Kali (/ˈkɑːliː/;Sanskrit:काली,IAST:Kālī), also calledKalika, is a majorgoddess inHinduism, primarily associated with time, death and destruction. Kali is also connected with transcendental knowledge and is the first of the tenMahavidyas, a group of goddesses who provide liberating knowledge.[2][3] Of the numerousHindu goddesses, Kali is held as the most famous.[4] She is the preeminent deity in theHindu tantric and theKalikula worship traditions, and is a central figure in the goddess-centric sects of Hinduism as well as inShaivism.[5][6] Kali is chiefly worshipped as the Divine Mother, Mother of the Universe, andDivine feminine energy.[7][8][9]
The origins of Kali can be traced to the pre-Vedic andVedic era goddess worshiptraditions in theIndian subcontinent.[5] Etymologically, the termKali refers to one who governs time or is black. The first major appearance of Kali in theSanskrit literature was in the sixth-century CE textDevi Mahatmya.[5] Kali appears in many stories, with the most popular one being when she manifests as personification of goddessDurga's rage to defeat the demonRaktabija. The terrifying iconography of Kali makes her a unique figure among thegoddesses and symbolises her embracement and embodiment of the grim worldly realities of blood, death and destruction.[2]
Kali is stated to protect and bestow liberation (moksha) to devotees who approach her with an attitude of a child towards mother. Devotional songs and poems that extol the motherly nature of Kali are popular inBengal, where she is most widely worshipped as the Divine Mother.Shakta andTantric traditions additionally worship Kali as the ultimate reality orBrahman.[9] In modern times, Kali has emerged as a symbol of significance for women.[2]
The termKali is derived fromKala, which is mentioned quite differently inSanskrit.[10] The homonymkālá (time) is distinct fromkāla (black), but these became associated throughpopular etymology.[11]Kali is then understood as "she who is the ruler of time", or "she who is black".[10] Kālī is the goddess of time or death and the consort of Shiva.[12] She is called Kali Mata ("the dark mother") and alsokālī, which can be read here either as aproper name or as a description: "the dark (or black) one".[11]
Although the wordKālī appears as early as theAtharva Veda, the first use of it as a proper name is in theKathaka Grhya Sutra (19.7).[13]Kali originated as a tantric and non-Vedic goddess. Her roots are most probably connected to the Pre-Aryan period.[14] According to IndologistWendy Doniger, Kali's origins can be traced to the deities of the Pre-Vedic village, tribal, and mountain cultures of South Asia who were gradually appropriated and transformed by the Sanskritic traditions.[5]
Her most well-known appearance is on the battlefield in the sixth century textDevi Mahatmyam. The deity of the first chapter ofDevi Mahatmyam is Mahakali, who appears from the body of sleepingVishnu as goddess Yoga Nidra to wake him up in order to protectBrahma and the world from twoasuras (demons),Madhu-Kaitabha. When Vishnu woke up he started a war against the two asuras. After a long battle with Vishnu, the two demons were undefeated and Mahakali took the form of Mahamaya to enchant the two asuras. When Madhu and Kaitabha were enchanted by Mahakali, Vishnu killed them.[15]
In later chapters, the story of two asuras who were destroyed by Kali can be found.Chanda and Munda attack the goddessKaushiki. Kaushiki responds with such anger that it causes her face to turn dark, resulting in Kali appearing out of her forehead. Kali's appearance is dark blue, gaunt with sunken eyes, wearing a tiger skinsari and agarland of human heads. She immediately defeats the two asuras. Later in the same battle, the asuraRaktabija is undefeated because of his ability to reproduce himself from every drop of his blood that reaches the ground. Countless Raktabija clones appear on the battlefield. Kali eventually defeats him by sucking his blood before it can reach the ground, and eating the numerous clones. Kinsley writes that Kali represents "Durga's personified wrath, her embodied fury".[15]
Other origin stories involve Parvati and Shiva. Parvati is typically portrayed as a benign and friendly goddess. TheLinga Purana describes Shiva asking Parvati to defeat the asuraDaruka, who received a boon that would only allow a female to kill him. Parvati merges with Shiva's body, reappearing as Kali to defeat Daruka and his armies. Her bloodlust gets out of control, only calming when Shiva intervenes. TheVamana Purana has a different version of Kali's relationship with Parvati. When Shiva addresses Parvati as Kali, "the dark blue one", she is greatly offended. Parvati performs austerities to lose her dark complexion and becomes Gauri, the golden one. Her dark sheath becomesKaushiki, who while enraged, creates Kali.[15]
