About Pathirakali

Sri Pathirakali Amman Thunai Surandai Pathirakali Temple

Eulogy for Pathirakaliamman O, Goddess! The protector of our people of Kshatriya clan! O, Pathirakali! Dweller of Pannaivila Bangala and ruler of the world! Enduring at the banks of Perungulam and granting us the boon, O, my revered Mother Pathirakali! O, our Mother! Embodying eight hands, Bestow progress to our people living in eight directions! Lion-charioted Goddess! To live in glory and fame, bless us with your grace! Lifelong will we pray you, our Mother Goddess!                                                  -- Poet. R. Shyamala Devi, M.A., M.Ed.

Stories of Pathirakali (Bhadrakali) The word "Bhadrakali" means 'benign' (benevolent and peaceful) kali. According to Brigadier Rattan Kaul [Ref: http://ikashmir.net/rattankaul/doc/bhadrakali.pdf], Goddess Durga has nine important forms including Bhadrakali [also named Siddhidhatri]. It is believed that Goddess Bhadrakali was a local deity that was assimilated into the mainstream Hinduism, particularly into Shiva/Shaiva mythology. Bhadrakali is primarily represented with three eyes, and eight hands. She carries a number of weapons, with flames flowing from her head, and a small tusk protruding from her mouth. There are several mythological stories about Pathirakali. Two of the popular stories are narrated below. 1. Bhadrakali, Virabhadra and Daksha   Lord Shiva had been living as an ascetic in Mount Himalayas. Daksha was a Prajapati, one of the Brahma's sons. According to Puranas, Daksha had no sons, but 84 daughters: 24 from his wife Prasuti and another 60 from his wife Panchajani (Virini). He hated Lord Shiva thinking that the Lord does not respect Daksha and his codes.   Daksha's youngest daughter Sati or Dakshayani was deeply in love with Lord Shiva, and begged the Lord to marry her. Although the Lord was initially reluctant, he married Sati against her father's wish. Since their marriage, Lord Shiva and Sati lived happily in Himalayas.   Once Daksha arranged for a yagna and sent invitations to all his other sons-in-law and their wives. He did not invite Shiva or Sati, mainly to insult Lord Shiva. From her abode on Kailash, Sati saw all the godsgoing through air to the grand occasion. She also learned about thegrand yagya organized by her father Daksh. Out of curiosity, she insisted her husband Lord Lord Shiva, "O Vamdev, your father-in-law, Daksha Prajapati has organized a grand yagna. If you wish, should we also go there to attend the yagna. I desire to see my beloved mother, sisters, and other relatives." Lord Shiva replied, "O beautiful Sati, though one may go without invitation to his parents' home, may visit teachers and siblings, one will not go to in-laws' home without proper invitation. But your father resents me. So it is not good if we both go there uninvited. I will not tolerate if he humiliates you. So, even you should not go there, because a humiliation by a near one may cause immediate death." However, Sati resolved that she would attend it, even without invitation of her father, thinking that she would safeguard her husbands honor by attending the jagna.  In spite of Shiva's admonition, Sati finally traveled to her father's palace to attend the yagna. Finally, Lord Shiva too sent her with a lot of gifts and servants. Daksha was not at all pleased to see Sati at the yagna. In fact, he ignored her completely and devoted all his attention to his other daughters. When Sati wished to know the reason for this, Daksha ill-treated her and disgraced Lord Shiva at her face. With anger she said; "Even the mere name of Lord Shiva is enough to destroy all the sins of the humans. No one can violate His dictate. And you, O father, feel jealous of such an auspicious figure, holy, Lord Lord Shiva, who is soul of every living being. I am ashamed of having this body produced from an opponent of Lord Shiva, like you."Unable to further bear the humiliation, and in grief for her beloved husband, Saticommitted herself in the flames of Yagna agni (the fire of the Yagna).  Sati, thus, committed suicide in front of the entire gathering of guests, relatives and gods by engulfed herself into the fire flame.   Upon hearing the news of his beloved wife's death, Shiva was furious that Daksha could so callously cause the harm of his (Daksha's) own daughter in so ignoble a manner. Shiva grabbed a lock of his matted hair and dashed it to the mountain. The mountain exploded into two pieces. From the two pieces rose the ferocious Virabhadra and the terrible Bhadrakali. Virabhadhra was a huge monster like a mountain with thousand hands each carrying dangerous weapons. Bhadrakali looked ferocious with eight hands and powerful weapons.   Virabhadra and Bhadrakali requested Lord Shiva: “What are we supposed to do? Give us the order". Shiva ordered, “Go ravish the sacrifice — violate the fire, poison the waters, pollute the air and kill the gods. They deprived me of Sati, let them be deprived of their lives”.   