The description of Devi's physical form and the 'angas’ by Vasinyadi Vagdevatas is amazing as well as interesting! We begin to wonder whether they can be described in such a manner! Every part is graphically described without much Inhibition! Devi’s breasts are the fruits hanging from the creeper like hair originating from Her navel! She has three pads in between Her breasts! She has diamond studded ‘kinkinis’ and wears garlands! Her thighs and their softness is known to Kameswara alone! She defeats the lotus by the radiance of Her lotus feet! Her gait is that of the female Swan, royal and dignified! Her lotus feet are adorned by diamond studded ‘manjira!!’ She is all red and decked with all kinds of ornaments! She is seated on the lap of Kamesa and has control over him! She is the Queen of Srinagara in the center of the Meru mountain! She lives in the Chintamani house and has the “ Panchabrahmas” as Her seat! She resides in the lotus Forest and the garden of “Kadamba” trees!
Enjoying and appreciating the Soundarya of his Divine Mother, Sankara, Her poetic child, weaves many an amazing vision that stuns us at every step! He says that Her flowing milk has on it a flood of literary forms like the epics, the dramas and others! Manmatha, unable to bear the ferocity of the third eye of Siva, took refuge in Devi's lake like navel! Extraordinary imagination indeed!!
In the seventy seventh sloka, Sankara revels in his imagination! He describes the “romali”-the cluster of hair around Her navel! Says Sankara, “ O Mother Parvati! In Your slim waist I find the small cluster of hair, Romali, similar to the smallest wave of Yamuna river! It appears that the space between Your two breasts has become less due to mutual friction! Hence for want of space it has come down and entered the cave like navel!” It is accepted in general that Space or Akasa has a form and it is black.
The description of Sankara defies our imagination! It is only poets and upasakas like Sankara who can imagine and visualize scenes like this! The comparison of the cluster of hair- ‘ romali’ is apt and graphic! The breasts are metaphorically described as “ Kucha kalasa” indicating their large size! The interspace between the breasts has been reduced by mutual friction and that small space has entered the cave like navel of Devi!
As the slokas progress, Sankara's description tends to be rather erotic and full of Sringara rasa! Readers may not accept these and may even object to such descriptions. But we find similar descriptions in many Sanskrit stotras! It is a poetic tradition and Sankara follows it! Though there is Sringara rasa in the descriptions of Sankara, it is the expression of pure unalloyed Love of the child for his Divine Mother!
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