The Devi Mahatmya, generally dated by scholars to somewhere between the fifth and sixth centuries CE, functions as one of the most important theological texts asserting the primacy of the divine feminine within Hindu tradition, and it remains in active daily liturgical use, recited in full during Durga Puja and Navaratri celebrations across large parts of India, particularly in Bengal, where its recitation forms a central part of festival observance rather than serving only as a historical or literary text.
The narrative is not associated with any specific dated historical event, and Hindu tradition generally receives it as scripture describing cosmic, rather than historical, time, alongside the wider body of Puranic literature concerned with divine action rather than chronicled human history.
Durga's victory over Mahishasura is commemorated at length during Navaratri, nine nights of worship culminating in Durga Puja and Dussehra, among the most elaborately celebrated festivals across the Hindu calendar, particularly prominent in Bengal, Assam and Odisha, where elaborate temporary shrines and artistic clay images of Durga slaying Mahishasura are constructed, displayed and ceremonially immersed in water at the festival's close.