Kali

Fierce dark goddess of time and dissolution, slayer of Raktabija

Variant accounts

• manifestationIn Shiva Purana 2.2.32 Mahakali emerges from the other half of the hair cluster that produces Virabhadra. This named portrayal does not replace other goddess-origin accounts.Shiva Purana 2.2.32.20–25, 45–58, Virabhadra manifestation and commission (primary)

Domains

• destruction
• time

Powers

• Drink the demon's blood before it spawns new demons
• Spring forth fully formed from another goddess's wrath

Epithets

• महाकाली sanskrit · Mahākālī · stotraThe Great Kālī, goddess of time and dissolutionDevī Māhātmya (Durgā Saptaśatī), prefatory Mahākālī hymn (primary)
• चामुण्डा sanskrit · Cāmuṇḍā · epithetSlayer of the demons Caṇḍa and MuṇḍaDevī Māhātmya 7 (slaying of Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa), Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa (primary)
• दक्षिणाकाली sanskrit · Dakṣiṇā Kālī · cultThe southern Kālī; the benign Tantric formKālī Tantra tradition; D. Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses (1986) (secondary)

Relations

• interpretatio: Palden LhamoReciprocal of tibetan_palden_lhamo.interpretatio — Her name Śrīdevī and iconography (mule, flayed-skin saddle, skull-cup, disease-goddess retinue) come from the Indian Kālī/Cāmuṇḍā complex; Tibet makes her national protectress of the Dalai Lamas.René de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet (1956), ch. on dPal-ldan lha-mo, tracing her to the Indian Śrīdevī/Kāladevī circle of Kālī-type goddesses (secondary)

Sources

• existence: Devi Mahatmya (Markandeya Purana) (primary)