Matangi

Matangi is the ninth of the ten Mahavidyas, the goddess of speech, music and the arts, often called the Tantric form of Saraswati. She is shown with dark green skin, seated on a throne and playing the veena, with a parrot beside her. She is linked in Tantric tradition with the sacred nature of what society calls impure. She is worshipped in the Shakta tradition, and Matangi Jayanti falls in the bright half of Vaishakha.

The Tantric tradition tells a story about her that turns on food. According to it, Parvati and Shiva once gave food to a group of people of the lowest social rank, and a few grains, left over, fell on the ground. From that leftover, called ucchishta, rose a goddess who is Matangi, known as...