The Book of Kali

by Seema Mohanty

  In later scriptures, written after the tenth century AD, the seven mothers are visualized as the female forms of seven popular Hindu gods: Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Narasimha, Varaha, Kumara and Indra. Sometimes, the goddess Chamunda is listed amongst them. Chamunda with her gaunt features, nakedness and bloodlust is said to be a form of Kali.

  Like the Matrikas, the Maha-Vidyas and the Yoginis too appear in narratives as manifestations of outrage. Some of them have the form of Kali. The Maha-Vidyas first appear when Sati decides to disrupt her father’s yagna, organized to insult her hermit-husband Shiva. The Yoginis appear when Parvati threatens to destroy the world unless her son Vinayaka, who has been beheaded by Shiva, is restored to life.

  A careful observation of these groups shows that they signify the various reactions Nature has evoked in man. Nature can be anything from the wild and terrifying to the tame and beautiful. Kali embodies the wild side with her nakedness and bloodlust, while Kamala embodies the gentle side with her bejewelled form and lotus seat. Often these collective goddesses have one male form beside them, either Skanda or Ganesha, or more commonly, Bhairava—the fierce form of Shiva. The male form is described variously as the attendant, priest, brother, son or consort of the divine female collective.

  Almost Kali

  Across India we find many Kali-like goddesses. Prominent among these are Chamunda, Alakshmi, Bhagavati, Chinnamastika, and Tara. They probably originated from the same primordial cultural substratum from where all forms of the Devi emerged.

  Most devotees do not distinguish between Chamunda and Kali. In some scriptures Chamunda is clearly identified as a form of Kali. Their identities often coalesce because they are dark, naked, wild and bloodthirsty. But there are differences. Chamunda is emaciated and ugly while Kali is dishevelled but beautiful. Chamunda sits on a pile of corpses while Kali stands on Shiva. Unlike Kali, Chamunda does not stretch out her tongue. Chamunda rides ghosts and has scorpions on her body, while Kali rides lions, and sometimes elephants. Chamunda is associated more with death and decay while Kali is associated more with unbridled sex and violence.

  Alakshmi, the goddess of misfortune, is the sister of Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune. Together they constitute the totality of the Devi. While in Tantra the inauspicious form of the Devi is worshipped, in Vaishnavism—strictly a religion of householders—preference is given only to the auspicious forms. Thus, in Vaishnava rituals, Lakshmi is worshipped as the consort of Vishnu who is the upholder of social values and worldly order, while Alakshmi is driven away as she embodies all things that threaten civilization—dirt, pollution, gluttony, sloth, greed, envy, hunger, disease and war. While Lakshmi sits bejewelled on a lotus holding a pot, Alakshmi wears torn clothes, rides a donkey and carries a broom. Lakshmi is offered sweets and kept inside the house; Alakshmi is offered lemons and chillies and thrown out of the house. The following story illustrates the conventional attitude towards Alakshmi:

  Lakshmi and Alakshmi, the goddesses of fortune and misfortune respectively, once went to a merchant and asked him who was the more beautiful of the two. The merchant knew the price of annoying either one. So he came up with a very clever answer. He said, ‘Lakshmi is beautiful when she walks into the house while Alakshmi is beautiful when she leaves the house.’ Immediately, Lakshmi walked towards the merchant’s house while Alakshmi walked away from it. Consequently, the merchant was visited by fortune while misfortune stayed away, much to the merchant’s delight.

  Bhagavati is one of the most popular ‘hot’ goddesses of Kerala. In the ritual art of Teyyam, she is invoked through oracles and through the dancers who go in a trance as soon as she ‘enters’ their bodies and begins to ‘speak’ through their tongues. Usually the goddess has no permanent shrine dedicated to her. Devotees create her image on the floor using coloured powder on festival days, which is wiped out at the end of the ceremony. The goddess looks ferocious with bloodshot eyes, fangs and clawed fingers. She demands offerings, usually chickens and goats, from villagers before promising them peace and prosperity. Sometimes songs with obscene lyrics describing her insatiable sexual cravings are sung to amuse this virgin goddess, although this practice is now on the wane. In narratives it is said that this goddess was first invoked to kill a demon. Every year after this demon is ritually killed—either in song or through sacrifice—Bhagavati leaves the body of the oracle or the dancer. The devotees who invoke her return to their daily routine, safe in the knowledge that Bhagavati is happy and will take care of them until her return the following year.

