Several such folk stories abound all over India.

It is believed that just possession of the Durga Saptashati book has helped many great people to fight evil spirits as well as getting the blessings of the Goddess herself. In the twelfth chapter, the Goddess tells that for one, who reads or hears, these three stories of her, there is nothing impossible to obtain including salvation. Sage Markandeya then tells of how, the king Suradha and Vysya Samadhi did penance on the goddess and got the boons that they wanted. She along with the powers generated by various Gods, killed Shumbha and Nishumbha. Out of the body of the Goddess came Koushikhi or Chandika. This time the gods approach Goddess Uma who was wandering in the Himalaya Mountains and told her of their sufferings. The third story is of how the Great Asura brothers Shumbha and Nishumbha were killed by the goddess. This goddess, mainly consisting of the anger generated power killed Mahishasura. This goddess was further strengthened by the powers of the various Gods. This made those three gods very angry and the innate power of the Goddess in them came out and joined together. They all go and approach the holy trinity for the redressal of their grievances. This Asura who had the form of buffalo, drove away the devas and Indra from their homes. The second story is of how the mother Goddess helped the devas by killing Mahishasura. Since both these Asuras were of Thamasic origin, she also had a thamasic form. The goddess appears and takes the form of Vishnu Maya and kills both Asuras after wrestling with them for thousands of years. Lord Brahma prays to the Goddess to help him continue his work of creation. They take birth from the earwax of Lord Vishnu while he was asleep and start troubling Lord Brahma who was sitting on the lotus originating from the belly of Lord Vishnu. The first story is that of Madhu and Kaidabha. He then relates to them the story of Devi Mahatmya, which consists of three stories in all of which the mother Goddess kills the enemies of Gods. They became curious and wanted to know about this great mother Goddess. The sage tells them that all this is the illusion created by the great Goddess called Vishnu Maya. So they approach Sage Sumedhas who was also living in the forest. It appears to them that this is unnatural. They discover that though their own people have driven them out, they are both worried about the welfare of their people. He tells him that one king called Suradha, who was driven out of his kingdom by his own people met one Vysya (businessman) called Samadhi who was driven out of his home by his wife and sons, in the forest. The stories of Devi Mahatmya are as told by Sage Markandeya to Sage Baguri. She is the force that drives everything in the universe. She is the Moola Prakriti, the root nature, of all that manifests. Some people call her Durgaa, some call her Chandi and some call her Mahaalakshmi. She is the unlimited Shakti (energy) behind all limited Shaktis. They have aim, hreem and kleem as the beejas.Дurga Saptashati is the very definition of the nature of Divine Mother. The purposes of the three parts are dharma, artha and kaama respectively. They have Rigveda, Yajurveda and Samaveda as the swarupas. The three parts have MahaKaali, MahaLakshmi and MahaSaraswati as the deities. Also, they are arranged in 3 parts (charitas). The 700 verses are arranged in 13 chapters.

This Purana is also authored by Veda Vyasa and is a medium sized Purana. It consists of Chapters 74 to 86 (13 chapters) of the Markandeya Purana and has 700 stanzas. It is known as Devi Mahatmya in South India, Chandi in West Bengal and as Durga Sapthasathi in the northern parts of the country including Varanasi. Durga Saptashati relates the story of how the devi (mother Goddess) killed Madhu and Kaidabha as Vishnu Maya (Thamasic-base), killed Mahishasura as Lakshmi (Rajashic form materialistic) and killed Shumbha and Nishumbha in the form of Goddess Saraswathi (Sathvic-spiritual).

Durga argala stotram in hindi