September|October 2004
Warrior Goddess
IN HINDU MYTHOLOGY, KALI IS A WARRIOR GODDESS associated with vengeance as well as justice. In a famous legend, she fought the demon Raktabeeja, who was revived from a mortal blow whenever his blood touched the earth. Covering the ground with her tongue, Kali eventually defeated him. But in lapping up his blood, she became frenzied and violent, and began killing everyone in her path. Her husband, an incarnation of the god Shiva, finally stopped Kali's rampage by lying down in front of her. The tale illustrates that although the Hindu concept of divine justice is vengeful and violent, its application must be calm and fair.
Kali still has a large following, most prominently in Eastern India, where her image commonly adorns homes and shops, in family shrines and on calendars and posters like this one in the collection of the Oriental Antique wing of the British Museum. The vivid colors and dramatic scenes in these pieces appeal to a mass audience by using a blend of traditional Hindu iconography, the slickness of modern Indian advertising, and the melodrama of Bollywood movies.
In 1996, an Indian man named Sushil Murmu forgot about the lesson of the parable. Believing that dedicating a human sacrifice to the goddess Kali would bring him prosperity and divine favor, he beheaded a 9-year-old boy and threw the severed head into a nearby pond. When Murmu was brought to court, his lawyer argued that although superstition was not embraced by modern society, Murmu and other illiterate Indians raised in rural backwaters continued to hold on to it when they performed the unfortunate religious rite of human sacrifice. The attorney maintained that Murmu and these others shouldn't receive death sentences, as laws typically call for in cases of murder.
In its recent term, however, the justices of the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty would be applied in all cases of human sacrifice, including the case of Sushil Murmu, who now sits in a jail awaiting the hand of justice. "Superstition cannot and does not provide justification for any killing," the court said, "much less a planned and deliberate one."