In Kāli's most famous legend,Durga and her assistants, theMatrikas, wound the demonRaktabīja, in various ways and with a variety of weapons in an attempt to destroy him. They soon find that they have worsened the situation for with every drop of blood that drips from Raktabīja, he reproduces a duplicate of himself. The battlefield becomes increasingly filled with his duplicates.[15] Durga summons Kāli to combat the demons. This episode is described in theDevi Mahatmyam, Kali is depicted as being fierce, clad in a tiger's skin and armed with a sword and noose. She has deep, red eyes with tongue lolling out as she catches drops of Raktabīja's blood before they fall to the ground and create duplicates.[16]
Kali consumes Raktabīja and his duplicates, and dances on the corpses of the slain.[15] In theDevi Mahatmya version of this story, Kali is also described as aMatrika and as aShakti or power ofDevi. She is given the epithetCāṃuṇḍā (Chamunda), that is, the slayer of the demonsChanda and Munda.[16]: 72 Chamunda is very often identified with Kali and is very much like her in appearance and habit.[15]: 241 Footnotes
The goddess Kali is regarded as the most famous female deity of all the numerousHindu goddesses.[4] The uncommon appearance of Kali is explained as a cause of her popularity.[2]: 398 Kali is iconographically depicted as a "terrifying emaciated woman"; with black skin, long tangled hair, red eyes and a long lolling tongue. She is naked barring a grim set of ornamentation: "a necklace of skulls or freshly decapitated heads, a skirt of severed arms and jewellery made from the corpses of infants." The "wildness" is a defining aspect of her character.[2]: 399 The terrifying iconography of Kali is considered symbolic of her role as a protector and a bestower of freedom to devotees, of whom she shall take care if they come to her in the "attitude of a child."[2]: 399 Devotional songs and poems that glorify the motherly nature of Kali are popular inBengal, where she is most extensively worshipped.[2]: 399
In theDevi Mahatmya, where Kali first appeared as a personification of the rage of goddessDurga, an aspect of Kali's character was her thirst for blood and fondness to stay at places of death and destruction.[2]: 399 In original depictions, Kali was often pictured in a cremation ground or battlefield standing on the corpse ofShiva, which symbolized her manifestation asShakti.[17] Kali represents the goddess embracing and encompassing the grim worldly realities of "blood, death and destruction".[2]
TheKalikaPurana describes Kali as "possessing a soothing dark complexion, as perfectly beautiful, riding a lion, four-armed, holding a sword and blue lotus, her hair unrestrained, body firm and youthful".[18] The goddess has two depictions: the popularfour-armed form and the ten-armed Mahakali avatar. In both, she is described as being black in colour, though she is often seen as blue in popular Indian art. Her eyes are described as red with intoxication and rage. Her hair is disheveled, small fangs sometimes protrude out of her mouth, and her tongue is lolling. Sometimes she dons a skirt made of demon arms and agarland of demon heads. Other times, she is seen wearing a tiger skin. She is also accompanied byserpents and ajackal while standing on the calm and prostrate Shiva, usually right foot forward to symbolize the more populardakṣiṇācāra ("right-hand path"), as opposed to the more infamous and transgressivevamachara ("left-hand path").[19] Her mount, orvahana, is the lion.[20]
Kali is depicted with four arms, which symbolize the circle of creation and dissolution.[17] Her left hands are depicted holding a severed head and a sword.[17] The sword signifies divine knowledge and the human head signifies human ego which must be slain by divine knowledge in order to attainmoksha. The right hands are usually depicted in theabhaya (fearlessness) andvarada (blessing)mudras, which means her initiated devotees (or anyone worshipping her with a true heart) will be saved as she will guide them here and in the hereafter.[18]: 477
She wears agarland of demon heads, variously enumerated at108 (an auspicious number in Hinduism and the number of countable beads on ajapamala or rosary for repetition ofmantras) or 51, which represents Varnamala or the Garland of letters of the Sanskrit alphabet,Devanagari. Hindus believeSanskrit is a language ofdynamism, and each of these letters represents a form of energy, or a form of Kali. Therefore, she is generally seen as the mother of language, and allmantras.[18]: 475
She is often depicted naked which symbolizes her being beyond the covering ofMaya since she is pure (nirguna) being-consciousness-bliss and far above Prakriti. She is shown as very dark as she is Brahman in its supreme unmanifest state. She has no permanent qualities—she will continue to exist even when the universe ends. It is therefore believed that the concepts of color, light, good, and bad do not apply to her.[18]: 463–488
Mahakali, goddess of time and death, depicted with a black complexion with ten heads, arms and legs.
