Sri Rajamathangi

Goddess Rajamathangi represents the 9th of the Dasamahavidya’s and she is considered to be the tantric form of Mahasaraswati devi. Like Sarasvati, Matangi governs speech, music, knowledge and the arts. Her worship is prescribed to acquire supernatural powers, especially gaining control over enemies, attracting people to oneself, acquiring mastery over the arts and gaining supreme knowledge. Ambal’s other names include Rajashyamala, Matangi, Kadambari, Vaakvilasini and many more. She is also one of the Sapthamatha’s. The Shaktisamgama-tantra narrates the birth of Ucchishta-matangini. Once, the god Vishnu and his wife Lakshmi visited Shiva and his second wife Parvati (a reincarnation of Sati) and gave them a banquet …of fine foods. While eating, the deities dropped some food on the ground, from which arose a beautiful maiden who asked their left-overs. The four deities granted her their left-overs as prasad, food made sacred by having been first consumed by the deity. This can be interpreted as the Ucchishta of the deity, although due to its negative connotation the word Ucchishta is never explicitly used in connection to Prasad. Shiva decreed that those who repeat her mantra and worship her will have their material desires satisfied and gain control over foes, declaring her the giver of boons. From that day, the maiden was known as Ucchishta-matangini. Matangi is often described as an outcast and impure. Her association with pollution mainly streams from her relation to outcaste communities, considered to be polluted in Hindu society. These social groups deal in occupations deemed inauspicious and polluted like a collection of waste, meat-processing and working in cremation grounds. Matangi is regarded as a Tantric form of Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and the arts of mainstream Hinduism, with whom she shares many traits. Both embody music and are