  Chinnamastika, like Kali, is one of the Maha Vidyas—teachers of occult wisdom. Chinnamastika is described as a naked goddess who cuts her own head and drinks the blood that spurts out of her severed neck while either copulating with Shiva or dancing on a couple making love. The image brings together acts of sex, violence, defence and nourishment. Chinnamastika reconciles the creative and destructive sides of the cosmos as she feeds on what she kills. She embodies the stark reality of Nature that culture shies away from. Her image is never enshrined in households because it appeals more to the Tantrik aspirant who has broken free from the restrictions imposed by civilized society and who is willing to explore those aspects of the universe that society deems inappropriate and inauspicious.

  In Bengal, Tara is another name for Kali, although the two are treated as two distinct goddesses in the list of Maha-Vidyas. In Tibet, Tara is the name of a goddess who is quite unlike her Bengali namesake. The Tibetan Tara is described as a gentle and charming goddess who holds a lotus in her hand. She was born from the tear of compassion shed by the Bodhisattva Avatilokeshwara when he heard the cries of those trapped in the cycle of rebirths. The link between the Tibetan Tara and the Bengali Tara has perhaps much to do with the religious communication that existed for centuries between Bengal and Tibet.

  In Tibetan Tantrik Buddhism, a goddess who is more like Kali, at least in form, is Nairatma (‘no soul’) —the consort of Heruka. Her name means shunya or ‘nothingness’ into which the Bodhichitta, the enlightened soul, merges on attaining Nirvana. That is why she is represented in eternal union with her consort. Individually she is represented as standing in a dancing mode on a corpse. Her face looks terrible with bare and protruding tongue and she carries a kartari (dagger) in her right hand and kapala (skull-bowl) in the left, just like Kali.

  The Tales

  Stories help establish the character of Hindu deities. These stories are found in epics such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and in chronicles such as the Puranas. Some are retold in the Tantras and Agamas, others are found in folklore. These stories reach the common man through vernacular retellings. Each retelling has a character of its own.

  Over the centuries, there have been many retellings of Kali’s tale. These have portrayed her in a variety of forms. In some, she is the manifestation of divine outrage. In others, she is the final defender of the cosmos to whom the gods turn when all measures fail. She is the goddess who demands human sacrifice. She represents all that is wild and untamed in the universe. Without her, even God is inert and lifeless.

  It must be kept in mind that while in some stories Kali’s unique identity in the pantheon of gods and goddesses is established, in others she is merely a name used to refer to the female divinity. In other words, in some stories there is a clear relationship between the narrative and her characteristic form while in others, the narrative is totally indifferent to her form.

  Manifestation of divine rage

  One of the earliest stories where Kali plays a central role is found in the Devi Mahatmya, where Kali appears as the embodiment of Durga’s rage when she loses her composure.

  The gods once gathered on the banks of the river Ganga to invoke the Devi and seek her help to overpower two demons known as Shumbha and Nishumbha. Parvati, consort of the hermit-god Shiva, who happened to be passing by heard their prayer. Instantly a goddess emerged from her body. Since she emerged from the koshas or cells of Parvati’s body, she became known as Kaushiki. As
she looked like a warrior, quite unlike the docile and domestic Parvati, she was also known as Chandika. Chandika was very beautiful, so she was also called Lalita and Vimala. News of her beauty reached Shumbha and Nishumbha. Desirous of making her their queen, the demons sent her a marriage proposal. To their surprise she sent the following reply: ‘I shall accept as husband only the man who defeats me in battle.’ Infuriated by this open challenge, Shumbha and Nishumbha ordered their minions, Chanda and Munda, to bring Chandika before them by force. ‘Bind her and drag her by the hair if she resists,’ they said. Chanda and Munda raised an army and found Chandika atop Mount Meru. She sat on a lion, smiling to herself. At the sight of the demons, Chandika’s face blackened with anger and from her dark frowning brow emerged Kali—dark, gaunt, with bloodshot eyes, sharp fangs and lolling tongue. She let out a shrill war-cry and rushed towards Chanda and Munda. The demon army raised their bows but before they could shoot a single arrow, Kali was upon them. She broke their bows, hurled aside their chariots and devoured their elephants. There was havoc all around Chanda and Munda. Kali disembowelled a few demons with her bare hands, others she chewed alive with her fangs, earning the title of Raktadantika, the red-toothed one. The rest she crushed under her feet. Finally Kali came face to face with Chanda and Munda. With a single swipe of her sword she beheaded both of them. She gifted their heads to Chandika who declared that as killer of Chanda and Munda, Kali would be known as Chamunda. In due course, after a great battle, Chandika overpowered Shumbha and Nishumbha and restored order in the world. To celebrate this victory, the gods composed the hymn known as Chandi-patha, the ‘call to the warrior goddess’.