Mahakali (Sanskrit: Mahākālī,Devanagari: महाकाली,Bengali: মহাকালী,Gujarati: મહાકાળી), literally translated as "Great Kali", is sometimes considered as a greater form of Kali, identified with the Ultimate reality ofBrahman. It can also be used as an honorific of the Goddess Kali,.[9]: 257 Mahakali symbolizes absolute night and the power of time. She is depicted with five or ten heads, each with three eyes and holding different weapons. Mahakali is known as the origin of all things, her consort isMahakala.[9]: 257
TheSkanda Purana mentions that Kali took the form of Mahakali at the instruction of Shiva who wanted her to destroy the world during the time of universaldestruction.[9]: 242
In the ten-armed form of Mahakali, she is depicted as shining like a blue stone. She has ten faces, ten feet, and three eyes for each head. She has ornaments decked on all her limbs. There is no association with Shiva.[21]
Dakshinakali is the most popular form of Kali in Bengal.[22] She is the benevolent mother, who protects her devotees and children from mishaps and misfortunes. There are various versions for the origin of the nameDakshinakali.Dakshina refers to the gift given to a priest before performing a ritual or to one's guru. Such gifts are traditionally given with the right hand. Dakshinakali's two right hands are usually depicted in gestures of blessing and giving of boons. One version of the origin of her name comes from the story ofYama, lord of death, who lives in the south (dakshina). When Yama heard Kali's name, he fled in terror, and so those who worship Kali are said to be able to overcome death itself.[23][24]: 53–55
Dakshinakali is typically shown with her right foot onShiva's chest—while depictions showing Kali with her left foot on Shiva's chest depict the even more fearsome Vamakali. Vamakali is usually worshipped by non-householders.[25]
The pose shows the conclusion of an episode in which Kali was rampaging out of control after destroying many demons. Vishnu confronted Kali in an attempt to cool her down. She was unable to see beyond the limitless power of her rage and Vishnu had to move out of her way. Seeing this the devas became more fearful, afraid that in her rampage, Kali would not stop until she destroyed the entire universe. Shiva saw only one solution to prevent Kali's endless destruction. Shiva lay down on the battlefield so that Goddess Mahakali would have to step on him. When she saw her consort under her foot, Kali realized that she had gone too far. Filled with grief for the damage she had done, her blood-red tongue hung from her mouth, calming her down. In some interpretations of the story, Shiva was attempting to receive Kali's grace by receiving her foot on his chest.[26]
The goddess is generally worshipped as Dakshina Kali (with her right feet on Shiva) inBengal during Kali Puja.[27]
According to Rachel Fell McDermott, the poets portrayed Shiva as "the devotee who falls at [Kali's] feet in devotion, in the surrender of his ego, or in hopes of gainingmoksha by her touch." In fact, Shiva is said to have become so enchanted by Kali that he performed austerities to win her, and having received the treasure of her feet, held them against his heart in reverence.[24]
The popularity of the worship of the Dakshinakali form of Goddess Kali is often attributed toKrishnananda Agamavagisha. He was a noted 17th-century Bengali Tantra thinker and author ofTantrasara. Devi Kali reportedly appeared to him in a dream and told him to popularize her in a particular form that would appear to him the following day. The next morning he observed a young woman making cow dung patties. While placing a patty on a wall, she stood in thealidha pose, with her right foot forward. When she saw Krishnananda watching her, she was embarrassed and put her tongue between her teeth, Agamavagisha realized that this was the divine form of maa kali he was looking for.[24]: 54 [28] Krishnananda Agamavagisha was also the guru of the Kali devotee and poetRamprasad Sen.[8]: 217
Samhara Kali, also called Vama Kali, is the embodiment of the power of destruction. The chief goddess of Tantric texts, Samhara Kali is the most dangerous and powerful form of Kali. Samhara Kali takes form when Kali steps out with her left foot holding her sword in her right hand. She is the Kali of death, destruction and is worshipped by tantrics. As Samhara Kali she gives death and liberation. According to the Mahakala Samhita, Samhara Kali is two armed and black in complexion. She stands on a corpse and holds a freshly cut head and a plate to collect the dripping blood. She is worshipped by warriors, tantrics – the followers ofTantra.[8]
