By james art 
Guwahati, Nov 4: In this season of cold temperatures, it is perhaps appropriate that the feminine principle be honored in various forms across our country. It is true that this worship of goddesses varies greatly according to geographical location. Yet, it is essentially ‘Devi Pakshya’: the time to worship the goddesses.
Starting with the pomp and grandeur of Durga Puja, through Lakshmi and Jagatdhatri Puja, all the way to Saraswati Puja at the end of winter, Hindus worship various aspects of the Feminine Goddess. In between comes Kali Puja. The worship of Kali, the feminine principle in her ferocious form, is celebrated in the darkness of Amavasya, the month after Mahalaya, the beginning of the ten-day period leading up to Bijoya Dashami, and the immersion of the image of Durga. Kali worship is mostly observed in the easternmost parts of the country. Northern India, where patriarchy rules more strongly than in Bengal, Assam and Orissa, does not celebrate Kali Puja. Instead, it is the time to worship another goddess, Lakshmi, and celebrate in the form of Diwali.
But we in Assam worship Lakshmi – our very own Ma Lokki – on the full moon night immediately after Durga Puja. Lakshmi, for us, is undoubtedly the goddess of wealth, but she is also a domestic goddess. For us, it is not about opening new books of account and worshiping business prosperity, probably because we were not a business community in the past.
It is significant that the worship of Kali for us is done in darkness. Because she is the Dark Goddess, the Goddess of Time. She is also the protector, Ma of the eighteenth-century composer, mystic and devotee Ramprasad Sen. She is celebrated, in all her fearsome majesty, through Shyama Shongits and ritual worship that often borders on secrecy. Red flowers are placed at her feet. And, less admirable, but a testament to Kali’s power, is the fact that she is the deity worshiped by the dreaded dacoits of Bengal.
Kali is said to have sprung from Ma Durga’s forehead, fully formed and dark as night. She was created due to Durga’s anger.
Her iconography emphasizes her terrible majesty. She is proudly naked, with the full body of a woman. With flowing hair, four or six arms with skulls and weapons, her red tongue hanging out and a garland of human skulls, she is terrifying. As she rampaged through the three worlds in fury, destroying everything in her path, it was the act of Shiva that was placed at her feet to calm her down. Her tongue, red with what seems to be a life of its own, hangs out as she realizes what she’s done.
Besides the religious aspects, Kali, for many men and women, is a symbol of power, of female emancipation. She is an inspiration to those who bow down to her complete nonchalance about prevailing societal norms. Tantrists worship her with mysterious rituals, but there are others whose admiration for what she represents is not religious. There was, for example, the feminist publishing house called Kali for Women.
Kali, was not born, like Durga, from the powers of male gods. Kali going around the cremation grounds after sunset. Kali, black as night, Kali, she whose image in no way pleases the Male gaze.
Still, there is something about the image of Kali that seems to evoke a sense of misplaced caution in organizers of community pujas lately. Gradually, over the years, Kali was made to wear a bandage around her waist. Soon her garland of skulls began to cover her chest. And now lately, Kali is making her wear a saree! Could anything be more repugnant to Kali’s “idea”? In many pandals in the city, she begins to look like a poorly dressed witch. Even her wreath of skulls is gone, to be replaced by tasteless floral ones.
The truth is that the depiction of Kali was never suitable for the male gaze. It takes a man like Ramprasad Sen to praise her. For other men, her nudity, her posture do not match their idea of what a woman’s body should look like. There is a sense of misplaced caution, of ‘bhadralok’; middle class thinking. Kali is not immobile, she cannot be tamed by mere mortals. While the Male Gaze is perfectly fine with images of scantily clad white women on Hollywood posters, it is uncomfortable with Callie’s gorgeous, glow-in-the-dark nudity. Because Kali and the idea of her are at odds with patriarchy.
Fortunately, as much as they begin to cover her up, many other traditional images remain where she stands tall and proud in her sullen nudity. .
And therein lies the hope.
Ref Kali Tantrik.
from-
Mitra Phukan