Tara is the second of the ten Mahavidyas. Her name comes from the Sanskrit root that means to cross, and so she is called the one who carries across, the saviour who ferries a person over the ocean of troubles. The same word is also tara, a star. Both meanings run through the devotion to her. She is a close companion of Kali in many Tantric texts, and the two are often named together as the first pair of the ten.
This page describes her image, her stories, and the places and days of her worship. All of it is tradition, set out as tradition.
Form and iconography
The best-known form is Ugra Tara, “fierce Tara”. Her skin is blue, or a dark blue-black colour, and she has three eyes, loose or matted hair and a tongue that hangs out. She is short and rounded in many images, with a full belly. She wears a garland of severed heads and a tiger skin, and has a snake or snakes as ornaments. Her four arms hold a sword, a small curved knife or pair of scissors, a blue lotus and a skull cup, in the usual description, though details vary. She stands, or stands in the pose of a warrior, on a corpse or on Shiva, and the cremation ground is behind her.
A second form is Ekajata, with a single matted lock, and a third is Neel Saraswati, “blue Saraswati”, a more serene form linked with learning and speech. These are named in the Tantras as forms of the one Tara, and the lists of her forms differ between texts.
Readers have long taken the blue as the colour of the sky and of the poison that she held in her throat in the story below. The image of the child-feeding mother, which belongs with one of the stories, is sometimes shown in paintings at Tarapith.
The story as tradition tells it
Tara has several stories. The best known is told in connection with the churning of the ocean, a story given on the Kurma page of the Dashavatara section. When the gods and demons churned the ocean, a terrible poison, the Halahala, came up first and threatened all beings. Shiva drank it to save the world, and the poison turned his throat blue, which is why he is called Neelakantha. In the Tantric telling, the Goddess, in the form of Tara, then took Shiva on her lap as a child and fed him at her breast, and her milk cooled the burning of the poison. It is the image of the mother who heals, set beside the fierce image.
A second telling is in the Tantra texts and places the origin of Tara among the Mahavidyas themselves, in the story of Sati; see the hub page. A third is the tradition of the sage Vasishtha, who is said to have worshipped Tara and to have gained her grace at Tarapith, after being told in a dream or by a voice to go to the Chinese land in some versions (to Mahachina) and learn her worship from the Buddha. This story of Vasishtha and the Buddha is found in Tantric literature, and it is read by scholars as a memory of the exchange between Hindu and Buddhist Tantric traditions. We give it as tradition tells it, and the details are not historical in a sense we can confirm.
Tara in Hindu and Buddhist tradition
There is also a Buddhist Tara, well known in Tibet, Nepal and Mongolia as a female Buddha or bodhisattva, who is also a saviour from fear and danger, with Green Tara and White Tara as the best known forms. The Hindu and Buddhist Taras are closely related, and scholars have written at length about how the figure passed between traditions and about which came first. The question is not settled, and we do not claim an answer. The two are worshipped separately today, and devotees of each tradition keep their own texts.
What the form means
In the readings given by devotees, Tara is compassion in the midst of danger. Kali is time that takes things, and Tara is the one who brings the person through. The sword and the scissors are said to cut fear and attachment, and the lotus and bowl show care. A short saying of the tradition is that she is a mother who is also a guide.
Where she is worshipped
Tarapith, in Birbhum district of West Bengal, near the town of Rampurhat, is the great centre of her worship. The tradition counts it as a Shakti Peetha, the place where the third eye of Sati is said to have fallen, and it has a cremation ground beside the temple where tantric practice has been kept up for centuries. The saint Vamakhepa, of the nineteenth century, who lived at Tarapith and is called the mad saint, is remembered there with great affection. The Tara Tarini temple on a hill near Berhampur in Odisha, on the Rushikulya river, is another great Tara shrine, where the tradition says the breasts of Sati fell. Tara also has a shrine at the Kamakhya complex in Assam, and a temple on a hill near Shimla called Tara Devi.
We do not quote visiting arrangements, timings or fees. Check each temple’s own site.
Festivals
Tara is honoured in the Navratri festivals, and the Chaitra Navratri period is when many Tara temples hold their main celebrations; see the Chaitra Navratri page. Her jayanti is commonly given as the ninth day of the bright half of Chaitra, though calendars differ and we give no date. At Tarapith, the new moon night is a time of large gatherings, and the day of Kali Puja is also observed; see the Kali Puja page.
Hymns that fit her devotion are the Devi Suktam and the Devi Aparadha Kshamapana Stotram. Tantric worship of Tara is passed from a teacher to a student, and we do not describe it.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Who is Tara among the ten Mahavidyas?
Tara is the second Mahavidya, a blue goddess who is the saviour who carries devotees across difficulty. She is closely linked with Kali in Tantric texts.
↳ What does the name Tara mean?
It comes from a root that means to cross, so she is the one who carries across. The same word also means a star.
↳ What is the story of Tara and the poison?
In the Tantric telling, when Shiva drank the Halahala poison from the churned ocean, the Goddess as Tara took him on her lap and fed him her milk to cool the poison. It is a story of the healing mother.
↳ Is the Hindu Tara the same as the Buddhist Tara?
They are related figures and scholars debate how the goddess passed between traditions. They are worshipped separately today with different texts.
↳ Where is Tara worshipped?
Tarapith in Birbhum, West Bengal, is the best known centre, and Tara Tarini near Berhampur in Odisha is another great shrine. Check each temple's own site before travelling.