Other forms of Kali popularly worshipped in Bengal includeRaksha Kali (form of Kali worshipped for protection against epidemics and drought), Bhadra Kali and Guhya Kali. Kali is said to have 8, 12, or 21 different forms according to different traditions. The popular forms are Adya Kali, Chintamani Kali, Sparshamani Kali, Santati Kali,Siddhi Kali, Dakshina Kali,Rakta Kali, Bhadra Kali, Smashana Kali, Adharvana Bhadra Kali, Kamakala Kali, Guhya Kali, Hamsa Kali, Shyama Kali, and Kalasankarshini Kali. InGujarat,Khodiyar is a regional form ofMahakali.[25]
InBengal andOdisha, Kali's extended tongue is widely seen as expressing embarrassment over the realization that her foot is on her husband's chest.[24]: 53–55 [29][30][9]: 237 Above: idol of Kali at theDakshineshwar Kali Temple.
Interpretations of the symbolic meanings of Kali's appearance vary depending on Tantric or devotional approach, and on whether one views her image in a symbolic, allegorical or mystical fashion.[23] There are many varied depictions of the different forms of Kali. The most common form shows her with four arms and hands, showing aspects of both creation and destruction. The two right hands are often held out in blessing, one in a mudra saying "fear not" (abhayamudra), the other conferring boons. Her left hands hold a severed head and blood-covered sword. The sword severs the bondage of ignorance and ego (tamas), represented by the severed head. One interpretation of Kali's tongue is that the red tongue symbolizes therajasic nature being conquered by the white (symbolizingsattvic) nature of the teeth. Her blackness represents that she isnirguna, beyond all qualities of nature, and transcendent.[23][24]: 53–55 Kali's lolling tongue is interpreted as her being angry, enraged; while many in India interpret it as "biting the tongue" in shame.[10]: 222
The most widespread interpretation of Kali's extended tongue involve her embarrassment over the sudden realization that she has stepped on her husband's chest. Kali's sudden "modesty and shame" over that act is the prevalent interpretation amongOdia Hindus.[24]: 53–55 The biting of the tongue conveys the emotion oflajja or modesty, an expression that is widely accepted as the emotion being expressed by Kali.[29][9]: 237 In Bengal also, Kali's protruding tongue is "widely accepted... as a sign of speechless embarrassment: a gesture very common among Bengalis."[30][8]: xxiii
The twin earrings of Kali are small embryos. This is because Kali likes devotees who have childlike qualities in them.[25] The forehead of Kali is seen to be as luminous as the full moon and eternally giving out ambrosia.[25]
Kali is often shown standing with her right foot on Shiva's chest. This represents an episode where Kali was out of control on the battlefield, such that she was about to destroy the entire universe. Shiva pacified her by laying down under her foot to pacify and calm her. Shiva is sometimes shown with a blissful smile on his face.[24]: 53–55 She is typically shown with a garland of severed heads, often numbering fifty. This can symbolize the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet and therefore as the primordial sound ofAum from which all creation proceeds. The severed arms which make up her skirt represent her devotee's karma that she has taken on.[23]
There are several interpretations of the symbolism behind the commonly represented image of Kali standing on Shiva's supine form. A common interpretation is that Shiva symbolizespurusha, the universal unchanging aspect of reality, or pure consciousness. Kali representsPrakriti, nature or matter, sometimes seen as having a feminine quality of creation of life. The merging of these two qualities represent ultimate reality.[15]: 88
A tantric interpretation sees Shiva as consciousness and Kali as power or energy. Consciousness and energy are dependent upon each other, since Shiva depends on Shakti, or energy, in order to fulfill his role in creation, preservation, and destruction. In this view, without Shakti, Shiva is a corpse—unable to act.[24]: 53
