India: Stone carving of the Hindu Goddess Varahi (centre) as a Matrika, Aihole cave temple, Bagalkot, Kannada, c. 6th-8th century CE. Photo by Benjamin Preciado (CC BY License), 1977. Varahi (Sanskrit: वाराही, Vārāhī) is one of the Matrikas, a group of seven or eight mother goddesses in the Hindu religion. With the head of a sow, Varahi is the shakti (feminine energy, or sometimes, consort) of Varaha, the boar Avatar of the god Vishnu. In Nepal, she is called Barahi. Varahi is worshipped by all the three major schools of Hinduism: Shaktism, Shaivism and Vaishnavism.

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Photo credit: © Pictures From History / Alamy / Afripics
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