Who The ten Mahavidyas is
The Mahavidyas are ten goddesses who are one goddess. The tantras call them the great wisdoms, and say that the Mother shows herself in each of them in turn: terrible, beautiful, old, young, rich and outcast.
Kali is black, the first of them, with a sword and a cut-off head. Tara looks like her: dark, pot-bellied, in a tiger skin, her hair in one braid. Tripura Sundari, also called Shodashi, the girl of sixteen, is red and lovely and holds a noose, a goad, a bow and arrows. Bhuvaneshvari, queen of the worlds, is fair and smiling and feeds the three worlds. Bhairavi blazes like a thousand rising suns and holds a rosary and a book. Chhinnamasta has cut off her own head and holds it in her hand, and three streams of blood feed it and her two companions. Dhumavati, the smoky one, is an old widow with a winnowing basket and a crow. Bagalamukhi, dressed in yellow, raises a club and holds an enemy by the tongue, and stops him where he stands. Matangi, dark and young, is the outcast's goddess of speech and music, a wild Saraswati. Kamala is Lakshmi on her lotus, bathed by two elephants.
Kali Tara Mahavidya Shodashi Bhuvaneshvari, Bhairavi Chhinnamasta cha Sundari Bagalamukhi, Dhumavati cha Matangi, Mahavidya dashaiva tah: Kali, Tara, Shodashi, Bhuvaneshvari, Bhairavi, Chhinnamasta, Sundari, Bagalamukhi, Dhumavati and Matangi, these are the ten Mahavidyas (Brihaddharma Purana).
That old verse shows how the lists differ. It has no Kamala, and counts Sundari and Shodashi as two goddesses; later lists make them one and add Kamala. The order moves too. Kali is almost always first and Tara second, but Bhairavi and Chhinnamasta often change places, one manuscript of the Mundamala Tantra counts thirteen, and the Niruttara Tantra eighteen. The Mundamala's hymn to the ten also ranks them in three: Kali and Tara are the great Vidyas, Shodashi, Bhuvaneshvari, Bhairavi, Chhinnamasta and Dhumavati are Vidyas, and Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamala are the Vidyas of power.
The two Puranas that tell their beginning set it on the day of Daksha's sacrifice, when Sati, forbidden to go, stood round Shiva in ten forms, one in each direction. Each goddess is worshipped on her own in the tantras, with her own mantra and her own rules, and each has her own stories, told on her own page. The stories here are the ones they share.
