Kali

Kali (/ˈkɑːliː/, Sanskrit: काली, (IAST: Kālī), also known as Kālikā (Sanskrit: कॉलिंका) or Shyāmā (Sanskrit: श्यामा), is a Hindu goddess. Kali is one of the ten Mahavidyas, a list which combines Sakta and Buddhist goddesses. Kali's earliest appearance is that of a destroyer of evil forces. She is the most powerful form of Shakti. She is the goddess of one of the four subcategories of the Kulamārga, a category of tantric Saivism. Over time, she 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. Kālī is the feminine form of 'time' or 'the fullness of time' with the masculine noun 'kāla'—and by extension, time as 'changing aspect of nature that bring things to life or death.' Other names include Kālarātri ('the deep blue night'), and Kālikā ('the deep blue one'). The homonymous kāla, 'appointed time,' is distinct from kāla 'deep blue,' 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. Hugh Urban notes that although the word Kālī appears as early as the Atharva Veda, the first use of it as a proper name is in the Kathaka Grhya Sutra (19.7). Kali appears in the Mundaka Upanishad (section 1, chapter 2, verse 4) not explicitly as a goddess, but as the dark blue tongue of the seven flickering tongues of Agni, the Hindu god of fire. According to David Kinsley, Kāli is first mentioned in Hindu tradition as a distinct goddess around 600 AD, and these texts 'usually place her on the periphery of Hindu society or on the battlefield.' She is often regarded as the Shakti of Shiva, and is closely associated with him in various Puranas. Her most well-known appearance on the battlefield is in the sixth century Devi Mahatmyam. The deity of the first chapter of Devi Mahatmyam is Mahakali, who appears from the body of sleeping Vishnu as goddess Yoga Nidra to wake him up in order to protect Brahma and the World from two demons Madhu and Kaitabha. When Vishnu woke up he started a war against the two demons. After a long battle with Lord Vishnu when the two demons were undefeated Mahakali took the form of Mahamaya to enchant the two asuras. When Madhu and Kaitabha were enchanted by Mahakali, Vishnu killed them. In later chapters, the story of two demons can be found who were destroyed by Kali. Chanda and Munda attack the goddess Durga. Durga responds with such anger, causing her face to turn dark resulting in Kali appearing out of her forehead. Kali's appearance is dark blue, gaunt with sunken eyes, and wearing a tiger skin and a garland of human heads. She immediately defeats the two demons. Later in the same battle, the demon Raktabija 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.'