दश महाविद्याः

Two verses that do nothing but name the ten — Kali, Tara, Shodashi, Bhuvaneshwari, Bhairavi, Chinnamastika, Dhumavati, Bagala, Matangi and Kamalatmika — and then close with the line that gives the group its name: these ten are proclaimed the Mahavidyas, the accomplished knowledges. The words mahavidya and siddhavidya stand in the verses as terms for the class rather than as further names, which is worth marking, since counting them in yields eleven. This is the enumeration quoted wherever the ten are listed together, and the order it sets is the order the tradition has kept, Kali at one end and Kamala at the other. Nothing is described and nothing is asked for; the verses exist to establish the set.