  Kali who personifies wrath also appears as alter-ego of the gentle mountain-princess Parvati, consort of the ascetic-god Shiva, in the Skanda Purana, composed around the eleventh century.

  Daksha was the son of Brahma and the supreme patriarch of the Vedic way of life. He had given his daughters in marriage to the devas, Vedic gods who inhabit the celestial spheres. Much to his consternation, his youngest daughter, Sati, rejected the deva chosen for her and married Shiva instead. Shiva was an ascetic who meditated in isolation atop the snow-capped Himalayas. He did not respect the Vedic ways, and gave no importance either to the ritual known as yagna or its principal patron, Daksha. Piqued by Shiva’s refusal to grant him due respect, Daksha decided to perform a grand yagna. All the devas were invited to take a share of the offerings but no invitation was extended to Shiva. When Sati learnt of this, she was furious. She decided to go to her father’s house uninvited and demand an explanation. Shiva tried to dissuade her but she refused to listen to him. When he tried to stop her by force she rubbed her nose in anger and filled the ten directions with ten furious forms—the Maha-Vidyas—the first of which was Kali. Shiva, thus terrified, let Sati attend the ceremony.

  In the Shiva Purana, composed at least six centuries before the Skanda Purana, one finds the same narrative. But there, Kali is a manifestation of Shiva’s, not Sati’s, rage.

  Sati strode into her father’s house and immolated herself in the sacred pavilion to protest against Shiva’s exclusion from the yagna. Daksha, however, continued with the ceremony. When news of Sati’s death and Daksha’s indifference reached Shiva, he was so furious that he plucked a lock of his hair and lashed it against the ground to create an army of demonic beings led by the fierce-looking warrior Virabhadra and his equally ferocious companion, the goddess Bhadra-Kali. Virabhadra and Bhadra-Kali rushed into Daksha’s house and set about disrupting the ritual. They kicked the sacred vessels, spat on the offerings, attacked the assembled guests, scared away the gods, and finally beheaded Daksha.

  Rural India is full of village-goddesses or gramadevis who are often addressed or visualized as Kali. Songs and stories about these goddesses invariably speak of some tragedy that befalls a village woman, who then transforms herself into a goddess. It is clear from these narratives that the grama-devis embody female frustration and helpless rage. In the form of the terrifying Kali, this repressed anger haunts the collective subconscious of the village, demanding appeasement and retribution. The earliest documented tale of this genre comes from the fifth-century Tamil epic, Cilappatikaram.

  Kannagi’s husband, Kovalan, a merchant by profession, squandered his family fortune on a courtesan named Madhavi. Everyone, except his devoted wife, abandoned him in his hour of need. Realizing his folly, he decided to move to the city of Madurai and start life afresh. To help him raise capital for his new venture, Kannagi agreed to let Kovalan sell one of her gold anklets. Unfortunately, the gold anklet looked very much like the anklet of the queen of Madurai and the unscrupulous goldsmiths accused Kovalan of theft. The king, without bothering to check the facts, ordered that Kovalan be impaled to death. When news of Kovalan’s death reached Kannagi she was heartbroken. After the sorrow came the rage. She strode into the king’s court with the second anklet and demanded justice. The king apologized but Kannagi could not find it in her heart to forgive. So great was the widow’s fury that she plucked her breasts and hurled them in the city square. Instantly the city burst into flames. All its residents, including the goldsmiths and the king, were reduced to ashes. Kannagi emerged from the flames as a goddess called Pattini, the chaste one.

  Pattini is worshipped in parts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and even Sri Lanka as a form of Bhadra-Kali. The ferocious form of the goddess is viewed as a manifestation of her righteous outrage.

