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BAGALAMUKHI, THE GODDESS WHO SEIZES THE TONGUE
The legend behind the origin of goddess Bagalamukhi is
as follows:
A demon named Madan undertook austerities and won the
boon of vak siddhi, according to which anything he said
came about. He abused this boon by harassing innocent
people. Enraged by his mischief, the gods worshipped
Bagalamukhi. She stopped the demon's rampage by taking
hold of his tongue and stilling his speech. Before she
could kill him, however, he asked to be worshipped with
her, and she relented, That is why he is depicted with
her. She is almost always portrayed in this act, holding
a club in one hand, with which she is about to strike
her enemy, and with the other hand pulling his tongue.
In this myth, by stopping the demon's tongue, she
exercises her peculiar power over speech and her power
to freeze, stun, or paralyze.
The pulling of the demon's tongue by Bagalamukhi is both
unique and significant. Tongue, the organ of speech and
taste, is often regarded as a lying entity, concealing
what is in the mind. The Bible frequently mentions the
tongue as an organ of mischief, vanity and
deceitfulness. The wrenching of the demon's tongue is
therefore symbolic of the Goddess removing what is in
essentiality a perpetrator of evil.
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