Kamala (Mahavidya)

Kamala (Mahavidya)

Kamalā is the tenth and final Mahāvidyā — Lakshmī in her tantric aspect. She appears lotus-seated, bathed by elephants, holding lotuses — iconographically identical to Gaja-Lakṣmī, but here classed within the fierce-tantric Mahāvidyā framework as the wealth-aspect of the radical goddess-continuum.

The classification of Kamalā (= Lakshmi) as a Mahāvidyā alongside the fierce forms is theologically radical: it asserts that the ten goddesses — Kālī, Tārā, Ṣoḍaśī, Bhuvaneśvarī, Bhairavī, Chinnamastā, Dhūmāvatī, Bagalāmukhī, Mātaṅgī, Kamalā — are all the same ultimate goddess in different ritual moods. Wealth (Kamalā) and destruction (Kālī) are of a single substance.