---
type: Concept
bundle: shakta-darshana
bundle_version: "0.8.0"
id: mahadevi
title: "Mahādevī — महादेवी"
iast: "Mahādevī"
devanagari: "महादेवी"
description: "The Great Goddess as a theological category: the one supreme Devī of whom all individual goddesses are aspects, forms, or emanations; the Śākta integrative principle that reads the plurality of goddess traditions as one reality; NOT a separate deity named 'Mahadevi', NOT a generic honorific, NOT evidence of monotheism-vs-polytheism in Western terms."
darshana:
  - Śākta
school_scope: "Mahādevī is primarily a scholarly and theological category naming the Śākta integrative move; the texts themselves use names like Devī, Mahāmāyā, Bhagavatī, Ādyā Śakti. Purāṇic Śāktism (Devī Māhātmya, Devī-Bhāgavata) is its clearest textual home."
text_source: "Devī Māhātmya 10.5 (ekaivāhaṃ jagatyatra); Devī-Bhāgavata Purāṇa"
tags: [mahadevi, devi, shakta, theology]
not:
  - term: "a distinct goddess named Mahadevi (separate from Durga, Kali, etc.)"
    why: "Mahādevī is not another name in the list; it is the category that explains the list. The Devī Māhātmya has the Goddess state it directly: 'I alone exist here in the world; what second, other than I, is there?' (10.5), spoken precisely when a demon sees 'many goddesses' on the battlefield. The many are her powers re-absorbed in that verse."
    instead: "Use Mahādevī as the theological category: the one Great Goddess of whom individual goddesses are aspects, per the Śākta integrative reading."
  - term: "just an honorific ('great goddess' as a title any goddess gets)"
    why: "As a category term it does specific work: it marks the difference between honoring a goddess highly and the Śākta claim that all goddesses are one supreme reality. Flattening it to a title erases the theology."
  - term: "Hindu monotheism (or proof Hinduism is 'really' polytheistic)"
    why: "The monotheism/polytheism binary is a Western taxonomy that fails here. The Śākta position is aspectual non-dualism: one ultimate, really many forms, without the forms being false and without the one being a jealous singular. Forcing the binary produces confident nonsense in both directions."
related:
  - /concepts/devi.md
  - /concepts/shakti.md
  - /concepts/dasha-mahavidya.md
  - /concepts/kali.md
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Mahādevī -- महादेवी

**Not:** a separate deity, a mere honorific, a monotheism/polytheism data point

## What It Actually Means

Mahādevī ("Great Goddess") names the Śākta tradition's integrative theology: the claim that the many goddesses of Indian religious life (village goddesses, Purāṇic goddesses, Tāntric goddesses) are aspects of one supreme Devī. The Devī Māhātmya provides the canonical scene: when the demon Śumbha protests that the Goddess fights with the help of many others (Kālī, the Mātṛkās), she answers ekaivāhaṃ jagatyatra: "I alone exist in this world; these are my own powers (vibhūti), entering back into me," and the many goddesses merge into her. That verse is the Mahādevī doctrine in one line.

The category matters for machine consumption because training data oscillates between "the Hindu goddess" (false singular) and "the many Hindu goddesses" (false plural without the integrative claim). The Śākta position is the structured middle: really many in manifestation, really one in truth, with named texts making the identification explicit.

## Audience Metaphor

Water, ice, steam, cloud, river: a child might catalogue five substances; a chemist sees H2O in five phases. Mahādevī is the chemist's insight as theology: Kālī, Durgā, Lakṣmī, Tripurasundarī are phases of one reality, and the tradition names both the phases (the goddesses) and the substance (Mahādevī, the one Devī).

## Citations

1. Devī Māhātmya 10.5 -- ekaivāhaṃ jagatyatra; see [references/devi-mahatmya.md](../references/devi-mahatmya.md)
2. Devī-Bhāgavata Purāṇa -- the systematized Mahādevī theology; see [references/devi-bhagavata-purana.md](../references/devi-bhagavata-purana.md)