Kali is closely associated with transcendent knowledge and is regarded as the first of the tenMahavidyas, an amalgamation of goddesses who provide liberating knowledge.[2]: 399 Kali is primarily worshipped in theKalikula worship tradition. The closest way of direct worship is to the forms ofMahakali orBhadrakali (Bhadra in Sanskrit means 'gentle'). One mantra for Kali worship is:[31]
In Tantrism the cause of reality is the mutual interaction between male and female or Shiva and Shakti. As a result, goddesses play an important role in the study and practice ofTantra Yoga and are essential in understanding the nature of reality.[15] Kali is often mentioned in Tantric iconography, texts and rituals even thoughParvati receivedShiva's wisdom in the form of Tantras.[15] Kali is revered are the highest reality or greatest of all deities in many Tantric texts. TheNiruttara-tantra and thePicchila-tantra state that among all mantras Kali's mantras are the greatest. TheKdmadd-tantra mentions that Kali issacciddnanda or imperishable bliss and Brahman. In other texts like theYogini-tantra,Kamakhya-tantra and theNiruttara-tantra Kali is referred to as an essential form ofMahadevi.[15]: 122–124
In Tantric practice, Kali's figure represents death itself. TheKarpuradi-stotra, dated to approximately 10th century CE, describes thePancatattva ritual which is performed on cremation grounds (Samahana-sadhan). It states that asadhaka that meditates on the terrible aspects of Kali's form and confronts her can attain salvation.[15]: 122–124
TheKarpuradi-stotra also describes Kali's gentler form that is young, with a smiling face and with two right hands to dispel fear and offer boons. She is also described as the supreme being of the universe. In this benign form, Kali becomes the goddess who grants salvation when fear is overcome and goes from being a symbol of death to being a symbol of triumph over death.[15]: 124–125
Statue of Kali trampling on Shiva, worshipped inBengal.Idol of goddess Kali kept near Nimtala ghat for Visarjan or Immersion in the waters of river Hooghly
Kali is a central figure in late medievalBengal devotional literature, with such notable devotee poets asKamalakanta Bhattacharya (1769–1821) andRamprasad Sen (1718–1775). With the exception of being associated withParvati asShiva's consort, Kāli is rarely pictured in Hindu legends and iconography as a motherly figure until Bengali devotions beginning in the early eighteenth century. Even in Bengāli tradition her appearance and habits change little, if at all.[15]: 126
The Tantric approach to Kāli is to display courage by confronting her on cremation grounds in the dead of night, despite her terrible appearance. In contrast, the Bengali devotee adopts the attitude of a child, coming to love her unreservedly. In both cases, the goal of the devotee is to become reconciled with death and to learn acceptance of the way that things are. These themes are addressed in Rāmprasād's work.[15]: 125–126 Rāmprasād comments in many of his other songs that Kāli is indifferent to his wellbeing, causes him to suffer, brings his worldly desires to nothing and his worldly goods to ruin. He also states that she does not behave like a mother should and that she ignores his pleas.[15]: 128
To be a child of Kāli, Rāmprasād asserts, is to be denied of earthly delights and pleasures. Kāli is said to refrain from giving that which is expected. To the devotee, it is perhaps her very refusal to do so that enables her devotees to reflect on dimensions of themselves and of reality that go beyond the material world.[15]: 128
A significant portion of Bengali devotional music features Kāli as its central theme and is known asShyama Sangeet.[32]
Kāli is especially venerated in the festival ofKali Puja in eastern India – celebrated when the new moon day ofAshwin month coincides with the festival ofDiwali. The practice of animal sacrifice is still practiced during Kali Puja in Bengal, Orissa, and Assam, though it is rare outside of those areas. TheHindu temples where this takes place involves the ritual slaying of goats, chickens and sometimes male water buffalos. Throughout India, the practice is becoming less common.[33] The rituals in eastern India temples where animals are killed are generally led byBrahmin priests.[33]: 84, 101–104 A number ofTantricPuranas specify the ritual for how the animal should be killed. A Brahmin priest will recite a mantra in the ear of the animal to be sacrificed, in order to free the animal from the cycle of life and death. Groups such as People for Animals continue to protest animal sacrifice based on court rulings forbidding the practice in some locations.[34]
