaan corner and so on.
