Who is Devi Prathyangira?

This is a question I am asked quite often I assume because she is not a common household name, even here in India. Though in some states she is known somewhat well, like Kerala or Tamil Nadu.

First thing you have to know is that there are two ways to approach a deity, Vedic or Tantric. Vedic you’ll know immediately when you enter a temple. The priests, all of them, will be in white and all doing the same mantra recitation for each of the Devatas inside that temple. And the energy is there, but it is not an overwhelming energy. In a Tantric temple they will often be wearing red if it’s a Devi (goddess), or yellow sometimes. Other times black. If it’s a Deva (god) they’ll often be wearing black, and the energy will be BIG, strong and sometimes overwhelming. If they are trained properly they will be chanting the mantras specifically for the deity they are doing the ritual for.

Prathyangira is almost always worshipped in the Tantric way. She appears in Puranas and is the patron Bhadrakali for the Atharva Veda, so can also be called Atharvana Bhadrakali. Which if you google you will see Prathyangira. And yes, there is a Bhadrakali for each of the four Vedas. The Atharva Veda is the Shastra which explains all the rituals for everything; to the grounds to build a temple on, to build the temple, what to do within the temple to invoke the energy of said deity and even the Prana Pratishtha, which is what invites the deity to share their energy into the stone carved into their likeness. And so much more. And yes, all these rituals basically come from the Tantras, so if you’re in a temple you are in a Tantric space even though Vedic leaning people will not admit that, nor want you to say it either.

But this isn’t about a debate between those two factions, which can actually complement one another nicely if the proper respect is shown from both sides. This is about clarifying whom Prathyangira is.

There are Puranic stories of her such as when Narasimha lost control after he’d manifested to kill Hiranyakashipu, which is a picture easily googled. Once he was finished with that deed he’d completely forgotten he was Vishnu and the animal side took over and began killing many around. So Shiva incarnated as Sarabeshwara to battle him if needed, calm him down at least. One of his wings was Durga Shoolini and the other was Prathyangira Devi, both were manifestations of Parvati who’d come to join Shiva in the fight. When he arrived, and if you’ve seen Sarabeshwara you’ll know he’d a frightening figure, Narasimha produced a Ganda Berundha from his third eye and that creature began battling with Shiva in his beastly form. And Shiva was finding it hard to keep the battle going, which Prathyangira noticed and came out of the wing and with her male lion head, and her female body was able to subdue Narasimha. The stories of how she did so are several, so you can choose which one you like. Once he was calm they brought Lakshmi and she was able to keep him at peace.

There are others such as how she got her name, which I’ve written about on my In Her Lap page before, so won’t go into it here and now, but you get the point I hope.

Then there is the yogic side of Her worship, here is where it applies to us yogis… but it also overlaps with a Puranic tale of how she took this name, based around two sages who were meditating so deeply that she was invoked and appeared before them eventually using a compendium of their two names for Her own.

There are two principles that most folks live by, Paryang and Prathyan. Paryang means to go outside. Constantly sending your indriyas, your senses, to the outer world. Getting involved in life. Prathyan means to withdraw the senses to the inner world. Which is a yogic principle. Rather than to be pulled outward and look for external validation all the time, to turn your awareness within your own being and decide for yourself. To worship Her, or focus on Her as your Istha Devi, or to even have some small connection to Her is to invite yourself to go within. Which is what yoga is all about.

She is the full IQ and EQ of all things. The IQ being Her male lion head, so she covers the bases of the male intellect. And the EQ being her female body, so connects Her to all the emotional connection that women tend to have in spades, much more than men. In this She is the original idea of Ardhaneshwara, which if you know that name you’ll know it’s the half Shiva, half Parvati figure worshipped across India.

Vaishnavites will tell you She is the incarnation called Narasimhi, the female version of Narasimha, an incarnation of VIshnu. But as the tale I mentioned above states, She is Parvati incarnated with Shiva to do battle when needed. She is the Shakti in fact behind Shiva. And if you know the Devi Mahatmyam at all all of the Goddesses that Durga pulls from herself to help battle the Asuras are all pieces of Her, so even Narasimhi is still Parvati, so falls under the Shaivite spectrum. And Shaktas know Her as the deepest point of Shakti, one that is not touched very often and so, as mentioned in the Puranic tale above of how She got Her name, when those two sages meditated so deeply that they touched upon Her energy, She manifested and took their names as Her own since before that She had no name.

When you recite Her 108 names, you see all Her qualities. And they cover all aspects of Shakti, which is all the power in the universe. Including Lakshmi, of which one of her names is Siddha Lakshmi. Her power includes all that fall under Vishnu, Shiva and all Nagas. All aspects of Durga and Kali fall into Her wheelhouse as well. She is all powerful, in all ways. When you recite Her 1008 names even more so can be seen, more subtle variations of Her abilities.

The point of writing all this is this, She is all. I love Kali, but She has all Her energy focused in one way, destruction of every part of you that is not real. Prathyangira allows for that same destruction in many cases, but also allows for the illusion of life in other cases, and covers ever other base you can imagine. So if you’re looking for something like this, here She is. She will welcome your focus, and gaze back upon you. But be ready, She is not light, just because She has Lakshmi in Her too. She is soft, yes, but that softness still has the power of atomic bombe behind it. She is all. And takes away all problems, if you want Her too and worship Her in the correct way. She is all encompassing as a Devi, so don’t tread in Her territory lightly.

If you invoke Her as your protector, be ready…