A common understanding of the Devi Mahatmya ('Greatness of the Goddess') text, a later interpolation into the Markandeya Purana, considered a core text of Shaktism (the branch of Hinduism which considers Devi Durga to be the highest aspect of Godhead), assigns a different form of the Goddess ( Mahasaraswati, Mahalakshmi, and Mahakali) to each of the three episodes therein. In this interpretation Mahakali represents Tamas or the force of inertia. She is also known as the (female) Prakriti or World as opposed to the (male) Purusha or Consciousness, or as one of three manifestations of Mahadevi Durga (The Great Goddess) that represent the three Gunas or attributes in Samkhya philosophy. In these, she is variously portrayed as the Adi-Shakti- Goddess Durga, the Primeval Force of the Universe, identical with the Ultimate Reality or Brahman. Mahakali's origin is contained in various Puranic and Tantric Hindu Scriptures ( Shastra). Parvati and all her forms are the different manifestations of Mahakali. Mahakali in Sanskrit is etymologically the feminized variant of Mahakala or Great Time (which is interpreted also as Death), an epithet of the god Shiva in Hinduism. She is also the consort of Mahakala, a form of Lord Shiva, the god of consciousness, the basis of reality and existence. She devours Kala (Time) and then resumes her own dark formlessness.

Mahakali is fiercest of the Goddesses of universal power, time, life, death and both rebirth and liberation. Mahakali ( Sanskrit: а¤®а¤№а¤ѕа¤•а¤ѕа¤ІаҐЂ, romanized: MahДЃkДЃlД«), is the much revered Hindu Goddess of destruction and doomsday. Om khadgamchakragadeshuchapparighДЃn shЕ«lam bhushundeem shirah/ shankham sandhadatim kareistrinayanДЃm sarvДЃng bhushДЃvrutДЃm/ nД«lДЃshma dyutimДЃsyapДЃdadashkДЃm sevye mahДЃkalikДЃm/yamastout swapite harao kamaljo hantum madhum kaitabham аҐ¤аҐ¤ДhДЃl Shield, Trishul, Sword, Thin-dagger, Akshay patra, Bow and Arrow, Scimitar, Cobra, Gada, the Vedas, Chakram, Noose, Vajra, Plainer sword, Shankh (Conch) Maha Smashana (The Great Cremation Ground), Manidvipa Brahman, Parvati, Mahadevi, Adi Parashakti, Durga, Kali

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