Mahabalipuram black stone whose dark luster reflects the divine beauty of the dark mother, Mahakali, is sculpted by skilled craftsmen into a majestic representation of the Hindu goddess Kali. Worshipped across India in this particular form, goddess Kali symbolizes the purest and most potent levels of the primordial feminine energy or Prakriti, with whose benevolent support, Purusha or the primordial male performs activities leading to the origin, nourishment, and destruction of the universe.
Goddess Kali in this Mahabalipuram stone statue stands on a rectangular platform marked by patterns of lotus flower petals. Fire of consciousness or “Chidagni” (Chit-mind, Agni-fire) forms the aura behind her crowned head. Equipped with ten powerful weapons to destroy the armies of daityas (evil beings), Devi Mahakali in this awe-inspiring roopa is known as Dashabhuja (ten-armed) Kali. Her forehead is marked by a dot that signifies the third eye, her eyebrows are arched, and her tongue lolls out, yet despite these ethereal features her face carries a sublime expression.
Ornaments adorn her dark physique, along with a Mundamala (garland of skulls) and a girdle made from the severed arms of her enemies. Devi Mahakali is sometimes called “Muktakeshini”- she who has let her hair loose. Opening one’s locks in Hindu culture is usually considered inauspicious, besides it is believed that the hair holds our inner vitalities. In connection to goddess Mahakali, her flowing hair that becomes a cape on the reverse of the stone statue represents Devi’s unrestricted powers and her place beyond the human rules of purity and impure. She is the sole origin of purity and impurity, good and bad, life and death. All the elements, natures, beings, and thoughts begin and end with her.
Underneath the majestically standing Mahakali statue lies Shiva Mahadeva, the primeval Purusha, the counterpart of Devi in all her forms. Ornamented by his serpent, Baaghacharma (tiger hide), and holding his damru (drum), Bhagawan Shiva unites with a potent Mahakali, to contain her powers and start the cycles of creation and destruction, unendingly.
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