The text that rewrote the hierarchy
Before the Devi Mahatmya arrived, composed somewhere in the 5th or 6th century CE as part of the Markandeya Purana, the Goddess existed in Sanskrit literature as a presence, not a principle. She appeared in the Rigveda as Vak, the sacred word. She appeared in the Ramayana as Sita, as Kaikeyi, as the unnamed forest. She appeared in early Puranic material as the consorts of gods, their energy, their left side. She was always in relation to something else. The Devi Mahatmya changed the grammar of that relationship entirely.
