Every religion has its god or goddess of death. The Greeks had Hades, Voodoo has Baron Samedi, Christianity and Islam have the devil and Iblis respectively on one side, with God on the other. Of course perhaps no pagan death god or goddess is as well known, and some might say as feared, as the Hindu goddess Kali. And rarely is there a story that’s as complicated, for those used to a more straightforward, Western mythology.
To begin with, the gods and goddesses in Hindu mythology have a number of different forms and aspects, and they can vary depending on emotional state, plain of existence or state of being. As such many of the different gods and goddesses are in fact the same being wearing a different aspect as you might change clothes depending on the needs that you needed to fulfill. In fact this is central to the story of Kali, who is in fact little more than the battle armor of Devi, the mother goddess and the wife of the god Shiva.
Let us begin at the beginning. Devi had a son who was named Skanda, and he was a great warrior and guardian of the heavens. Skanda had fought many demons, and he had always been triumphant, until he had to do battle with Raktabija. Raktabija, a fearsome creature, had the advantage that whenever his blood fell to the ground an army of 1,000 more demons would rise. Of course with numbers like that he was nearly unbeatable, and Skanda found himself hard pressed to hold, much less to win victory.
In her rage and frustration, Devi took on the form of Kali. A black-skinned, nude figure with four arms, grotesque fangs, flashing swords and a long, red tongue. During the battle Kali opened her mouth and her tongue slid over the battlefield, licking up the blood like a divine vampire so that none of Raktabija’s blood could reach the ground and no more duplicate devils arose from the Earth. Without his amazing ability to multiply himself, Raktabija was soon defeated.
When the demon fell, Kali began to celebrate. She whirled and danced herself into a berserker frenzy and soon she was rampaging through the three worlds. No one knew how to stop her until her husband Shiva lay at her feet, pretending to be dead. When Kali looked down and saw him, it snapped her out of her rage and she reverted to Devi, a kinder, more gentler figure of mothering. Kali was rarely seen after this particular incident, as she was a form deemed too dangerous to be unleashed except under the most dire of circumstances.
Today Kali is worshiped along with the other forms of Devi. However special care is taken with the symbolism of her statues and appearance. The purity of white seen in her fangs, and the black skin which represents a color that all the other is lost in. Even the drinking of blood represents how life can be taken in so completely and utterly, drunk dry and taken in by the fearsome Kali.
“Kali, Hindu Goddess,” by Anonymous at Lotus Sculpture
“Kali: The Dark Mother,” by Subhamoy Das at About