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Manuscript Cover Depicting Durga Slaying Mahisha: Scene from the Devi Mahatmya
Not on view
Durga is venerated by the donors who commissioned this edition of the Devi Mahatmya. The eighteen-armed goddess dispatches the demon Mahisha with her trident while holding the buffalo by its tail, an archaic representation preserved in Nepal long after it had waned in India. In her lower hands she holds snakes that coil about the necks of two demons, likely the brothers Shumbha and Nishumbha, Mahisha’s lieutenants, thus condensing two major battles described in the text into a single image. Note the close correspondence between this image of Durga and the gilt-copper icon exhibited nearby.
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