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The Devi Mahatmyam or Devi Mahatmya (Sanskrit: ', ), or "Glory of the Goddess") is a Hindu religious text describing the victory of the goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura. As part of the Markandeya Purana, it is one of the Puranas or secondary Hindu scriptures. It was composed in Sanskrit around 400–500 CE, with authorship attributed to the sage (''Rishi'') Markandeya. ''Devi Mahatmyam'' is also known as the Durgā Saptashatī () or simply Saptashatī, () or (): – "reading" – refers to the act of ritual reading. The text contains 700 (''saptashata''; "seven hundred") verses, arranged into 13 chapters. By far one of the most important texts of Shaktism,〔Narayanan, Renuka, "To Devi, who abides in all beings as strength...', (''Hindustan Times'' ), October 13, 2007. Refers to the ''Devimahatmyam'' as the "Shakta Bible"〕 the text has a central place in Shakta ritual. ''Devi Mahatmyam'' is seen as an attempt to unify the Vedic male pantheon with the pre-existing mother goddess worship possibly dating to the 9th millennium BCE,〔 〕 and an attempt to define divinity as a shakti, which takes form of the female gender, and that pervades all beings and non-beings and yet is transcendental. The text synthesizes a number of pre-existing mother goddess mythological puranas into a single narrative.〔 *Swami Jagadiswarananda, Devi Māhātmyam. p vi〕 Also, there are links to aspects of Samkhya philosophy in the narrative. For ritual reading purposes a number of subsidiary texts are appended before and after. A ritual reading of this text is part of the Navaratri celebrations in honour of the goddess. In eastern India, the ritual reading (''chandipATh'') is common at several functions, particularly in death rites. On ''Mahalaya'', the last day of the previous fortnight Pitri Paksha (''Pitri Pokkho''), ‘Fortnight of the Forefathers’, recitation of ''Devi Mahatmyam'' (Chandi Path), and signifies the beginning of Durga Puja festivities. Bengalis traditionally wake up at 4:00 in the morning on Mahalaya day to listen to ''Mahisasura Mardini'' in the voice of the Birendra Krishna Bhadra and the Pankaj Kumar Mullick on All India Radio, since 1932 as they recite hymns from the scriptures. ==Etymology== Sanskrit ' "magnanimity, highmindedness, majesty" is a neuter abstract noun of "great soul". The title ' is a tatpurusha compound, literally translating to "the magnanimity of the goddess". The text is called Saptaśati as it contains 700 shlokas (sapta=7, shata=100 verses). This count includes one-line sentences which are not strictly verses. There is another opinion that the name should be ''Saptasati'' as it deals with the story of seven Satis or "pious persons". The ''seven mothers'' are '.〔Sankaranarayanan, p 7〕 ' or ' is the name by which the Supreme Goddess is referred to in ''Devī Māhātmya''. According to Coburn, "' is "the violent and impetuous one", from the adjective ' "fierce, violent, cruel". The epithet has no precedent in Vedic literature and is first found in a late insertion to the Mahabharata, where ' and ' appear as epithets."〔Coburn, Thomas B., Devī Māhātmya. p 95〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Devi Mahatmya」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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