Cundalai Madan

(CON-da-eye-lie MAID-en)

Variations: Kundalini Madan

Cundalai Madan is a vampiric god from

Hindu lore. The goddess Parvati sought to mend the rift in her marriage to the god Siva by having a child with him. She descended into hell and took a spark from the sacred lamp. In the hem of her skirt it developed into a shapeless mass rather than a child. Parvati complained to her husband, who turned it into a child. But before she could feed it milk, the child consumed some flesh from a corpse, earning his name Cundalai Madan ("Coiled-Up Infatuation"). Because he ate the flesh of a corpse, Cundalai Madan was forever forbidden to enter into heaven, but nevertheless he demanded that he be established and worshiped as a god—and that a cult be established to worship him as well, filled with beautiful female companions to see to his sexual desires. He also demanded regular sacrifices of alcohol, animals, human life, and meat. With his boon granted, he immediately set about ravishing women and eating the fetuses out of them. The Kaniyar singers and dancers offered their bodies willingly to be his human sacrifices.

Source: Bhattacharyya, Path of the Mystic Lover, 188; Madan, Nonrenunciation, 40