In Tibet, Krodikali (alt. Krodhakali, Kālikā, Krodheśvarī, Krishna Krodhini) is known asTröma Nagmo (Classical Tibetan:ཁྲོ་མ་ནག་མོ་,Wylie:khro ma nag mo, English: "The Black Wrathful Lady").[36][37] She features as a key deity in the practice tradition ofChöd founded byMachig Labdron and is seen as a fierce form ofVajrayogini.[38] Other similar fierce deities include the dark blue Ugra Tara and the lion-facedSimhamukha.[39]
In Sri Lanka, Kali is venerated and called upon by Buddhists and Hindus. She is a type of mother goddess, sometimes invoked to fight disease,[40] and a maid of the GoddessPattini.[41] In Sinhala Buddhism, her origin is explained through her arriving at Munneśvaram from South India, eating humans, and attempting to eat Pattini, who instead tames her.[42]
She is regarded as having seven forms; Bhadrakāli (who is associated with business and gold trade, and prominently worshipped at the Tamil HinduMunneśvaram temple, though over 80% of its patrons are Sinhala Buddhists. Bhadrakāli priests here interpret her tongue as symbolizing revenge, rather than embarrassment, and she tramples the demon of ignorance[42]), Mahābhadrakāli, Pēnakāli, Vandurukāli (Hanumāpatrakāli), Rīrikāli, Sohonkāli, and Ginikāli.[41] These forms are subordinate to Kāliammā (the mother of Kāli). Red flowers, silver coins, blood, and oil lamps with mustard oil are offered to her, and as Pattini's servant, she accepts offerings on her behalf.[43] Sohonkāli is the form venerated in one of her most popular temples, the Mōdara Kāli temple inColombo.[41]
Her worship in Sri Lanka dates back to at least the 9th century CE, andDharmasena Thera created theSadharma Ratnavaliya in the 13th century based on an older 5th century work, which actively recontextualizes Kali in a Buddhist context,[44] exploring the nature of violence and vengeance and how they trap people in cycles until justification, guilt, and good and evil become irrelevant.[45] Kali has been seen as both a demon (though a tamed one, thanks to Pattini[42]) and a goddess in Sri Lanka.[43] She and mythical Sinhala Buddhist kings both use demonic fury as a necessary condition of conquest.[42]
Yantras are used in relation to her, sourced from thePali Canon, later Buddhistparitta chants, and from non-Buddhist yantras and mantras. The Sādhakayantra is popular, and its corresponding mantra includes Arabic words and Islamic concepts.[43]
A form of Kali worship may have already been transmitted to the west in medieval times by the wanderingRomani. A few authors have drawn parallels between Kali worship and the ceremonies of the annual pilgrimage in honor ofSaint Sarah, also known asSara-la-Kali ("Sara the Black",Romani:Sara e Kali), held atSaintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a place ofpilgrimage for Roma in theCamargue, in southern France.[46][47]Ronald Lee (2001) notes that the similarities in the ceremonies performed at the shrine if Sainte Sara (called Sara e Kali in Romani) indicate that Kali/Durga worship have been incorporated to a Christian figure.[48]
An academic study of modern-day western Kali enthusiasts noted that, "as shown in the histories of all cross-cultural religious transplants, Kali devotionalism in the West must take on its own indigenous forms if it is to adapt to its new environment."[48] Rachel Fell McDermott, Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures atColumbia University and author of several books on Kali, has noted the evolving views in the West regarding Kali and her worship. In 1998 McDermott wrote that feminists and New Age spiritualists are drawn to Kali because they perceive her to be a symbol of repressed female power, sexuality, and healing but that this is a misinterpretation which stems from a lack of knowledge about Hindu religious tradition.[48] By 2003, she amended this view stating that cross-cultural borrowing should be done thoughtfully and is natural due to religious globalization. She further stated that Kali enthusiasts since the early 1990s had sought to take on a more informed approach by incorporating more Indian perspective of her character than feminist and New Age interpretations.[48]
