Kali is thought to have originated as a tribal goddess indigenous to one of India’s inaccessible mountainous regions. The Matsyapurana gives her place of origin as Mount Kalanjara in north central India, east of the Indus Valley floodplain. But owing to the late date of the Puranas’ composition, this evidence regarding Kali’s place of origin cannot be taken as particularly reliable.At least thousand years before the Matsyapurana, the name of Kali first appears in Sanskrit literature between the eighth and fifth centuries BCE. The reference, in Mundakopanishad 1.2.4, names Kali as one of the seven quivering tongues of the fire god Agni, whose flames devour sacrificial oblations and transmit them to the gods. The verse characterizes Agni’s seven tongues as black, terrifying, swift as thought, intensely red, smoky colored, sparkling, and radiant. Significantly, the first two adjectives — kali and karali — “black” and “terrifying,” recur in later texts to describe the horrific aspect of the goddess. Karali additionally means “having a gaping mouth and protruding teeth.” This verse scarcely suffices to confirm that Kali was a personified goddess during the age of the Upanishads, but it is noteworthy that the adjective that became her name was used to characterize an aspect of the fire god’s power.Kali first appears unequivocally as a goddess in the Kathaka Grihyasutra, a ritualistic text that names her in a list of Vedic deities to be invoked with offerings of perfume during the marriage ceremony. Unfortunately, the text reveals nothing more about her.
* Information on the traditional uses and properties of herbs/ animals/ yoga/ places are provided on this site is for educational use only, and is not intended as medical advice. all image credit goes to their Photographers.
Devi Kali, also known as Kali Mata or Shakti or Kalika is one of the most respected Hindu goddess.Kali is the Hindu goddess (or Devi) of death, time, and doomsday and is often associated with sexuality and violence but is also considered a strong mother-figure and symbolic of motherly-love. Kali also embodies shakti – feminine energy, creativity and fertility – and is an incarnation of Parvati, wife of the great Hindu god Shiva. She is most often represented in art as a fearful fighting figure with a necklace of heads, skirt of arms, lolling tongue, and brandishing a knife dripping with blood. Kali is worshiped as one of the 10 Mahavidya forms of Adi Parashakti. Devi Kali is associated with empowerment and hence is often known as shakti. Kali Mata is the fiercest form of the Devi Durga (Maa Durga). The name “Kali” means black, time or death. She is therefore called the Goddess of time, power, destruction and death. She is widely revered as a destroyer of evil forces. Despite of her fierce form, Kali Maa is often considered the kindest and most loving of all the Hindu goddesses. Devi Kali is regarded by her devotees as the “Mother” and “Supreme goddess of the whole Universe”. Devi Kali is strongly associated with Lord Shiva. It is often said that Lord Shiva derived his masculine power from her feminine power, Devi Kali. As per Shabdakalpadrum, nineteenth-century Sanskrit dictionary, Kali is derived from the shloka “Kalah Shivah Tasya Patniti Kali”, meaning “Shiva is Kala and his consort is Kali”.
*Image credit goes to its Original Photographer/ Author.
ॐ क्रीं कालिकायै नमः
Om krim kalikayai namah
“I bow my head to the Goddess Kali”
काली महाकाली कालिके परमेश्वरी ।
सर्वानन्दकरी देवी नारायणि नमोस्तुते ।।
kali mahakali kalike parmeshwari
sarvanandkari devi narayani namostute
The origin of river Ganges lies at the height of 13,800 feet in the mountain ranges of Himalayas, in Tehri Garhwal, near Gangotri. It begins high in the Himalayas as a pair of head streams. It begins in an ice cave in the mountains about 10,300 feet above sea level. Gangotri is known as the place of origin of the revered Ganges river, known as Ganga in India it is also consider one of the holy place in chota char dham . The holiest of the Indian rivers, is the longest river in India and the greatest waterway in India. The river has been declared as India’s National River. Ganges is the source of sustainment of life in the great Indian plains and it is at Gangotri that the journey of Ganga begins. River Ganges gets water from the melting snow of Nanda devi, Gurla, Mandhata, Dhaulagiri, Gesaisthan, Kanchenjunga and Mount Everest. Many small and big rivers merge with the Ganges in the Himalayan region. The Ganges river flows through Bangladesh, but the greater part of it flows through India. The river flows across the northern corner of India. The Ganges flows across India and Bangladesh until it empties out into the Bay of Bengal. The great river provides water to many places, and many places rely on it.
There are many versions of stories regarding the origin of Ganges. In another story the sage Valmiki of Ramayana, Ganges was the daughter of ‘Himalaya’ and ‘Maina’. The deities abducted her and took her to heaven and from then onwards, ‘Ganga’ started living inside the ‘Karmandala’ (a spout shaped vessel). According to Kritivas Ramayana the deities had taken ‘Ganga’ to Lord Shiva to get her married with him. When ‘Maina’ did not find her in the house, she cursed to attain the form of water.