Chhinnamasta is the sixth Mahavidya in the common list, the goddess who has cut off her own head and holds it in her left hand while one stream of blood feeds the head and two feed her attendants, Dakini and Varnini. Her tantric reading is the offering of the head, the seat of the ego, and the vital force returned as nourishment; she is not a figure of self-harm but of self-offering. Her shrines include Rajrappa in Jharkhand, and she is close to the Buddhist Vajrayogini or Chinnamunda, a borrowing whose direction is debated.
Modern Practice
Her worship is tantric and initiatory, and the self-decapitation image is a meditation on offering the head, not an instruction. Practitioners approach her for the cutting of an attachment, for courage in self-offering, and at Rajrappa, where the living temple ritual continues.