On Saturday night, filmmaker SS Rajamouli finally unveiled the title and the announcement teaser, along with actor Mahesh Babu’s first look, from his most anticipated upcoming film. Titled Varanasi, the Priyanka Chopra and Prithiviraj Sukumaran co-starrer is scheduled for a release in Summer 2027. The three-minute 40-second announcement teaser of the time-traveling, science-fiction, mythological action-adventure drama showed everyone a glimpse of what the makers have in store for them. Attached with the hashtags Globetrotter and Timetrotter, they revealed that the movie will go through the globe across different timelines.
The announcement teaser takes viewers through different places in the world during various timelines. May it be a Yagya taking place in Vaaranaasi in 512 CE, Astroid Shambhavi hitting the Earth in 2027 CE, especially the vast Ross Ice Shelf. As we move from Antarctica to Africa, the timeline changes and the makers take us back to the era of Ramayana. Amidst it all, we see a snippet of the headless goddess in the Ugrabhatti caves in Vaananchal. While many were confused about who the goddess was, some speculated that it might be Kali Maa. Well, the headless goddess who is seen feeding her two servants through the blood gushing from her neck is none other than Chinnamasta Devi.
Who Is Chinnamasta Devi?
Chinnamasta Devi is the sixth goddess from the well-worshipped Dasha Mahavidya. The 10 Hindu goddesses are often considered as aspects of goddess Shakti. They include Kali, Tara, Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshvari, Bhairavi, Chhinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi, and Kamalatmika. These 10 forms represent various aspects of wisdom, power, knowledge, and spirituality.
The meaning behind her name is such – Chinna means “detaching or chopping off” and Masta means “head.” Hence, the Chinnamasta Mahavidya is a goddess who chopped off her head. Let’s take a look at why.
What’s Chinnamasta Devi’s Story?
According to the information available online, once upon a time Goddess Parvati took her attendants, Dakini and Varnini, for her bathing regime. As hours passed, they started getting. Starving, they pestered the goddess for food. As the Devi was busy bathing, she postponed their request. Eventually, feeling guilty about letting her servants grow hungry, she chops off her head with a sword to satisfy their hunger with her blood. Some versions also state that she used her terrible nails, instead of a sword, to cut off her head.
If you see the images of Chinnamasta Devi online, the self-decapitated goddess is seen standing on Kamdev (Hindu God of love) and Rati (Hindu Goddess of passion, lust, Sexual desire) locked in a copulating embrace. Often depicted as dark and wearing only a garland of skulls, the goddess stands proud with her head in one of her hands and a scimitar in the other. Three jets of blood are seen spurting out of her neck, each being consumed by her severed head and the two servants.
Who Worships Chinnamasta Devi?
According to reports online, the Hindu goddess is woshipped by the Kalikula sect of Shaktism, a goddess-centric tradition in Hinduism. Being on of the 10 Mahavidyas, her temples are often found in Nepal and eastern India. Public worship of her is rarely seen. She is said to be closely associated with Chinnamunda, the severed-headed goddess of the Tibetan Buddhist goddess Vajrayogini.
It will be interesting to see how SS Rajamouli inculcates Chinnamasta Devi in his upcoming film Varanasi. If you look closely, the announcement teaser, it is seen that when the camera pans to the Chinnamasta Devi’s huge idol hidden in a cave, someone donning a red saree is falling (might be Priyanka Chopra), and a man is hanging on one of the cave walls (might be Mahesh Babu). There’s currently a lot of speculation surrounding the film and its plotlines.
Talking about the upcoming film, it is being said that the Baahubali director plans on wrapping Varanasi in just one film. With a runtime of more than 200 minutes, the team plans to conclude the entire plot and make sure that the timelines fit into the specific runtime. A media report adds that each periodic episode will have its own designated duration.
