AstroAstha

Dhumavati: Widow Goddess of Death & Illusion

Dhumavati is the Goddess of mortality, death and everything that is inauspicious. Her companion is the crow, a carrion eater. She wears clothes taken from a co**se in the smashan (cremation ground), and she carries a winnowing basket. In the image here, she also carries a flaming kapala (bowl made of human skull), which represents detachment from egoic pursuits.
Dhumavati’s name means “Emanating Smoke” or “Full of Smoke,” referring to the smoke and vapors of the cremation grounds, as well as to Her mastery ofmaya (illusion). To sit in the cremation ground for sadhana, one must be fearless. Cremation grounds are often located in wild places, where tigers and other beasts roam at night, and are full of insects, serpents, and the spirits of the demonic and dead. Fearlessness is not necessarily the absence of fear, but the willingness to face and move through one’s fears with absolute courage thereby overcoming them, and mastery of this is gotten through non-attachment to desire (vairagya). Vairagya is also essential to master control of the mind, which is key to any sadhana.
In one sense, as a widow, Dhumavati has been severed from her identity (her husband), and the duties one must do as a wife (karma). Her duty is to cultivate devotion and detachment from worldly desires, making herself unattractive and undesirable to the outside world through the traditional symbols of shaved head, plain white clothes (the color of mourning), lack of ornaments (some widows do wear ornaments, just as some images of Dhumavati show her wearing ornaments), and lack of makeup or sindoor. The symbols that made her beautiful as a wife are stripped away, her fullness of beauty giving way to the dryness of detachment. In a single moment, desire is transmuted into detachment. Although Dhumavati may be seen as a symbol of inauspiciousness, in fact she grants the most auspicious qualities to the sadhak. Widows – especially when they are aged sadhikas – often hold great wisdom, and should be treated with respect.
The truly fearless devotee through sadhana is able to move through Dhumavati’s maya into truly clear vision. Beyond this illusion is the promise of immortality, of liberation (moksha). Dhumavati grants the power to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, such as the fear of death itself, which binds us to our physical bodies.
Her pranam mantra is: