Mahavidya Chinnamasta Riding Lion

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Chhinnamasta is one of the ten Mahavidya or goddesses in the aspect of Adi Parashakti. The latter is the supreme deity of Shaktism, a tradition of Hinduism devoted to goddesses. This way, the Divine Mother is approached and encountered in ten personalities, with Chinnamasta being 6th in the lineup of these goddesses. She is also revered as a goddess of contradiction, rooted in her also being an aspect of the Devi as the giver and taker of life. Her most notable form is being the self-decapitated goddess.

This Watercolor on paper painting of Mahavidya Chinnamasta Riding Lion by Kailash Raj depicts the goddess in her most recognizable form. She is drawn with blue skin with tinges of red on some parts, consistent with how deities are described bearing this complexion. Chhinnamasta also means “she whose head is severed” thus depictions of this Mahavidya consistently show the goddess bearing her chopped head drinking from three streams of blood. She is also traditionally pictured naked but is painted half-clothed in this depiction. Two of her four hands hold her head, while the other carries a sword, and the remaining hand holds a drinking bowl. Chinnamasta is also carried by a fierce lion, drawn large enough to carry her effortlessly.

Chinnamasta is the goddess of contradictions, seen most obviously in her iconography--teeming with life even with a severed head. She is written as both the "eater" and the "eater of food", a goddess who can give life as much as she can take it. Being a deity teeming with paradoxes, she revered for her fierce disposition as well as her ability to help one achieve Ananda or bliss. This painting powerfully showcased such contrast, with the goddess looking mighty and ferocious with her lion against a stretch of land and environment of calm.