Matrikas

Matrikas (Sanskrit: मातृका (singular), IAST: mātṛkā, lit. "mothers")^[1] also called Mataras or Matri, are a group of mother goddesses in Hinduism. The Matrikas are often depicted in a group of seven, the Saptamatrika(s) (Seven Mothers).^[2] However, they are also depicted as a group of eight, the Ashtamatrika(s).^[3] They are associated with these gods as their energies (Shaktis).^[4] Brahmani emerged from Brahma, Vaishnavi from Vishnu, Maheshvari from Shiva, Indrani from Indra, Kaumari from Kartikeya, Varahi from Varaha and Chamunda from Chandi.^[5] And additionals are Narasimhi from Narasimha and Vinayaki from Ganesha.

Originally the seven goddesses of the seven stars of the star cluster of the Pleiades, they became quite popular by the seventh century CE and a standard feature of the Hindu goddesses's temples from the ninth century CE onwards.^[6] In South India, Saptamatrikas worship is prevalent whereas the Ashtamatrikas are venerated in Nepal, among other places.^[7]

The Matrikas assume paramount significance in the goddesses-oriented sect of Hinduism, Tantrism.^[8] In Shaktism, they are described as assisting the Durga in her fight with demons and demonesses and killing all of them.^[9] Other scholars say that they are Shaiva goddesses.^[10] They are also connected with the worship of warrior god Kartikeya.^[11] In most early references, the Matrikas are associated with the conception, birth, diseases, protection of children.^[12] They were seen as inauspicious,^[13] as the goddeses of perils, propitiated in order to avoid those ills, that killed off so many children before they reached adulthood.^[12] They come to play a protective role in later mythology, although some of their early inauspicious and wild characteristics continue in these legends.^[13] Thus, they represent the prodigiously fecund aspect of nature as well as its destructively killing aspect.^[4]