ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Kl and Shiva as personal manifestations of ultimate reality. Kls origins within Hindu mythology are by no means clear. Most likely she combines various features of earlier deities, perhaps accommodating features of different Vedic, Indus, and tribal Goddesses. In the Cai portion of the Markandeya Pura, she is sometimes seen as a form of Durg, the Goddess, thereby associating her with an earlier Goddess whose position in the pantheon was secure at this time. The highly stylized Bengali painting shown here is less gruesome, but also reveals Kl as the source of both life and death. Here, too, the lower Shiva is totally lifeless while the upper Shiva, gaze fixed on The Mother, is stirring to life. Although the gruesome appearance of Kl and her wild, blood-thirsty caprice is a long way from the middle path of the Buddha, she embodies a kind of parallel to the four noble truths of Buddhism.
