Ashtabhujadhari (eight-armed), dressed in the custom of the great Hindu mother goddesses, the appearance of Saurashtra-Nivasini (one who lives in Saurashtra) Meldi Mata resembles the popular features of Maa Durga, except for a striking distinction. Instead of a lion, the mount of the great-goddess, Meldi Mata is seated on a goat. According to the local legends, to slay a demon, goddess Parvati gave birth to a beautiful young feminine form, from the dirt or “Mel” of her divine physique. Drawing on this belief, numerous shrines of Meldi Mata emerged across the Gujarat region, where she is worshipped as a powerful form of the warrior mother goddess, the Adi Shakti Durga-Parvati.
With a pleasing smile, the brass Meldi Mata icon rides on the back of a goat, the preferred sacrificial offering to the goddess in shrines where she resides in her “Tamsik” or Tantric form, locally revered as “Masaani Meldi” (“Masaan” the local term for Shamshaan or cremation ground). She holds various weapons- trident, sword, discus, mace as well as a lotus and a utensil for wine and the gesture of fearlessness. In this Roopa, Meldi Mata is also associated with goddess Kali, who is sometimes visualized as riding on a goat. In her universal form, Meldi Mata is no other than the Hindu-Tantric Mahavidya Rajarajeswari, who for the worshippers of Shakti is the singular form of all the Roopas of the divine feminine.
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