Kali is the fearful and ferocious form of the mother goddess Durga. As the legend says, in one of her the battles with the evil forces, Kali was so much involved in the killing spree that she began destroying everything in sight. To stop her, Lord Shiva threw himself under her feet. Awestruck, Kali stuck out her tongue in astonishment, and put an end to her homicidal rampage. So the common image of Kali shows her in her mêlée mood, standing with one foot on Shiva's chest, with her enormous tongue stuck out. The artist has chiseled out the heavily adorned image of the Kali with minute details.
is often represented with the fiercest features. She has four arms, with a sword in one hand and the head of a demon in another. The other two hands bless her worshippers, and say, "fear not"! She has two dead heads for her earrings, a string of skulls as necklace, and a girdle made of human hands as her clothing. Her tongue protrudes from her mouth, her eyes are red, and her face and breasts are sullied with blood. She stands with one foot on the thigh, and another on the chest of her husband, Shiva.
Her black complexion symbolizes her all-embracing and transcendental nature. Her nudity is primeval, fundamental, and transparent like Nature — the earth, sea, and sky. Kali is free from the illusory covering, for she is beyond the all maya or "false consciousness." Kali's garland of fifty human heads that stands for the fifty letters in the Sanskrit alphabet, symbolizes infinite knowledge.
Her girdle of severed human hands signifies work and liberation from the cycle of karma. Her white teeth show her inner purity, and her red lolling tongue indicates her