and one can live in her endless bliss for longer and
longer periods.
Kali has been associated with tantric religious
forms. TANTRISM in this context focuses on the
cremation ground; normative elements and prac-
tices are frowned upon or forbidden. When one
realizes the divinity within even the lowest reali-
ties, within the rotting corpse, within the dark of
the cremation ground, then one has learned to
find the limit of time and one can began to see the
secrets buried in the depths of reality. Then one
can begin to experience Kali as the sweet, compas-
sionate, nurturing mother that she is.
Iconographically it is understood that Kali’s
nakedness symbolizes the stripping away of illu-
sion; the severed head is a symbol of her cutting
away of the ignorance that binds one to the cycle
of birth and rebirth. Kali’s lolling tongue is most
often taken to indicate her anger, but some in
India have taken it to be a gesture, like “biting the
tongue” in shame.
Further reading: David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses:
Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tra-
dition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988);
———, The Sword and the Flute: Kali and Krsna, Dark
Visions of the Terrible and the Sublime in Hindu Mythology
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975); Rachel
Fell McDermott and Jeffrey J. Kripal, eds., Encountering
Kali: In the Margins, at the Center, In the West (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2003).
Kalidasa (circa fourth or fifth century C.E.)
Sanskrit poet
Kalidasa is considered one of the greatest SANSKRIT
dramatists and poets.
Little is known for certain about the life of
the poet and dramatist Kalidasa. He appears to
have lived in the time of the imperial GUPTAS,
perhaps in central India, in what is now called
Madhya pradesh. Three dramas are attributed
to him: Malvikagnimitra, Vikramorvashiya, and
Shakuntala.
Malvikagnimitra begins as a story of political
alliances toward the end of the Mauryan dynasty,
but the political aspect is eventually equaled
or overshadowed by the love affair between
the princess Malvika and the prince Agnimitra.
The drama Vikramovashiya tells how one of the
celestial nymphs, or ASPARAS, Urvashi goes to live
with her lover Pururavas thanks to his prowess
or vikrama. It has been called a drama of “luster
and brilliance” with no plot or real action. In the
skeleton story the celestial nymph Urvashi falls in
love with an earthly king, Pururavas. She loses her
celestial status but is allowed to live with him. The
play is graced with nature description, beautiful
poetry, and supernatural effects.
Abhijnanasakuntalam sometimes abbreviated
to Shakuntala, is recognized as its author’s mas-
terpiece. The heroine Shakuntala is the daughter
of the celestial nymph Menaka and the sage Vish-
vamitra. She is abandoned by her parents and
is raised by the caring sage Kanva in his forest
hermitage. The king Dushyanta finds the hermit-
age and falls in love with the beautiful, simple
maiden. In Kanva’s absence the lovers consum-
mate a permitted “love marriage.” The king has
to leave but gives Shakuntala his signet ring and
promises to send someone for her in a few days.
Shakuntala soon realizes that she is pregnant.
While Shakuntala daydreams about her lover, the
irascible sage DURVASAS visits; enraged at being
ignored, the sage curses her that her lover will
forget her. Shakuntala loses the king’s signet ring,
her only proof of their meeting. She visits the
king in her pregnancy, but he swears he has never
seen her. Finally the ring is discovered in the
belly of a fish and is taken to the king, who then
remembers. Eventually the king flies back to the
hermitage in a celestial chariot provided by INDRA
and sees a boy playing there who he recognizes
must be his son. The drama ends happily.
Among Kalidasa’s great poems is Raghuvamsha,
a look back at the dynasty of RAMA, the hero of the
RAMAYANA. The poem describes the lives of all of the
ancient progenitors of his line. He also wrote Kuma-K 222 Kalidasa