architectural symbolism in Hindu
temples corresponds to the structure
of human body, so the kalashas stand
for the crown of the head, the highest
and purest part of the body. They are
also a symbol of the highest human
religious potential.
Kalhana
(12th c.) Kashmiri poet and author of the
Rajatarangini (“River of Kings”), a
poetic chronicle of the kings of
Kashmir. Kalhana’s chronicle is an
unusually descriptive and accurate his-
tory of Kashmir and its political, social,
and religious institutions. The text’s only
shortcoming is that it pays little atten-
tion to the outside world. Kalhana’s his-
torical emphasis is unusual for Indian
writers, and his chronicle is one of the
few indigenous Indian histories.
Kali
(“black”) Incomprehensibly fierce and
powerful divine form of the Mother
Goddess. Kali is the awful, uncon-
trolled power of the divine in its most
terrifying aspects. She is consistently
associated with images of blood, death,
and destruction; her dwelling place is
the cremation ground. Her iconogra-
phy portrays her as clothed with sev-
ered heads and limbs, and her form is
lean, gaunt, and haggard, with lolling
tongue and lips smeared with blood.
Paradoxically, millions of Kali’s devotees
(bhakta) refer to her as “mother.”
Kali’s roots are uncertain, but she is
generally assumed to be an autochtho-
nous (“of the land”) deity. Her dark
color—associated with low social sta-
tus, her preference for dwelling in
inaccessible places, and her worship
by Indian aboriginal tribes and people
at the margins of society, all seem to
point to origins as a local goddess, per-
haps of tribal people. Some early
Sanskrit dramas, such as the poet
Bhavabhuti’s Malatimadhava, men-
tion fierce goddesses who received
offeringsof blood from their devotees.
This same motif was a central element
in the stories about the Thugsin the
nineteenth century.
One of Kali’s earliest descriptions
comes in the Devimahatmya, the earliest
known source for the notion that God is
feminine. One of the Devimahatmya’s
episodes describes the birth of Kali (in
her form as Mahakali) as the anger of
the Goddess incarnate. In the story, Kali
first destroys the demonarmies by stuff-
ing them into her mouth and eating
them whole, symbolizing her all-con-
suming power to destroy. Her other feat
in this text is the destruction of
Raktabija, a demon who receives the
boon that any drop of his blood that falls
to the earth will instantly turn into a
clone of him—a boon that renders him
practically unconquerable. Kali defeats
him by drinking his blood as it is shed
until it is completely gone. Both of these
episodes reinforce her image as a terrify-
ing and powerful goddess, her destruc-
tive capacity, and her associations with
substances and practices normally
considered to be defiling. As Kinsley
notes, Kali can also be seen as a sym-
bolic statement that human life is
uncertain and that tragedy and misfor-
tune can occur without warning, despite
the best-laid plans.
Worship of Kali has followed two
paths, one in agreement with these hor-
rific images and one in contradiction to
them. On one hand, Kali has been an
important deity for practitioners of the
secret, ritually-based religious practice
known as tantra. The tantras describe
reality as resulting from the interaction
between polar opposites, symbolized in
the deities of Shiva(consciousness) and
Shakti(“power”). Shiva provides the
ordering principle and is the Ultimate
Reality, but Shakti provides the energy
and dynamism that actually makes
things happen. Consequently, goddesses
take on an important role in tantric
practice. Among these goddesses Kali
stands preeminent, perhaps because
she is the most radical articulation of
feminine power and can thus be seen as
bringing the greatest power to bear onKali