Bagalamukhi

Bagalamukhi is the eighth of the ten Mahavidyas, the goddess of stambhana, the power to stop or silence. She is shown in yellow, seated on a golden throne, holding the tongue of a demon in one hand and a club in the other, and is also called Pitambara. She is worshipped in the Shakta and Tantric traditions for protection from enemies, false speech and legal trouble, with yellow clothes, flowers and food. Bagalamukhi Jayanti falls in the bright half of Vaishakha.

One account, found in Shakta tradition, tells of a storm that threatened to destroy the world in the Satya Yuga. Vishnu, troubled by it, did austerities by a lake called Haridra Sarovar in the Saurashtra region. Pleased, the goddess rose from the yellow waters as Bagalamukhi and stilled the storm...