This film has a 100% rating based on 17 critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film was adapted into the opera "The Goddess" by Allen Shearer.
The film is based on the worship of women and young girls as incarnations of the goddesses Durga or Kali, which is more prevalent in Nepal as the Kumari tradition.
Directors William Wyler and Elia Kazan have described this film as "poetry on celluloid". Director Francis Ford Coppola considers Devi to be Satyajit Ray's best work and called it "a cinematic milestone".