Devi
Devi is Adi Shakti — the power without which no god acts. As Gauri, or Parvati, she is the gentle half of Shiv; as Durga she is the one who ended Mahishasura; Kali, Lakshmi and Saraswati are her forms as well. Tuesday and Friday are her weekdays, the Shukla Ashtami her tithi, and Navratri her nine nights. The Durga Saptashati is her text, and red flowers, a chunri and sindoor are the ordinary materials of her worship — the ordinariness is deliberate, since she is approached as a mother rather than as a distant power.