Virabhadra picked up his trident and summoned an army, a cackling horde of ghosts, goblins, ghouls, genii, monsters, demons, dragons, freaks, fiends and spirits - the ganas of Shiva. They marched towards Daksha's sacrificial halls cheered by the shrill cries of Bhadrakali. Evil omens had begun to appear at Daksha's palace. Vultures circled above the sacrificial altar, wolves howled.   When Virabhadra and Bhadrakali arrived Daksha's palace, the sacrifice had already started and the sacred fire was burning. The sages were reciting hymns and the gods were watching. Musical instruments were being played. Virabhadra roared and the sound of the roar was so terrible that several of the gods began to runaway. The earth shook with the sound of the roar. There were tidal waves in the ocean.Daksha was frightened. But he summoned up courage and asked, “Who are you and why have you come here?” Virabhadra replied, “We are Shiva's servants and we have come to destroy the yagna”.   Virabhadra and the other demons then proceeded to burn down the structure where the sacrifice was being held. They tied up the priests and threw all the offerings away. With their weapons, they attacked the gods. Whatever resistance the gods tried to put up was taken care of by Virabhadra's trident and Bhadrakali's spear.   As the gods took flight, the demons seized and massacred them all. Bhadrakali drank their blood. Thousand and thousands of gods died and the sacrifice became a battlefield. Vishu tried to fight it out and he and Virabhadra shot arrows at each other. But one of Virabhadra's arrows struck Vishnu on the chest and he fell down unconscious. Finally Bhadrakali dragged Daksha by his feet towards the fire-altar. Virabhadra raised his ax and beheaded Daksha, and gave it to Bhadrakali. Bhadrakali then threw Daksha's severed head into the flames.   The gods prayed to Brahma to stop the killing and destruction. Brahma turned the gods toLord Shiva. The gods began to pray to Shiva. These prayers pacified Shiva and he asked Virbhadra and Bhadrakali to refrain from causing any further damage. Brahma requested, “O, Lord, please bring all the gods back to life, and bring peace and prosperity to the world again”. Finally Shiva's fury subsided. Only the sorrow remained. Since Shiva's anger had been appeased, he restored life to the dead gods. The dead gods arose as if waking from a deep slumber. Their wounds had healed, the broken bones had been mended, the missing limbs restored.    Even Daksha got his life back, but his head was not to befound as it was destroyed in the fire. So, a goat's head wasfixed instead. Shiva then gave the city of Bhogya to Daksh as a gift. This is a city of uninhibited pleasure."I created it for Sati. Here I indulged in every pleasure imaginable and became a bhogi. But now Sati is no more. I have no use for Bhogya. I gift it to you." The goat-headed prajapati began to sing Shiva's praises: "You are Shankar, Mahadev, the benevolent one, a kind god!"   Shiva picked up Sati's lifeless body. The body was all that he had to remind him about hisbeloved Sati. Distraught by the loss, he wandered across the cosmos with Sati's corpse in his arms, with tears in eyes. Shiva could not be consoled. His mournful cry rent the galaxies and stunned the gods. This must stop, said Brahma, Otherwise the whole cosmos will be submerged by Shiva's agony. Vishnu raised his finger to spin his mighty discus, sudarshan chakra, and let it fly. Its sharp edges ripped Sati's corpse into 108 pieces. These fell in different parts of Earth, and became the shrines of Sati.   In her next birth, Sati was born in the home of Himalayas.She was named as Parvati. Everyday, Parvati was doing pooja to Shiva Linga. Sober, cool, and an idol of faith, Parvati Devi dedicated herself fully to Lord Shiva. Narada gave her a talisman to get Lord Shiva as her husband. Lord Narayana himself requested Lord Shiva to accept Parvati as his wife. Lord Shiva accepted to get married with Parvati. Thus, through hard penance, Parvati Devi got Lord Shiva as her husband. In due course the auspicious marriage of Parvati Devi with Lord Shiva took place. 