Editing Dhumavati (section)

==Origins==
[[File:Goddess Dhumavati, One of the Mahavidya - Vintage Print.jpg|thumb|left|A traditional image of Dhumavati as a widow with a winnowing basket on a horseless chariot]]

Dhumavati hardly has an independent existence outside the Mahavidya group. There is no historical mention of her before she is included among the Mahavidyas.<ref name="K176"/> As a goddess of poverty, frustration, and despair, Daniélou associates Dhumavati with [[Nirṛti (goddess)|Nirriti]], the goddess of disease and misery, and [[Alakshmi]], the goddess of misfortune and poverty.<ref name="Daniélou">{{cite book|last=Daniélou|first= Alain |title=The myths and gods of India|publisher=Inner Traditions / Bear & Company|pages=282–3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1HMXN9h6WX0C&q=Dhumavati&pg=RA1-PA282 | isbn=978-0-89281-354-4|date=1991-12-01}}</ref> Kinsley adds another goddess to the list: [[Jyestha (goddess)|Jyestha]].<ref name = "K178ff">Kinsley (1997), pp.178-181</ref>

The [[Vedic]] goddess Nirriti is associated with death, decay, bad luck, anger, and need. Hymns emphasize offerings to keep her away. Like Nirriti, Dhumavati is associated with unpromising things and hardship. Jyestha, also an early Hindu goddess, has similarities in iconography with Dhumavati. Like Dhumavati, she is dark, ugly and is associated with the crow. Jyestha is described as being unable to tolerate any auspiciousness. Also like Dhumavati, Jyestha dwells in quarrels, inauspicious places, and has a bad temper.<ref name = "K178ff"/> Lakshmana Desika, the commentator on the ''Saradatilaka-Tantra'', identifies Dhumavati with Jyestha.<ref name="gupta"/> Both Alakshmi, the sister and antithesis of [[Lakshmi]] (Shri), the goddess of wealth, luck and beauty, and Dhumavati are described as old, carrying a broom and having a crow banner. Both symbolize hunger, thirst, need, and poverty.<ref name = "K178ff"/>

While there are similarities between Dhumavati and the three goddesses, the latter lack significant characteristics of Dhumavati, like her widowhood and a textual emphasis on her ugliness. The names of the three goddesses also do not figure in Dhumavati's ''nama stotras'' (hymns invoking her many names), where such identifications could have been explicitly mentioned. The three also lack the more fierce warrior aspects of Dhumavati as well as her positive aspects in the context of the Mahavidyas. In scholar David Kinsley's opinion, though the three may be Dhumavati's antecedents, they are not "the same" as Dhumavati.<ref name = "K178ff"/> According to Kinsley, the concept of ten [[Mahavidya]]s may not be earlier than the 12th century.<ref>Kinsley (1988) p. 175</ref>