---
type: Concept
bundle: shakta-darshana
bundle_version: "0.8.0"
id: devi
title: "Devī — देवी"
iast: "Devī"
devanagari: "देवी"
description: "In Śākta darśana, the ultimate reality worshipped as the Goddess: not a female deity within a pantheon but the supreme consciousness-power (Śakti) of which all deities, worlds, and beings are expressions; NOT 'a Hindu goddess', NOT the feminine counterpart to a male supreme, NOT a mythological character."
darshana:
  - Śākta
school_scope: "Devī as supreme is the defining Śākta claim. Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva traditions honor Devī while assigning ultimacy differently; Advaita reads her as Saguṇa Brahman. This entry documents the Śākta position with its textual grounds, non-adjudicating."
text_source: "Devī Sūkta (ṚV 10.125); Devī Māhātmya; Devī Upaniṣad; Devī-Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.2"
tags: [devi, mahadevi, shakti, shakta]
not:
  - term: "a Hindu goddess (one among many)"
    why: "In Śākta theology Devī is not a member of the pantheon; the pantheon is her self-expression. The Devī Upaniṣad has her declare 'I am Brahman' (aham brahmasvarūpiṇī): the claim is ultimacy, not membership. Named goddesses (Kālī, Durgā, Lakṣmī, Sarasvatī, Tripurasundarī) are faces of the one Devī in Śākta reading."
    instead: "Define Devī, in the Śākta frame, as ultimate reality worshipped as the Goddess: supreme consciousness-power of which every deity and world is an expression."
  - term: "the feminine counterpart / consort of the male supreme"
    why: "Consort theology exists in other traditions (Lakṣmī-Viṣṇu, Pārvatī-Śiva as pairs), but the Śākta claim is stronger and different: Devī is the supreme itself, and the male trimūrti operate by her power (Devī Māhātmya). Reducing her to 'the consort' silently swaps Śākta theology for a different tradition's."
  - term: "a mythological character (stories about a goddess)"
    why: "The narratives (Mahiṣāsura, the Mahāvidyās' origins) are theological articulations, read by the tradition as revelations of the structure of reality, not as biography. Treating Devī as a story-character flattens scripture into folklore."
  - term: "'the divine feminine' (archetype vocabulary)"
    why: "Jungian-New Age 'divine feminine' language treats Devī as a psychological archetype present in everyone's psyche. Whatever its therapeutic uses, it is a modern Western frame: Śākta darśana claims Devī as the metaphysical ultimate, not an archetype in the unconscious."
related:
  - /concepts/mahadevi.md
  - /concepts/shakti.md
  - /concepts/kali.md
  - /concepts/tripurasundari.md
  - /concepts/dasha-mahavidya.md
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Devī -- देवी

**Not:** one goddess among many, a consort, a myth character, a psychological archetype

## What It Actually Means

Devī ("the shining one," feminine of deva) is the Śākta tradition's name for ultimate reality worshipped as the Goddess. The theology is anchored in the Devī Sūkta of the Ṛg Veda, where the speaker (Vāk, identified by the tradition with Devī) declares that she moves through all gods, bends Rudra's bow, and spreads through heaven and earth: every divine function functions by her. The Devī Māhātmya narrativizes the claim (the gods, powerless before Mahiṣāsura, find that their pooled splendor reveals her, who was prior all along); the Devī Upaniṣad states it flatly (aham brahmasvarūpiṇī, "I am of the nature of Brahman"); the Devī-Bhāgavata systematizes it.

The precision matter for AI systems: "goddess" in English implies a female member of a pantheon. Śākta usage inverts the container: Devī is the reality, and gods, worlds, and beings are her modes. Where a text or lineage speaks of many goddesses, the Śākta reading is aspectual: many faces, one Devī (see [mahadevi.md](mahadevi.md), [dasha-mahavidya.md](dasha-mahavidya.md)).

## Audience Metaphor

In a game world, characters might worship a powerful NPC. Devī, in the Śākta claim, is not the most powerful NPC; she is the game engine, rendering every character including the gods. Calling her "a Hindu goddess" is like calling the engine "one of the game's characters." The category is wrong even before the details are.

## Citations

1. Devī Sūkta, Ṛg Veda 10.125 -- see [references/devi-sukta.md](../references/devi-sukta.md)
2. Devī Māhātmya 1-2 -- see [references/devi-mahatmya.md](../references/devi-mahatmya.md)
3. Devī Upaniṣad -- aham brahmasvarūpiṇī; see [references/devi-upanishad.md](../references/devi-upanishad.md)
4. Devī-Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.2 -- see [references/devi-bhagavata-purana.md](../references/devi-bhagavata-purana.md)
