Bhadrakali

Also Known As: Sanskrit Bhadrakālī, “auspicious Kali”; in Kerala also Bhagavati, and Darikajit, “conqueror of Darika”
Region/Culture: South Asia
Mythos: Hindu Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Gods and Deities
Mythical Attributes: Bhadrakali is a fierce form of the goddess Kali who is born of divine anger, rides a vetala into battle and drinks the blood of a demon whose every spilled drop would breed a thousand more of him.
Role in Mythos: She is the goddess sent out when a god’s rage needs hands, the wrecker of Daksha’s sacrifice in the epic and the slayer of the demon Darika in the tradition of Kerala.
Relation to Humans: In Kerala she is the village mother, housed in goddess temples called Bhagavati kavus and looked to as a protector. Each year whole villages along the Chalakudy, Periyar and Muvattupuzha rivers act out her battle with Darika in the ritual drama mudiyettu, after drawing her image on the temple floor in coloured powder.

On the floor of a temple in central Kerala, a few men are on their knees with bowls of powder. They let it run through their fingers in thin lines of colour, and over several hours a figure takes shape on the ground: a woman far larger than life, armed, wide-eyed. Oil lamps burn at her edges. When she is finished the singers call the goddess into her, and when the rite is over she will be rubbed out again by hand. Her name is Bhadrakali.

The name is a small puzzle. Bhadra means auspicious, kindly, fortunate. Kali is Kali. The two halves do not seem to belong to the same person, and that is close to the point. In Kerala the goddess is Bhagavati when she is the calm protector of a village and Bhadrakali when she is angry, and she is angry more often than not. The people who love her call her mother in both moods.

Her oldest appearances are brief. In the great hymn of the Devi Mahatmya, sung after the goddess has destroyed the demon armies, the gods pray that her trident will guard them and address her as Bhadrakali. The Mahabharata gives her something to do. King Daksha held a great sacrifice and invited every god but Shiva. Shiva’s answer was to bring out of his own mouth a terrible being called Virabhadra and send him to stop it. Virabhadra did not go alone. From the anger of the goddess, Shiva’s wife, came Bhadrakali, and she went with him. Together with a crowd of Shiva’s spirits they fell on the sacrifice and wrecked it, and the gods who had come as guests ran. Later tellings change the birthplace. In those, Shiva hears that his wife Sati has died at her father’s ceremony, tears out a lock of his matted hair, and the two destroyers rise from where it lands.

Either way the pattern is fixed. Bhadrakali is what comes out when a god is too angry to keep the anger inside.

Kerala took that idea and gave it a whole story, known as the Darikavadham, the killing of Darika, and credited by tradition to the Markandeya Purana. Darika was a demon who worshipped Brahma with such devotion that Brahma offered him a gift. Darika asked for a great deal. No man could kill him, and no god. Only a woman could, and then only if not a single drop of his blood were spilled, because a thousand new Darikas would spring up from any drop that touched the earth. Darika thought this as good as immortality. He set about making the three worlds miserable.

The sage Narada carried the complaint to Shiva. Shiva listened, and then he opened the eye in the middle of his forehead, the one that burns. Bhadrakali came out of it. She mounted a vetala, a spirit of the cremation ground, and rode on its back to find Darika.

The fight did not go well at first. The tellings say plainly that she suffered setbacks, which is unusual candour about a goddess. Then she had him. She killed him and drank his blood as it ran, so that none of it reached the ground and no second Darika ever stood up. She cut off the head and wore it.

That should have been the end, and it was not. The demon was dead and Bhadrakali was still furious, moving across the country with nothing left to kill and no wish to stop. Shiva sent two small children into the road in front of her. They were Ganesha and the bull Nandi in disguise. She saw two infants in her path, and the mother in her woke, and the rage went out of her. Kerala’s padayani festival is held in memory of that moment.

Mudiyettu is held in memory of the fight. It is performed once a year in the Bhagavati kavus of villages along three rivers, and the whole village has a share in it whatever its caste. The performers fast and pray beforehand. The powder drawing, the kalam, comes first. Then the play begins with Narada bringing his complaint to Shiva and runs on to the killing. UNESCO placed it on its list of the intangible heritage of humanity in 2010. The audience already knows how it ends. They come anyway.

Her power is exactly as wide as the anger that made her. She can do what the god who sent her cannot, because she slips through the gap in a boon: Darika guarded himself against men and gods and forgot to fear a woman. She does not tire, and she is thorough to the last drop.

Her limit is the same anger. She is slow to start winning and she cannot easily stop, and when the battle is over she is a danger to the world she just saved. It takes Shiva’s cunning, and the sight of a child, to bring her back. In the temples the villagers manage it with lamps, drums and coloured powder, once a year, and then sweep up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Bhadrakali?

Bhadrakali is a fierce form of the Hindu goddess Kali. In the Mahabharata she is born from the anger of Shiva’s wife and helps Virabhadra destroy Daksha’s sacrifice. In Kerala she is the slayer of the demon Darika and is worshipped as the village mother goddess, also called Bhagavati.

What does the name Bhadrakali mean?

Bhadrakali means “auspicious Kali” or “kindly Kali”, from the Sanskrit word bhadra, meaning auspicious or fortunate. The name joins a gentle word to a fierce goddess. In Kerala the calm, protecting side of the goddess is called Bhagavati and the angry side is called Bhadrakali.

How was Bhadrakali born?

The accounts differ. In the Mahabharata, Bhadrakali springs from the anger of the goddess while Virabhadra comes from Shiva’s mouth. In later tellings both rise from a lock of hair Shiva tears out after Sati’s death, and in the Kerala story of Darika she comes out of Shiva’s third eye.

How did Bhadrakali kill Darika?

Darika had a boon from Brahma that only a woman could kill him, and only without spilling his blood, since a thousand Darikas would rise from each drop. Bhadrakali rode a vetala into battle, killed him, and drank his blood before it could touch the ground. She then wore his severed head as an ornament.

What is mudiyettu?

Mudiyettu is a ritual dance drama from Kerala that acts out the battle between Bhadrakali and Darika. It is performed once a year in goddess temples in villages along the Chalakudy, Periyar and Muvattupuzha rivers, after a large image of the goddess is drawn on the floor in coloured powder. UNESCO added it to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2010.