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KALI (black)
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See also:KALI (See also:black) , or Kali Ma (the Black See also:Mother), in See also:Hindu See also:mythology, the goddess of destruction and See also:death, the wife of See also:Siva. According to one theory, See also:Calcutta owes its name to her, being originally Kalighat, " Kali's landing-See also:place." Siva's See also:consort has many names (e.g. See also:Durga, Bhawani, Parvati, &c.). Her idol is black, with four arms, and red palms to the hands. Her eyes are red, and her See also:face and breasts are besmeared with See also:blood. Her See also:hair is matted, and she has projecting See also:fang-like See also:teeth, between which protrudes a See also:tongue dripping with blood. She wears a necklace of skulls, her earrings are dead bodies, and she is girded with serpents. She stands on the See also:body of Siva, to See also:account for which attitude there is an elaborate See also:legend. She is more worshipped in See also:Gondwana and the See also:forest tracts to the See also:east and See also:south of it than in any other See also:part of See also:India. Formerly human See also:sacrifice was the essential of her See also:ritual. The victim, always a male, was taken to her See also:temple after sunset and imprisoned there. When See also:morning came he was dead: the priests told the See also:people that Kali had sucked his blood in the See also:night. At Dantewara in See also:Bastar there is a famous See also:shrine of Kali under the name of Danteswari. Here many a human See also:head has been presented on her See also:altar. About 1830 it is said that upwards of twenty-five full-grown men were immolated at once by the See also:raja. Cutting their flesh and burning portions of their body were among the acts of devotion of her worshippers. Kali is goddess of small-pox and See also:cholera. The See also:Thugs murdered their victims in her See also:honour, and to her the sacred pickaxe, wherewith their See also:graves were dug, was consecrated. The See also:Hook-swinging Festival (Churruk or Churuck Puja), one of the most notable celebrations in honour of the goddess Kali, has now been prohibited in See also:British territory. Those who had vowed themselves to self-See also:torture submitted to be swung in the See also:air supported only by hooks passed through the muscles over the blade-bones. These hooks were hung from a See also:long crossbeam, which see-sawed upon a huge upright See also:pole. Hoisted into the air by men pulling down the other end of the see-saw See also:beam, the victim was then whirled See also:round in a circle. The torture usually lasted fifteen or twenty minutes. See A. A. See also:Macdonell, Vedic Mythology (See also:Strassburg, 1897). Additional information and CommentsIt is not surprizing that many ancient mythologies include a destructive goddess indicating that female figure as a figure of fertility can be a figure of destruction.In ancient Egyptian mythology , Goddess Sekhmet takes this role which appears perfectly in the story of Ra nemesis when people make the great God angry to drive Sekhmet to do all horrors imaginable.This appears as the origin of Ten Strikes illustrated in Bible.Sekhmet also plays great role in judgment of the dead and appears as a devourer of evil man.
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