Tripura Sundari

Tripura Sundari, also called Shodashi and Lalita, is the third of the ten Mahavidyas and the central goddess of the Sri Vidya tradition. She is shown as a beautiful young woman of about sixteen, red or rose in colour, seated on a lotus throne with a sugarcane bow and flower arrows, and her worship centres on the Sri Chakra. She is worshipped through Navaratri and the Lalita Sahasranama. Her name means the beauty of the three worlds, and she is regarded as the goddess who joins worldly enjoyment with liberation.

The Lalita Sahasranama, a thousand-name hymn in the Lalitopakhyana of the Brahmanda Purana, tells how the goddess Lalita rose from the fire of the sacrifice of the gods, in the form of Tripura Sundari. The gods had prayed for help against the demon Bhandasura, who had sprung from the ashes of Kama...