Kali is the Hindu Goddess of time, creation, and destruction. She fought the demon Raktabīja, from every drop of whose blood was spilled sprang a new devil. Kali caught the blood on her tongue and slew the horde, dancing on their corpses.
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Written around 500 CE, the Devi Mahatmyam (“Glory to the Goddess”) is a sacred Hindu text describing the Goddess as the supreme power and creator of the universe. As such it is one of the most important texts of Shaktism – the “doctrine of energy, power, the eternal goddess“. The earliest evidence of Shaktism dates back ten-thousand years, to shrine a discovered in the Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh, India, thought to have been created circa 8500 BCE.
Adi Parashakti is the Supreme Being of the Shaktism sect of Hinduism, she is the creator, observer, and destroyer of all. The Mahavidya (“Great Wisdoms”) are a group of ten aspects of Adi Parashakti – ten goddesses who embody different aspects of the Supreme Being. Tara – The Goddess as Guide and Protector. Sundari – The Goddess Who is “Beautiful in the Three Worlds”. Bhuvaneshvari – The Goddess as World Mother. Bhairavi – The Fierce Goddess. Chhinnamasta – The self-decapitated Goddess. Dhumavati – The Widow Goddess. Bagalamukhi – The Goddess Who Paralyzes Enemies. Matangi – the Prime Minister of Lalita. Kamala – The Lotus Goddess. Kali is the tenth of the Great Wisdoms – she is midnight black skinned “devourer of time”.
In the Devi Mahatmya Kali is described as Chamunda (though Chamunda is also considered a goddess in her own right) – the slayer of the demons Chanda and Munda, though the demon she slays is named elsewhere as Raktabija. Raktabija was said to be un-killable, a fully formed clone of himself springing forth from every drop of his blood that was spilled in battle.
Out of the surface of her (Durga’s) forehead, fierce with frown, issued suddenly Kali of terrible countenance, armed with a sword and noose. Bearing the strange khatvanga (skull-topped staff), decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger’s skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep reddish eyes, filling the regions of the sky with her roars, falling upon impetuously and slaughtering the great asuras in that army, she devoured those hordes of the foes of the devas. [1]
Kali is said to have bested the demon by catching every drop of his blood she spilled upon her tongue. She slew the demon and his clone army, and then danced for victory upon a mountain of their corpses.
[1] Devi Mahatmyam Swami Jagadiswarananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math by Dattatreya https://archive.org/details/DeviMahatmyamSwamiJagadiswaranandaSriRamakrishnaMath/mode/2up
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