The Devi Mahatmya (Devī Māhātmya, “Glory of the Goddess”) is a Sanskrit work within the Markandeya Purana. It is also known as Durga Saptashati, the “Seven Hundred” verses, and Chandi. Its thirteen chapters unite narratives of the Goddess’s victories with hymns that praise her as the power sustaining the world. It is a central textual reference for understanding Durga and Chandi recitation.
Text and traditional setting
Textual category: Puranic māhātmya, a work that proclaims divine greatness. Language: Sanskrit. The narrative is transmitted through a conversation involving the sage Medhas, King Suratha and the merchant Samadhi, within the larger Puranic frame. Traditional narrative speakers should be distinguished from a historically identified author.
The text belongs to the first millennium CE; its exact composition date is debated. The present guide does not assign a precise year. Thomas B. Coburn’s Encountering the Goddess examines the text together with its interpretation and ritual reception. A printed Chandi manual may include additional hymns and ritual materials around the thirteen-chapter core, so two books with the same broad title need not have identical contents.
The narrative and its hymns
The opening episode concerns Madhu and Kaitabha and the Goddess’s relationship to Vishnu’s sleep. The middle narrative describes the Goddess’s battle with Mahisha. The final cycle tells of Shumbha and Nishumbha and the manifestations who fight alongside the Goddess. These episodes are framed by Suratha and Samadhi’s questions about attachment and by their encounter with the sage.
The hymns give the narrative its theological scope. They address the Goddess through divine forms and through capacities present in living beings, including consciousness, hunger, memory and power. The recurring salutations in chapter 5 differ in setting from the Narayani hymn in chapter 11, which follows the defeat of Shumbha.
Read the selected Shakti verse from Ya Devi Sarvabhuteshu alongside Sarva Mangala Mangalye. Both come from this work, but from different chapters and moments in the story.
Devi, Durga and Kali
The work brings divine manifestations into a Goddess-centered account. The Durga cornerstone explains the Mahisha narrative; the Kali profile distinguishes Kali’s appearance in this text from later Shiva–Kali narratives and Bengali devotional traditions. Keeping those settings visible prevents a later story from being silently read back into the earlier passage.
Names such as Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati also appear in liturgical classifications of the text. Those classifications need context: they do not make every familiar story or image of Lakshmi or Saraswati an episode in the thirteen chapters.
Recitation and living practice
Chandi or Saptashati recitation forms part of Goddess worship, including Navratri and Durga Puja. Swami Sivananda’s Divine Life Society edition illustrates one liturgical arrangement, with preparatory hymns and instructions alongside the core narrative. Its devotional interpretation should be identified as such.
A complete ritual recitation has a structure beyond reading an isolated verse. The Mantras guide explains why a source excerpt and a lineage’s practice instructions are different kinds of material. This profile provides orientation rather than a Chandi ritual manual.
Sources and further reading
- Sanskrit Documents, Devi Mahatmyam / Durga Saptashati, chapters 1–13; encoded by K. Shankaran and Kirk Wortman, proofread by Sunder Hattangadi and Kirk Wortman
- Swami Sivananda, The Devi Mahatmya, Divine Life Society: text, running translation and liturgical contents
- Thomas B. Coburn, Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devi-Mahatmya and a Study of Its Interpretation, SUNY Press, 1991 (scholarly further reading)