Goddess Maha Kalli

GODDESS MAHA KALI,DIGITAL ART... more

by Anand Swaroop Manchiraju

Title

Goddess Maha Kalli

Artist

Anand Swaroop Manchiraju

Medium

Digital Art

Description

GODDESS MAHA KALI,DIGITAL ART
Mahakali (Sanskrit: Mahākālī, Devanagari: महाकाली), literally translated as Great Kali, is the Hindu Goddess of time and death, considered to be the consort of Shiva the God of consciousness, and the basis of Reality (see below) and existence. According to the Markendeya Purana she is an aspect of the goddess Durga. Mahakali in Sanskrit is etymologically the feminized variant of Mahakala or Great Time (which is interpreted also as Death), an epithet of the God Shiva in Hinduism. Mahakali is the form of the Goddess Durga beyond time, Kali, who is the force of the anger of Durga and is an aspect of Durga or Adi parashakti, and therefore her color is black. She is believed to be the greatest aspect of Kali whom many Hindus hold as a Divine Mother.

Contents

1 Meaning
2 Iconography
3 See also
4 References

Meaning

Mahakali's mythology is contained in various Puranic and Tantric Hindu Scriptures (Shastra). In these She is variously portrayed as the Adi-Shakti-Goddess Durga, the Primeval Force of the Universe, identical with the Ultimate Reality or Brahman. She is also known as the (female) Prakriti or World as opposed to the (male) Purusha or Consciousness, or as one of three manifestations of Mahadevi Durga (The Great Goddess) that represent the three Gunas or attributes in Samkhya philosophy. In this interpretation Mahakali represents Tamas or the force of inertia. A common understanding of the Devi Mahatmya ("Greatness of the Goddess") text, a later interpolation into the Markandeya Purana, considered a core text of Shaktism (the branch of Hinduism which considers Devi Durga to be the highest aspect of Godhead), assigns a different form of the Goddess (Mahasaraswati, Mahalakshmi, and Mahakali) to each of the three episodes therein.

Uploaded

July 29th, 2014