2. Bhadrakali and the demon-king Dharika   Dharika was a demon-king. He was doing deep penance for Brahma, the Lord of Creation. Lord Brahma appeared to Dharika and granted this boon: "Neither men or Gods will be able to win over or destroy you". Dharika was very happy with this valuable boon. Soon, Dharika became arrogant and overconfident that he is invincible, and he started doing evil things in the world and people and gods were scared of him. Then, the Gods took refuge at the feet of Lord Shiva. Heeding to their request, Shiva created Bhadrakali, by opening his divine third eye, in order to annihilate Dharika. Bhadrakali, being a Goddess (a female gender), was exempt from the boon granted by Brahma to Dharika that, neither men nor Gods could kill him. Finally, the Goddess Bhadrakali killed the demon-king Dharika. This story is popular in Kerala than in other places. It is also believed that many of the Bhadrakali temples are situated near a water-body (pond or river) in order to keep the fiery Bhadrakali by the cooling effect of the water body. History of Bhadrakali Worship in India The history of Bhadrakali worship is described well by Brigadier Rattan Kaul in his article "GODDESS BHADRAKALI WORSHIP AND ABODE IN KASHMIR" [Ref: http://ikashmir.net/rattankaul/doc/bhadrakali.pdf]. A section from the article is given as below: Worship of Bhadrakali is also indigenous to Bharatvarsha (India), with obscure place of origin. Generally its manifestation can be attributed to the areas closer to Himalayas during the Later Vedic Period, also calledBrahmanic Period [1000-500 BC]; time Aryans migrated across the Doab; large plain that separates the Yamuna River from the Ganges, including Kashmir, where they came into contact with the indigenous inhabitants in these areas. Goddess Bhadrakali or for that matter other Gods and Goddesses of present day Brahmanism have not been mentioned in Veda’s except Visnu [Vishnu] and that too in a different form than perceived in present incarnation. None of the Goddesses of the later Brahmanic pantheon are talked about in Rig Veda. During this Brahmanic Period [1000-500 BC], the worship of Trinity [Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwar] and their consorts; Parvati or Uma [Consort of Shiva; also called Shakti], Lakshmi (Consort of Vishnu) and Vagheswari or Saraswati [Consort of Brahma] took roots.   The Brahmanic period passed smoothly and was flourishing by 700 to 600 BC. At this time two more forms of Goddesses manifested; Durga and Bhadrakali; more or less simultaneously. It is difficult to pin point the areas where their worship started. Artisans and warriors were required to worship their tools and weapons in the temples of Durga; connoting that Durga manifested for certain class; warriors and artisans. This is also reinforced by the fact that Aryans had since established their class system of four groups: Brahman [Priests; Aryan bards, singing hymns, became priests called Arthvan], Kshatriya [Warriors called Ratheshwar [Charioteer] transited to Kshatriya],Vaishya (traders and agriculturists and their workersand herders of their cattle Vastrayosh transited to Vaishya), and Shudra [Workers, camp followers and slaves called Hatoksha, became Shudra]. Thus deities for specific class like Kshatriya’s took separate shape. These Goddesses, Durga and Bhadrakali, held fort for a considerable time, adopted equally by original inhabitants of Bharatvarsha and Aryans and accompanied Aryans wherever they migrated to, including Kashmir.   The manifestation and acceptance of these Goddesses is mentioned in Brahman Purana. By the time of Buddha [May 623-547 BC], Bhadrakali and Durga worship had taken strong roots. Even when Buddhism flourished, the worship of these Goddesses did not diminish, as they represented the benign form of the pantheon, not against the teaching of Buddha. One good thing in Buddhism, during its initial stages, was that it had Buddha’s teachings complimenting then existing religious beliefs, except those of sacrifices. Admittedly the followers of these Goddesses, during Buddhist period, could not increase as the BuddhistSakya’s [Preachers] added further agams [Doctrines, Philosophy] to their teachings, which considerably increased during the 100 AD.   Goddess Bhadrakali is also mentioned in Devi Mahatmaya and another account of the origins of Bhadrakali is found in the Matsaya Purana, which states that She manifested in the north-central part of Bharatvarsha, in the region of Mount Kalanjara [now known as Kalinjar]. Bhadrakali, is an auspicious form of Devi and the legend states that She came into being by Devi’s wrath, when Daksha insulted Shiva and assimilated into the mainstream Brahmanism, particularly into Shaiva mythology. She [Bhadrakali] is the consort of Virabhadra. In the central regions of Kerala lie hundreds of temples dedicated to Bhadrakali called Bhadrakalikavus. Rituals, bordering on art performances and other artistic manifestations of worship have, for centuries, been performed here to appease Bhadrakali.   Bhadrakali worship is also predominant in the hilly tracts and plains closer to the Himalayas [Himachal Pradesh, Garhwal, and Kumaon], many places in South Tamil Nadu, parts of Karnataka and Andhra, Central India, Gujarat and Nepal. In Kashmir Bhadrakali and Durga worship came simultaneously, as in Bharatvarsha. People mistake Bhadrakali and Kali being same form, which is erroneous. They are two different manifestations of the Devi; Bhadrakali being ante Kali;. the roles also being different.