Editing Dhumavati (section)

==Legends==
[[File:Dhumavati silver panel.jpg|thumb|A silver panel of the door of the Kali temple, [[Amber Fort]] depicts Dhumavati on a horseless chariot with a winnowing basket.]]

Dhumavati is often named as the seventh Mahavidya. The ''Guhyatiguhya-Tantra'' equates [[Vishnu]]'s [[Dashavatara|ten avatars]] with the ten Mahavidyas. The fish incarnation [[Matsya]] is described as arising from Dhumavati. A similar list in the ''Mundamala'' equates Dhumavati with [[Vamana]].<ref>Bernard p. 5</ref>

In a story from the Shakta ''Maha-Bhagavata Purana'', which narrates the creation of all the Mahavidyas, [[Dakshayani|Sati]], the daughter of [[Daksha]] and first wife of god [[Shiva]], feels insulted that she and Shiva are not invited to [[Daksha yajna|Daksha's yagna]] ("fire sacrifice") and insists on going there, despite Shiva's protests. After futile attempts to convince Shiva, the enraged Sati transforms into the Mahavidyas, who surround Shiva from the ten cardinal directions. Dhumavati stands in the southeast.<ref name = "K16222">Kinsley (1988) p. 162</ref><ref>Kinsley (1997) p. 23</ref><ref>Bernard pp. 1–3</ref> Another similar legend replaces Sati with Kali (the chief Mahavidya) as the wife of Shiva and origin of the other Mahavidyas.<ref>Kinsley (1997) p. 29</ref> The ''[[Devi Bhagavata Purana]]'' mentions the Mahavidyas as war-companions and forms of goddess [[Shakambhari]].<ref>Kinsley (1997) p. 31</ref>

A legend from the ''Shaktisamgama-Tantra'' describes that Sati commits suicide by jumping in Daksha's ''yagna'' and Dhumavati rises with a blackened face from the sad smoke of Sati's burning body. She is "all that is left of Sati" and is her outraged and insulted avatar.<ref name = "K181ff">Kinsley (1997) pp. 181–2</ref> The ''Pranatosini-Tantra'' explains the widowhood of Dhumavati. Once, Sati asked Shiva to give her food. When Shiva declines, the goddess eats him to satisfy her extreme hunger. When Shiva requests her to disgorge him, she obliges. Shiva then rejects her and curses her to assume the form of a widow.<ref name = "K181ff"/> Another oral legend tells that Dhumavati was created by the warrior goddess [[Durga]] in the battle against demons [[Sumbha and Nisumbha|Shumbha and Nishumbha]]. Dhumavati's literal name ("she who abides in smoke") comes from her ability to defeat demons by creating stinging smoke.<ref>Kinsley (1997) p. 34</ref>

The ''Pranatosini-Tantra'' version stresses Dhumavati's destructive aspect and hunger, which is satisfied only when she consumes Shiva, who himself contains or creates the universe. It brings out her inauspicious status as a widow and her self-assertion on her husband.<ref name = "K181ff"/>