Guest guest Posted May 1, 2005 Report Share Posted May 1, 2005 namaste, how many heads does kali have in her garland? 108, or 50 for the letters of the sanskrit alphabet? also, what does it mean when she sometimes seems to be depicted holding a sword, trident, head and skullcup, as opposed to a sword, head, and the two mudras? i seem to be attracted to the second version, and it seems easier for me to visualize, too, for some reason. om namah shivaya kalidas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 2, 2005 Report Share Posted May 2, 2005 Jai Maa! I do not know if these questions have been sent to Swamiji. Hopefully so. I spent several years trying to figure out the second question. While I cannot comment on the esoteric significance of the difference, I can say that it seems that in South India (Kerala specifically), Kali with sword, trident, head and skullcup is regarded as Bhadrakali. I have a version of this image in my shrine room: http://www.leeveal.com/pages/Kali.htm In "Ball of Fire", a documentary about Mudiyettu, a dance/trance possession performance in Kerala used to propitiate Kali, versions of this image are ubiquitous. There is even a scene where a women points to a poster of the image and specifically says, "This is Bhadrakali." There are other iconographic details that suggest the South India origin of the image, and some puzzling contradictory evidence. I don't want to get too long winded. Of course there are many, many questions that can spin out from this. As far as I can determine, there are no dhyanam verses that describe this image. And of course none of the specific Bhadrakali dhyanam verses match it either. Hope that was a little bit of help. And boy would I love to hear Swamiji's definitive answer. Jai Maa Aravind --- mahakali108 <mahakali108 wrote: > > namaste, > how many heads does kali have in her garland? 108, > or 50 for the > letters of the sanskrit alphabet? > also, what does it mean when she sometimes seems to > be depicted > holding a sword, trident, head and skullcup, as > opposed to a sword, > head, and the two mudras? i seem to be attracted to > the second > version, and it seems easier for me to visualize, > too, for some reason. > om namah shivaya > kalidas ca > > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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