Goddess Kali

Description

Kali (Sanskrit: काली), also known as Kālikā (Sanskrit: कालिका) or Shyāmā (Sanskrit: श्यामा), is a Hindu goddess. Kali is the chief of the Mahavidyas, a group of ten Tantric goddesses.

Kali’s earliest appearance is that of a destroyer of evil forces. She is the most powerful form of Shakti, and the goddess of one of the four subcategories of the Kulamārga, a category of Tantric Saivism. Over time, Kali has been worshipped by devotional movements and tantric sects variously as the Divine Mother, Mother of the Universe, Adi Shakti, or Adi Parashakti. Shakta Hindu and Tantric sects additionally worship her as the ultimate reality or Brahman. She is also seen as the divine protector and the one who bestows moksha, or liberation. Kali is often portrayed standing or dancing on her consort, the Hindu god Shiva, who lies calm and prostrate beneath her. Kali is worshipped by Hindus throughout India and Nepal.

The homonymous kāla, “appointed time,” is distinct from kāla “black,” but became associated through popular etymology. The association is seen in a passage from the Mahābhārata, depicting a female figure who carries away the spirits of slain warriors and animals. She is called kālarātri (which Thomas Coburn, a historian of Sanskrit Goddess literature, translates as “night of death”) and also kālī (which, as Coburn notes, can be read here either as a proper name or as a description “the dark blue one”). Kālī is also the feminine form of Kāla, an epithet of Shiva, and thus the consort of Shiva.

>> Dimension= 19 x 14 x 6cms