Ma Chandi

Ya chandi, madhu kaitabhaadi daithya dalani,
Ya mahijonmoohini,
Ya dhumrekshna chanda munda mathani,
Ya rakthabeejaashani,
Sakthi sumbha-nisumbha daithya dalani,
Ya siddhi lakshmi swaraa
Ya Devi navokoti murthi sahitha
Maam pathu visweswari.

Ma Chandi is one of the form of the formless Adyashakti Mahamaya. She is Durga, Gouri, Kali, Jagaddhatri and what not; she is in the every living and non living being.

Infact Chandi has several form, such as Jaychandi, Mangal Chandi, Ugra Chandi, Rana Chandi, Subha Chandi. If we read dhyan mantra of Shree Shree Chandi we can find the deatails of how is her form, though I should also tell you that no word is enough to express her form. She is paramatma. Lets see it-

ॐ bandhukakusumābhāsāṁ pañcamūṇḍādhibāsinīm.
Sphūraccandrakalā-ratnamukuṭāṁ mūṇḍamālinīm..
Trinētrāṁ raktabasanāṁ pīnōnnataghaṭastanīm.
Pustakañcākṣamālāñca baradañcābhaẏaṁ kramāṯ.
Dadhatīṁ sansmarēnnityamuttarāmnāẏamānitām

The name ‘Chandi’ or ‘Chandika’ was first found on the holy book ‘Devi Mahatya’. Sage Markendeya praises the name of goddess Chandika several time in its ‘Markendeya Puran’. There is ‘Chandi Mangal’, a bengali folk poetry written by the famous poet Kabikankan Mukundaram Chakraborty. I feel and believe how much you write about Ma Chandi is less. She is beyond our mind and language.

Bhāskararāya’s great commentary on the Devīmāhātmya, boldly asserts that “Caṇḍī[kā] is the highest Brahman,” the supreme nondual reality. She is saṁvit, the pure, unitary consciousness that projects the three vyaṣṭis in the process of cosmic manifestation. In the language of the Śāktas, these energies are called, respectively, Mahākālī, MahāsarasvatI and Mahālakṣmī.This threefold differentiation, Bhāskararāya notes, is described in the Svetaśvātaropaniṣad (SU 6.8) as Brahman’s icchā (“will”), jñāna (“knowledge”), and kriyā (“action”)— the divine will to create, the knowledge for doing so, and the action that carries out the intent. For Bhāskararāya, power (śakti) and the possessor of power (śaktiman) are one and the same, and the vyaṣṭis are non-different from the Devī’s ultimate unity.8 Accordingly, the name
Caṇḍikā represents both the formless Absolute in itself (Ādyā Śakti, or nirguṇa Brahman in Vedantic terms) and that same reality in association with its inseparable, threefold power (the Devī’s samaṣṭi form, or saguṇa Brahman). It is important to remember that this so-called aggregate (samaṣṭi) form, which is triguṇa (“consisting of the three guṇas”), is not the result of the combined energies of the vyaṣṭis; it is instead their source.

The Prādhānika Rahasya, which is part of the earliest commentary on the Devīmāhātmya, describes the supreme Devī as laksyālakṣyasvarūpā (“with and without distinguishing characteristics”). In essence, divine reality is both definable and indefinable—at once immanent and transcendent. In the 18th century this paradox was voiced by the Bengali poet Kamalākānta in the epithet śunyasyākāra (“the form of the formless”). Such utterances reflect the true sense of the mantra OṀ namaścaṇḍīkāyai:

“Salutation to the absolute consciousness that manifests as the created universe.”

Source-https://atmanandanatha.com/2020/09/28/meaning-of-sri-chandika/

If you visit village area of any district in West Bengal you will definitely find Chandi Mandap. I live in Howrah and I had visited two Chandi temple in Howrah. Makarchandi temple in Makardaha, Howrah and Melaichandi in Amta, Howrah.

Today I visited 230 years old Chandi Puja in Behala, Kolkata area by the descendants of famous Sabarna Roy Chowdhury family. Here are some glimpses-