Abstract
Violence is a characteristic that has somewhat become definitional for the Hindu goddess Kālī. But looking at it through the lens of folk narrative and the popular, devotion-infused and highly personalised opinions of her devotees shows that not only the understanding, but also the acceptance of this violence and the connected anger and bloodthirst that are usually attached to it, as well as the feelings of fear and danger that arise from them on the devotees’ end, are subjects open to discussion. This article, at the juncture between anthropology, performance, and Hindu studies, analyses and compares discourses about her Malayali counterpart, Bhadrakāḷi, drawing simultaneously on various versions of her founding myth of Dārikavadham (‘The Slaying of Dārikan’), ritual routines of her temples in Central Kerala as well as ritual performing arts that are conducted in some of them. The concluding discussion of her alleged thirst for blood and identification of the ’real‘ addressee of blood offerings made to her particularly illustrates how far the negotiation of Bhadrakāḷi’s use of violence and her very definition as violent goddess reaches deep into the worshipper/deity relationship that lies at the heart of popular worship.
Highlights
The different sources from which this list of characteristics is drawn, whether it be the songs performed to a powder drawing representing Bhadrakāli, the meditation verses used to visualise her prior to thedrawing or prayers used as part of her worship in Central Kerala, are as much filled with descriptions of her horrible features and deeds as they are with praises of her grace and beauty
In the cities and villages of Central Kerala in which I conducted fieldwork, raudra Bhadrakālis wereconsidered to be best served with performances linked with the myth of Dārikavadham (‘The Slaying of Dārikan’, enemy of the gods) such as mut.iyēttu’, and with the episodes narratingthe tracking of, confrontation with, and combat against the asura Dārikan. These ritual performing arts are in theory4 limited to the temples devoted to violent Bhadrakālis, as they combine the martialthemes inherent to the goddess’ portrait as asura-killer with the display of a precise level of horror and violence and explicit sacrificial logics greatly appreciated by this type of incarnation
My Expression given areataken and context of study: several versions of the myth of Dārikavadham, the popular narrative that prevails in her liturgy and frames her cult in Kerala; songs and ritual performing arts conducted during this cult; and personal opinions expressed by informants, most of them being worshippers and officiants from those temples as well as performers of mut.iyēttu’
Summary
‘She screamed with a dreadfully loud voice in the middle of battle preparations (. . . ). The tracking of, confrontation with, and combat against the asura Dārikan These ritual performing arts are in theory limited to the temples devoted to violent Bhadrakālis, as they combine the martialthemes inherent to the goddess’ portrait as asura-killer with the display of a precise level of horror and violence and explicit sacrificial logics greatly appreciated by this type of incarnation. My Expression given areataken and context of study: several versions of the myth of Dārikavadham, the popular narrative that prevails in her liturgy and frames her cult in Kerala; songs and ritual performing arts conducted during this cult; and personal opinions expressed by informants, most of them being worshippers and officiants from those temples as well as performers of mut.iyēttu’. Subject drawing from these sources, I would like to provide some background information about them and outline the specificities of my approach
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