Dhumavati

Followers of the Tantric goddess Dhumavati are instructed by this print’s caption to “meditate upon the widow-goddess Dhumavati, clad in pale [dirty] clothes, angry and riding a chariot with the crow emblem, her breasts hanging.” The “Great Wisdom” goddesses, or Mahavidyas, display the diversity of reality, with Dhumavati embodying all that is inauspicious. In this representation she is elderly and stooped but not withered. Rather, she has a full, wrinkle-free face; her open third eye signals her awakened state of higher consciousness. She rides on a majestic Bengal-style temple-chariot (ratha), complete with a charioteer and two horses. The vehicle is modeled after the Dakshineswar temple, which had recently been constructed on the banks of the Hooghly River by a wealthy female devotee of Kali, Rani Rashmoni.