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18. SAKTISM
["Sakti - the Mother Goddess" Dr. Manoshi Bhattacharya http://www.the-south-asian.com/Dec2001/ Sakti%20-%20Mother%20Goddess.htm]
Even though Dattatheya (Datta Samhita ) and Bhaskararaya contributed heavily to the development of Sakti cult in South India, it was Sankaracharya who really established it in India as a whole. In his Prapancha Saara and Soundarya Lahari he established Srichakra worship and detailed the major essences of Mantra, Yantra and Tantra.
Devi connection was soon taken over by the Vaishnavites from the Saivites and reinterpreted in their terms. The Devi-Bhagavata Purana retells the tales of the Devi Mahatmya in much greater length and detail, embellishing them with Shakta philosophical reflections, while recasting many classic tales from other schools of Hinduism (particularly Vaishnavism) in a distinctly Shakta light:
"The Devi-Bhagavata was intended not only to show the superiority of the Goddess over various male deities, but also to clarify and elaborate on her nature on her own terms. [...] The Goddess in the Devi-Bhagavata becomes less of a warrior goddess, and more a nurturer and comforter of her devotees, and a teacher of wisdom. This development in the character of the Goddess culminates in the Devi Gita, which "repeatedly stresses the necessity of love for the goddess, with no mention of one's gender, as the primary qualification," a view "inspired by the devotional ideals of Shaktism." [Brown, C. Mackenzie. The Devi Gita: The Song of the Goddess: A Translation, Annotation and Commentary. State University of New York Press (Albany, 1998).]
Devi Mahatmya also marks the birth of "independent Shaktism"; i.e. the cult of the Female Principle as a distinct philosophical and denominational entity.
"The influence of the cult of the Female Principle [had already] placed goddesses by the sides of the gods of all systems as their consorts, and symbols of their energy or shakti. But the entire popular emotion centering round the Female Principle was not exhausted. So need was felt for a new system, entirely female-dominated, as system in which even the great gods like Vishnu or Shiva would remain subordinate to the goddess. This new system - containing vestiges of hoary antiquity, varieties of rural and tribal cults and rituals, and strengthened by newfangled ideas of different ages - came to be known as Shaktism." [Bhattacharyya, N. N., History of the Sakta Religion, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. (New Delhi, 1974, 2d ed. 1996).]
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