Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

Kalika 153(rotating wheel) and one who dominates theHindu gods KAMA and RUDRA. SAKTI with twoto four heads. Color: blue. Attributes: a largevariety held in up to twenty-four hands. Typicallyfour-headed.Kaladuti (messenger of death)Goddess. Buddhist (Mahayana). May be accompaniedby a horse. Color: red. Attributes: cowhead, cup, hammer and trident.KalavikarnikaFever goddess. Hindu (Puranic). Attributesinclude a cup or skull.KALI (1)ORIGIN Hindu (Puranic) [India]. Goddess ofdestruction.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa AD 400,but known from much earlier times, untilpresent.SYNONYMS many epithets, also linked withDurga.CENTER(S) OF CULT chiefly in Bengal.ART REFERENCES sculptures in stone and bronze.LITERARY SOURCES Ramayana epic and variousPuranic texts.Kali is the most terrible and malignant aspect ofthe goddess Sakti (see also Durga) though thename Kali is an epithet applied to several goddesses.She is the central figure of the sakta cult inBengal. Her consort is generally perceived asŠIVA, whom she aids and abets in his more malignantaspects. She is also one of the MAHAVIDYApersonifications of the SAKTI of Šiva. In her earliestform she may have been the personification ofthe spirit of evil.She is depicted variously with long raggedlocks, fang-like teeth or even tusks, lips smearedor dripping with blood and claw-like hands withlong nails. Her tongue often protrudes. She hasno special vehicle but may be seen dancing on aprostrate Šiva. She possesses ten (sometimes asmany as eighteen) arms and may wear a necklaceof skulls, a belt of severed arms, earrings of children’scorpses, and snakes as bracelets. Often sheis half-naked with black skin. Kali is depictedwading through gore on the battlefield and drinkingthe blood of her victims. Frequently she holdsa severed head in one of her hands and a largesword in another. At cremation sites she sits uponthe body of the deceased surrounded by attendantjackals.There are also more benign aspects of Kali. Sheslaughters demons and sometimes her hands areraised in blessing. The conflict of her personalityfollows the widely held notion that out of destructioncomes rebirth.Kali is worshiped in Bengal during theDipavali festival. In southern India she is worshipedas a distinct plague goddess associatedwith cholera.Kali (2)Goddess of learning. Jain. One of sixteen headedby the goddess SARASVATI.Kaligni-Rudra (the funerary fire Rudra)Minor god. Hindu (Puranic). A violent representationof ŠIVA who is attendant at cremations andwhose warlike attributes include sword, shield,bow and arrow.Kalika (black)1. Goddess. Buddhist (Mahayana). Oftendepicted standing upon a corpse. Color: darkblue. Attributes: cup and knife.2. Goddess. Hindu (Puranic). A SAKTI ofNIRRTI, and an epithet of DURGA.