Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

158 Kataragamaanthill and to carry off the spirit of the young initiate,kill him and then restore him to life as anadult. His presence is announced in the noise ofthe bull-roarer.KataragamaTutelary god. Tamil [Sri Lanka]. One of fourgreat national deities and equating to the Hindugod SKANDA. Also Ceyon.MATARAS (mothers) of evil intent. Also one of agroup of eight ASTAMATARAS. She embodies lackof envy or, alternatively, delusion. Her animal isa peacock. Attributes: arrow, ax, bell, book, bow,cockerel, lotus, spear, staff and waterjar.Kaumudi (moonlight)Goddess of the light of the moon. Hindu. Theconsort of CANDRA.KatavulSupreme god. Tamil [southern India and SriLanka]. The ultimate creator of all that exists inthe world and the judge of humanity able toreward or punish at will.KatyayaniForm of the goddess DURGA or PARVATI. Hindu(Puranic). Parvati, as the ascetic KALI, possesseda black skin. When ŠIVA ridiculed her she cast itoff, and it was subsequently filled “with the combinedbrilliance of the gods” to create Katyayani.Her attendant animal is a lion or tiger.KauketPrimordial goddess. Egyptian. One of the eightdeities of the OGDOAD representing chaos, she iscoupled with the god KEK and appears in anthropomorphicform but with the head of a snake.The pair epitomize the primordial darkness. Sheis also depicted greeting the rising sun in the guiseof a baboon.KaumariMother goddess. Hindu (Epic and Puranic). TheSAKTI of SKANDA (Kaumara) who in later Hinduismbecame regarded as one of a group of sevenKavra’nna (walking around woman)Sun spirit. Chukchee [eastern Siberia]. The consortof the sun in Chukchee mythology. AlsoKo’rgina (rejoicing woman).KazyobaSun god. Nyamwezi [Tanzania, East Africa].Regarded as the tutelary deity and creator of thetribe.KeaweCreator god. Hawaiian. An androgynous thoughapparently male principle or monad, he livedonce in the dark empty abyss of Po. There,Keawe transformed primordial chaos into anorderly cosmos. He fashioned the sky from thelid of his calabash (a water-carrying gourd) andthe sun from an orange disc formerly kept insidethe calabash.Keawe’s first son was KANE, the god of light,and his daughter was Na Wahine, both createdthrough his own powers of conception. Hesubsequently entered into an incestuous relationshipwith Na Wahine to father the chiefpantheon of Hawaiian gods and goddesses,including most notably KU, LONO and Kanaloa,who became known, collectively, as the tripartitegod.