The Mahishasura Mardini Stotra is a Sanskrit hymn to the Goddess as the slayer of the buffalo-demon Mahishasura, known by its opening words, Ayi giri nandini — O daughter of the mountain. Each of its twenty-one verses ends on the same refrain, jaya jaya he Mahishasura Mardini ramya kapardini shaila sute: victory to the slayer of Mahishasura, the daughter of the mountain with lovely braided hair. It is popularly attributed to Adi Shankaracharya; the same verses also stand within a longer hymn, the Bhagavati Padya Pushpanjali, whose closing verses give its poet's name as Ramakrishna Kavi.
The hymn hails the Goddess as the one who gladdens the earth, dwelling on the crest of the Vindhya hills and in her home among the Himalayan peaks, and as the wife of Shiva, the blue-throated one. Verse by verse it recalls episodes of the Devi Mahatmya: she humbles Madhu and Kaitabha, routs Dhumralochana with a single sound, dries up the blood of Raktabija from which new demons sprang, and fights Shumbha and Nishumbha. Its words ring with sound — the dancers' tatatheyi, the mridanga's dhindhimita, a line that repeats sumanah four times — and one verse names Suratha and Samadhi, the king and the merchant who worship her in the Devi Mahatmya.
At Vijayawada, Kanaka Durga is adorned as Mahishasura Mardini on Mahanavami during Dasara, and one recording of the hymn, posted in 2014, has been played more than 550 million times on YouTube. In this collection, she is worshipped as Mahishasura Mardini at Chamundeshwari above Mysuru, a city named for Mahishasura, at Saptashrungi near Nashik and at Kanaka Durga on Indrakeeladri hill, while Vindhyavasini dwells on the Vindhya hills, where the hymn's opening verse places her.