  In many parts of India, the grama-devi is known as Mari-Amma or Mari-Ai. She is believed to be a local manifestation of Maha-Kali, who appeared when she discovered that her husband had cheated her. The following story is a folk narrative, popular in villages of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

  Once there lived a woman, a Brahmin’s daughter, who believed she had married a learned Brahmin scholar. But one day, she heard his mother telling him, ‘It has been a long time since we ate some beef.’ She realized instantly that her husband was no Brahmin; he was a low-caste beef-eater. Enraged at being duped, she transformed herself into Maha-Kali. She decapitated her husband and set fire to her house, burning her mother-in-law, her children and herself in it.

  In Gujarat, Maha-Kali is the name of Bahucharji Mata, the goddess of hijras or eunuchs, who presides over their castration ritual. She is visualized as riding a rooster. Her tale informs us of her rage when she discovers that her husband is not capable of satisfying her sexual desires.

  Final defender

  The Devi Mahatmya also presents Kali as the ultimate deliverer called upon to salvage a situation that seems hopelessly out of control. She is summoned by Durga herself to destroy the demon Rakta-bija, whose name means ‘blood-seed’.

  The demon Rakta-bija had the magical ability to produce a clone of himself every time a drop of his blood fell to the ground. Having wounded Rakta-bija with a variety of weapons, Durga and her assistants—a fierce band of warriors known as the Matrikas—find they have only aggravated the situation: as Rakta-bija bleeds more and more profusely from his wounds, the battlefield increasingly becomes filled with replicas of Rakta-bija. Desperate, Durga summons Kali. Kali spreads her tongue across the battlefield, swallows in one gulp the swarm of blood-born demons and sucks the blood from the original Rakta-bija until he falls lifeless.

  In the Sanskrit Adbhuta Ramayana and Devi Bhagvata Purana, in the Oriya Ramayana of Sarala Das, and in the Bengali Jaminibharata Ramayana, Sita takes the form of Kali to defeat the demon whom even Rama, the earthly form of Vishnu, cannot vanquish.

  After killing the ten-headed demon-king of Lanka called Ravana who had abducted his wife Sita, Rama returned to Ayodhya and was crowned king. His subjects, however, were uncomfortable accepting Sita as they suspected that her association with Ravana had stained her reputation. Yielding to their demands, Rama abandoned Sita in the forest where she gave birth to Rama’s twin sons: Luv and Kush. Meanwhile, far away in Lanka, one of Ravana’s widows gave birth to Ravana’s son: a demon called Sahashra-mukha-Ravana, ‘the-thousand-headed-Ra
vana’. This demon was determined to avenge his father’s death. So he launched an attack on Ayodhya. Neither Rama nor his armies could vanquish this demon. When Rama learnt that this demon could only be defeated by the powers of a chaste woman, he requested the women of Ayodhya to fight Sahashramukha-Ravana. It became obvious to all that no woman in the city possessed enough chastity to overpower the demon. Desperate, Rama sent for Sita. At first she refused to come. So she was told a lie, that Rama was dying. Sita came rushing to be by her husband’s side. On the way to Ayodhya she came upon Sahashra-mukha-Ravana who tried to block her way. Furious, Sita turned into Kali, raised the weapon containing the power of the Devi and cut all his thousand heads.

  Once when the gods could not defeat the demon Daruka, they approached the ascetic-god Shiva who in turn turned to his wife Parvati. She was able to defeat Daruka but only after transforming herself into Kali. The following story forms the theme of many Malayali ballads sung while invoking Bhagavati in villages across Kerala.

  Long ago, the gods and demons had churned the ocean of milk until it yielded Amrit—the nectar of immortality. Along with Amrit had come Halahal—the most dreaded poison. While gods and demons fought over Amrit, only Shiva was willing to consume Halahal and keep it in his throat so that it harmed no one. Halahal made Shiva’s fair neck blue and so Shiva came to be known as Nila-kantha, the blue-necked god. Once, the gods were harassed by a demon called Daruka. They sang the Chandi-patha and begged the Devi to come to their rescue. Parvati heard their prayers and submerged herself in the poison locked in Shiva’s throat. She emerged as Kali—as dark as the poison itself and much more lethal. The poison made Kali’s body hot. She sought blood to quench her thirst. So she gnashed her teeth and ran after Daruka. She caught up with him and wrenched off his head with her bare hands. After drinking his blood, she tossed his head in the air and bedecked herself with his arms, legs and entrails.