Kālī

Kālī or Kālikā (Skt. ‘black’). A ferocious form of the Goddess (Devī) in Hinduism, sharply contrasted with her benign aspects as Śrī and Lakṣmī. Kālī, the devourer of time (kāla), is depicted as having a terrifying appearance, naked or wearing a tiger skin, emaciated, with fang-like teeth and dishevelled hair, a lolling tongue, and eyes rolling with intoxication. She is garlanded with human heads, sometimes girdled with severed arms; laughing and howling, she dances, wild and frenzied, in the cremation grounds with a sword and noose or skull upon a staff.

Human sacrifices were made to her in the past (cf. Kālīkapurāṇa, ch. 71), but now goats have to suffice, and such sacrifices are made at the main temple of her cult, Kālīghāṭa (Calcutta). The Thugs were devotees of Kālī, to whom they offered worship before committing murderous theft. Many Hindus see Kālī as representing the realities of death and time; she stands for the frightening, painful side of life which all who desire to progress spiritually must face and overcome.

In Tantrism Kālī is depicted as dancing upon the ithyphallic corpse of Śiva, a form expressing the passive consciousness (puruṣa) and dynamic energy (prakṛti) which comprise the universe. Kālī is the central deity of the Kālīkula tradition in contrast to the Śrīkula whose followers worship the gentle Śri. The Kālīkula adept or ‘hero’ (vīra) will follow the ‘left-hand’ path (vāmācāra), worshipping Kālī in the cremation grounds.

In the 18th and 19th cents. Bengali poets such as Rāmprasād (1718–75) and Ramakrishna (1836–86) wrote devotional poems to her as the supreme deity.