Chhinnamasta (Self-Decapitated Goddess)
Chhinnamasta ('the Self-Decapitated One') is a powerful Tantric goddess, one of the ten Mahavidyas (great wisdom goddesses) in Shaktism. The legend tells that once, while bathing in the Mandakini River with her attendants Dakini and Varnini, Parvati (in her form as Chhinnamasta) was overcome by a ravenous hunger that her attendants also felt. When asked to satisfy their hunger, Parvati severed her own head with a sword and held it in her hand. Three jets of blood spurted from her severed neck — one feeding her own mouth, and two feeding her attendants. The iconography shows her standing in a b