KALI

KALI

"It was as though his body had been suddenly transformed into one of those many-limbed and many-headed effigies sculptured in Indian temples, and he contemplated the aggregation in a bewildered attempt to discern which was the original and which the additions—if indeed (supremely monstrous thought) there were any original as distinguished from other embodiments."

H.P. Lovecraft & E. Hoffman Price, Through the Gates Of the Silver Key 

"Out of the surface of her (Durga's) forehead, fierce with frown, issued suddenly Kali of terrible countenance, armed with a sword and noose. Bearing the strange khatvanga, decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger's skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep reddish eyes, filling the regions of the sky with her roars, falling upon impetuously and slaughtering the great asuras in that army, she devoured those hordes of the foes of the devas."

Devi Mahatmyam

"Although there are depictions of Kali as a maternal goddess, she is usually depicted as an old woman, made emaciated and bony by the constant bearing and feeding of life. She has an insatiable hunger for life and devours everything in her way. She often has tusks or puts out her tongue which is dripping with the blood of her victims."

Eva Jansen, The Book Of Hindu Imagery: Gods, Manifestaions and Their Meanings

"Kali is another form of the goddess that is often seen in temples and pictures. She is usually pictured as nude except for being covered by her scattered hair. She has a dark complexion. She wears and apron of human hands and a garland of human skulls, and sometimes carries a human head in one hand, freshly severed and dripping with blood, and a long chopper in the other hand. The other two hands are giving blessings and offering protection. Her tongue is protruding, dripping with blood."

Stephen Knapp, Avatars, Gods and Goddesses Of Vedic Culture