Kali

Kali is time, which is what her name means, and the tradition does not soften her. She is black because black takes in every colour and gives none back, naked because she is beyond covering, garlanded with heads because every name ends. She came out of Durga’s forehead in the heat of the fight and could not be stopped when it was over. To a Bengali household, though, she is Ma, approached with more tenderness than any other form, and Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar spoke to her as a child to a mother. The tradition keeps both the terror and the tenderness and refuses to resolve them.

Black or deep blue, naked or in a tiger skin, four armed, with a sword and a severed head in the left hands and the gestures of fearlessness and giving in the right. A garland of fifty severed heads for the letters of the alphabet, a skirt of arms, the tongue out, standing on Siva, who lies under her feet. The protruding tongue is read in Bengal as a bite of embarrassment at having stepped on her husband, which is a domestic reading of a terrifying image and is meant to be.

A form of Parvati and therefore wife of Siva, though she issues from Durga in the Devi Mahatmya. Siva lies beneath her feet in almost every image. The Dasa Mahavidyas, the ten wisdom goddesses, are her circle, and Tara, Chhinnamasta and Dhumavati are among them.

Kali Puja falls on the Diwali new moon in Bengal, kept at midnight when the rest of India is lighting lamps for Lakshmi. Hibiscus, red, is her flower. The amavasya of each month is hers, and Tuesday and Saturday nights. The tantric worship at Tarapith and the household worship of a Bengali family are different things done in the same name, and the tradition is clear about the difference.

Bengal

Kali Puja at midnight on the Diwali amavasya is the great night, and Kalighat, Dakshineswar and Tarapith are the seats; she is addressed as Ma and not as a terror.

Tamil Nadu

Kept as Kali and as Bhadrakali at the edge of the village and in the burning ground, and the Mel Malayanur Angalamman festival on the Masi amavasya is her largest Tamil night.

Kerala

Bhadrakali of the Kodungallur and the Bhagavathy temples, with the Bharani festival and the theyyam forms in the north.

Assam

Kamakhya keeps her among the ten Mahavidyas in shrines around the main one, and the tantric tradition there is unbroken.

Nepal

Dakshinkali outside Kathmandu takes the Saturday and Tuesday offerings, and Guhyeshwari is the paired shrine to Pashupatinath.

• Kali Puja · Shyama Puja
• Deepavali
• Diwali · Lakshmi Puja
• Amavasya · New moon
• Amavasai · Amavasya · New moon
• Navaratri begins

• Kalighat Kali Temple Kolkata, West Bengal
• Dakshineswar Kali Temple Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal
• Tarapith Tara Maa Temple Tarapith, Birbhum, West Bengal
• Bhadrakali Temple, Warangal Hanamkonda, Warangal, Telangana
• Kankalitala Shakti Peetha Kankalitala, Birbhum, West Bengal

• Ya Devi Sarvabhuteshu
• Ayi Giri Nandini (Mahishasura Mardini)