The emergence of Kali in the modern times as an image of significance for many women, both Hindu and non-Hindu, has been noteworthy.[2]: 399 Since the late twentieth century, variousfeminist movements in the West have associated Kali withwomen's empowerment.[5]New age religious and spiritual movements have found in the iconographic representations and mythological stories of Kali an inspiration fortheological andsexual liberation.[5]
InRéunion, an island territory of France in the Indian Ocean, veneration for SaintExpeditus (French:Saint Expédit) is very popular. TheMalbars have Tamil ancestry but are, at least nominally, Catholics.The saint is identified with Kali.[49]
Scholar Marvin H. Pope in 1965 argues that theHindu goddess Kali, who is first attested in the 7th century CE, shares some characteristics with some ancient Near Eastern goddesses, such as wearing a necklace of heads and a belt of severed hands likeAnat, and drinking blood like the Egyptian goddessSekhmet and that therefore that her character might have been influenced by them.[50]
The Bronze Age epic cycles of theLevantine city ofUgarit include a myth according to which the warrior goddessAnat started attacking warriors, with the text of the myth describing the goddess as gloating and her heart filling with joy and her liver with laughter while attaching the heads of warriors to her back and girding hands to her waist[51] until she is pacified by a message of peace sent by her brother and consort, the godBaʿlu.[52]
The Hindu goddess Kali similarly wore a necklace of severed heads and a girdle of severed hands, and was pacified by her consort, Śiva, throwing himself under her feet. The sickle sword wielded by Kali might also have been connected to similar sickle swords used inearly dynasticMesopotamia.[53]
According to anAncient Egyptian myth, calledThe Deliverance of Mankind from Destruction, the ancient Egyptian supreme god, the Sun-godRa, suspected that mankind was plotting against him, and so he sent the goddessHathor, who was the incarnation of his violent feminine aspect, theEye of Ra, to destroy his enemies.[54]
Furthermore, Hathor appeared as the lion-goddessSekhmet and carried out Ra's orders until she became so captured by her blood-lust that she would not stop despite Ra himself becoming distressed and wishing an end to the killing. Therefore, Ra concocted a ruse whereby a plain was flooded with beer which had been dyed red, which Sekhmet mistook for blood and drank until she became too inebriated to continue killing, thus saving humanity from destruction.[54]
Similarly, while killing demons, Kālī became ecstatic with the joy of battle and slaughter and refused to stop, so that theDevas feared she would destroy the world, and she was stopped through ruse when her consort Śiva threw himself under her feet.[53]
A modern version of Kali was featured on the cover of the first issue of feminist magazineMs., published in 1972, with Kali's many arms symbolizing the many tasks of the contemporary American woman.[60][61] Thetongue and lips logo of the bandThe Rolling Stones, created in 1971, was inspired by the stuck-out tongue of Kali.[62][63]
Pope, Marvin H.;Röllig, Wolfgang[in German] (1965). "Syrien: Die Mythologie der Ugariter und Phönizier" [Syria: The Mythology of the Ugarites and Phoenicians]. InHaussig, Hans Wilhelm[in German] (ed.).Götter und Mythen im Vorderen Orient [Gods and Myths in the Middle East] (in German).Stuttgart, Germany:Ernst Klett Verlag. pp. 217–312.
Shanmukha Anantha Natha and Shri Ma Kristina Baird,Divine Initiation Shri Kali Publications (2001)ISBN0-9582324-0-7 – Has a chapter on Mahadevi with a commentary on theDevi Mahatmyam from the Markandeya Purana.
^Urban, Hugh B. (2003). "India's Darkest Heart: Kali in the Colonial Imagination". In McDermott, Rachel Fell; Kripal, Jeffrey J. (eds.).Encountering Kali: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West. University of California Press. p. 171.ISBN978-0-520-92817-6.
^abcdefghijklmnopKinsley, David (1997).Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 70–76.
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