Goddess Kali

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Kali, the supreme embodiment of female power (shakti), is a manifestation of the goddess Parvati, Shiva’s loving wife, and is particularly worshipped in Bengal as the premier goddess of the sakta cult. Her vengeful and blooded form came to embody all that Europeans in India came to most fear—and misunderstand—in Hindu society. Kali embodies power over time and is often described as the Destroyer of Time, embodying the natural forces of destruction. She is typically represented standing on the prostrate figure of her husband, Shiva, who here is seen lying in a charnel ground, his trident and drum abandoned. Ghostly images of the dead and their tormentors emerge from the smokey mists. The male gods Brahma and Vishnu appear in the billowing clouds as witnesses to the goddess’s display of supreme power. Kali, youthful and beautiful, wields a bloodied cusp-bladed sword designed for the decapitation of sacrificial buffalo. She is here adorned with the human heads severed from their bodies and strung into a grotesque garland. She holds a freshly severed head in her lower hand. The goddess is four armed, and the palm of each hand is stained red from her bloody work. Female devotees stain their hands with henna today to achieve this effect. Kali’s apron is composed of severed arms, her ears are adorned with corpses that serve as macabre ornaments. A forehead eye signals her omnipresence and a lolling red tongue her fearful countenance.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art