Chamunda, Smashana Kali, Bhootnath

Chamunda also known as Chamundeshwari, Chamundi or Charchika, is a fearsome form of Chandi, the Hindu Divine Mother Shakthi and is one of the seven Matrikas (mother goddesses). She is also one of the chief Yoginis, a group of sixty-four or eighty-one Tantric goddesses, who are attendants of the warrior goddess Parvati. The name is a combination of Chanda and Munda, two monsters whom Chamunda killed. She is closely associated with Kali, another fierce aspect of Parvati. She is identified with goddesses Parvati, Kali or Durga. The goddess is often portrayed as residing in cremation grounds or around holy fig trees.

The goddess is worshipped by ritual animal sacrifices along with offerings of wine. The practice of animal sacrifices has become less common with Shaivite and Vaishnavite influences. Origins: Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar says that Chamunda was originally a tribal goddess, worshipped by the tribals of the Vindhya mountains in central India. These tribes were known to offer goddesses animal as well as human sacrifices along with rituals offering liquor. These methods of worship were retained in Tantric worship of Chamunda, after assimilation into Hinduism. He proposes the fierce nature of this goddess is due to her association with Rudra (Shiva), identified with fire god Agni at times. Wangu also backs the theory of the tribal origins of the goddess. The black or red coloured Chamunda is described as wearing a garland of severed heads or skulls (Mundamala).

She is described as having four, eight, ten or twelve arms, holding a Damaru (drum), trishula (trident), sword, a snake, skull-mace (khatvanga), thunderbolt, a severed head and panapatra (drinking vessel, wine cup) or skull-cup (kapala), filled with blood. Standing on a corpse of a man (shava or preta) or seated on a defeated demon or corpse (pretasana). Chamunda is depicted adorned by ornaments of bones, skulls, and serpents. She also wears a Yajnopavita (a sacred thread worn by mostly Hindu priests) of skulls. She wears a jata mukuta, that is, headdress formed of piled, matted hair tied with snakes or skull ornaments. Sometimes, a crescent moon is seen on her head. Her eye sockets are described as burning the world with flames. She is accompanied by evil spirits. She is also shown to be surrounded by skeletons or ghosts and beasts like jackals, who are shown eating the flesh of the corpse which the goddess sits or stands on. The jackals and her fearsome companions are sometimes depicted as drinking blood from the skull-cup or blood dripping from the severed head, implying that Chamunda drinks the blood of the defeated enemies.

This quality of drinking blood is a usual characteristic of all Matrikas, and Chamunda in particular. At times, she is depicted seated on an owl, her vahana (mount or vehicle) or buffalo and or Dhole. Her banner figures an eagle. These characteristics, a contrast to usual Hindu goddess depiction with full breasts and a beautiful face, are symbols of old age, death, decay and destruction. Chamunda is often said as a form of Kali, representing old age and death. She appears as a frightening old woman, projecting fear and horror. Bhoothnath: Shiva also known as Mahadeva romanized: Mahadevah, lit. 'The Great God' , or Hara,is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hinduism. Shiva is known as "The Destroyer" within the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity which also includes Brahma and Vishnu.In the Shaivite tradition, Shiva is the Supreme Lord who creates, protects and transforms the universe.In the goddess-oriented Shakta tradition, the Supreme Goddess (Devi) is regarded as the energy and creative power (Shakti) and the equal complementary partner of Shiva.

Shiva is one of the five equivalent deities in Panchayatana puja of the Smarta tradition of Hinduism. Shiva has many aspects, benevolent as well as fearsome. He is known to be the Rudra or Maha Rudra i.e the master of all other powerfull Rudras. In benevolent aspects, he is depicted as an omniscient Yogi who lives an ascetic life on Mount Kailash as well as a householder with his wife Parvati and his three children, Ganesha, Kartikeya and Ashokasundari. In his fierce aspects, he is often depicted slaying demons. Shiva is also known as Adiyogi Shiva, regarded as the patron god of yoga, meditation and the arts. The iconographical attributes of Shiva are the serpent around his neck, the adorning crescent moon, the holy river Ganga flowing from his matted hair, the third eye on his forehead (the eye that turns everything in front of it into ashes when opened), the trishula or trident as his weapon, and the damaru drum. He is usually worshipped in the aniconic form of lingam. Shiva has pre-Vedic roots, and the figure of Shiva evolved as an amalgamation of various older non-Vedic and Vedic deities, including the Rigvedic storm god Rudra who may also have non-Vedic origins, into a single major deity. Shiva is a pan-Hindu deity, revered widely by Hindus in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia (especially in Java and Bali).

According to Monier Monier-Williams, the Sanskrit word "siva" (Devanagari: शिव, also transliterated as shiva) means "auspicious, propitious, gracious, benign, kind, benevolent, friendly".The root words of siva in folk etymology are si which means "in whom all things lie, pervasiveness" and va which means "embodiment of grace". The word Shiva is used as an adjective in the Rig Veda (c. 1700–1100 BCE), as an epithet for several Rigvedic deities, including Rudra.The term Shiva also connotes "liberation, final emancipation" and "the auspicious one"; this adjectival usage is addressed to many deities in Vedic literature.The term evolved from the Vedic Rudra-Shiva to the noun Shiva in the Epics and the Puranas, as an auspicious deity who is the "creator, reproducer and dissolver". Sharma presents another etymology with the Sanskrit root sarv-, which means "to injure" or "to kill",interpreting the name to connote "one who can kill the forces of darkness". The Sanskrit word saiva means "relating to the god Shiva", and this term is the Sanskrit name both for one of the principal sects of Hinduism and for a member of that sect.It is used as an adjective to characterize certain beliefs and practices, such as Shaivism.Some authors associate the name with the Tamil word śivappu meaning "red", noting that Shiva is linked to the Sun (śivan, "the Red one", in Tamil) and that Rudra is also called Babhru (brown, or red) in the Rigveda.The Vishnu sahasranama interprets Shiva to have multiple meanings: "The Pure One", and "the One who is not affected by three Guṇas of Prakṛti (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas)".

Shiva is known by many names such as Viswanatha (lord of the universe), Mahadeva, Mahandeo,Mahasu, Mahesha, Maheshvara, Shankara, Shambhu, Rudra, Hara, Trilochana, Devendra (chief of the gods), Neelakanta, Subhankara, Trilokinatha (lord of the three realms),and Ghrneshwar (lord of compassion). The highest reverence for Shiva in Shaivism is reflected in his epithets Mahadeva ("Great god"; maha "Great" and deva "god"),Maheśvara ("Great Lord"; mahā "great" and isvara "lord"),and Paramesvara ("Supreme Lord").Sahasranama are medieval Indian texts that list a thousand names derived from aspects and epithets of a deity.There are at least eight different versions of the Shiva Sahasranama, devotional hymns (stotras) listing many names of Shiva.The version appearing in Book 13 (Anusasanaparvan) of the Mahabharata provides one such list. Shiva also has Dasha-Sahasranamas (10,000 names) that are found in the Mahanyasa. The Shri Rudram Chamakam, also known as the satarudriya, is a devotional hymn to Shiva hailing him by many names.