Chandimangal

Book excerpt: The greatest mangal kavya in worship of the great goddess The Chandimangal of Kavikankan Mukundaram Chakravarti is an exemplary work of epic scale that recounts the story of the Goddess Chandi’s constant battle to establish her cult among humans. Through the three books of the kavya—The Book of the Gods, The Book of the Hunter and The Book of the Merchant—we are introduced to Chandi in all her manifestations, from the benevolent to the wrathful, from Abhaya to Chamunda. Mukundaram’s captivating tales and vivid imagery bring together the enchanting world of the gods with the more challenging world of the mortals while critiquing sixteenth-century Bengali society. In his exquisite rendering of the Chandimangal, Edward Yazijian manages to capture not only the performative and humorous but also the reverent aspects of the text.