KALDI
KALI
etic spirit which is wonderfully impressive. One of its main incidents is the legend of one dead man shriving another, which had been used by another poet. An- other successful effort of his is "The steadfast Prince." Both of these have frequently been translated into En- glish and other languages. See, however, Ticknor, Ilis- lorij of Spanish Literature (new edition, 1871, with In- dex). One of the ablest Koman Catholic critics, pro- fessor Frederick Schlegel, thus speaks of Kalderon's po- sition as a Christian poet: "The Christianity of this poet, however, does not consist so much in the external circumstances which he has selected, as in his peculiar feeling, and the method of treating his subject, which is most common with him. Even where his materials fur- nish him with no opportunity of drawing the perfect development of a new life out of death and suffering, yet everything is conceived in the spirit of this Chris- tian love and purification, everything seen in its light, and clothed in the splendor of its heavenly coloring. In every situation and circumstance, Kalderon is, of all dramatic poets, the most Christian, and for that very reason the most romantic" {IIistoi-y of Literature, p. 280, 281). Se.e also Eichendorff, GeistlicJie Schauspiele von Don Pedro Kalderon de la Barca ; Schmidt, Schauspiele Calderom (Eberfeld, 1857) ; Herzog, Real-Encyklop. vii, 218 sq. (.J.H.W.)
Kaldi, Georg, a celebrated Hungarian Jesuit, was born at Tyrnau (Hungary) in 1570. After filling vari- ous positions in the Jesuitical order, preaching at Vienna, and teaching theology at Olmutz, he became at last rec- tor of the college at Presburg, and remained there until his death in 16o4. He was the first Roman Catholic to furnish Ids co-religionists a Hmigarian translation of the Bible. It was published at Vienna in 1G2G, folio (the Protestant translation, by Visoli, was made in 1589). A portion of Kaldi's sermons were published at Presburg in 1G31.
Kalendar. See Calendar.
Xali (or Kalee) is the name of one of the many forms of Doorgd, so popularly and variously worshipped in Hindustan. •
Names and History. — Doorgfi is the female principle in the production of the world who appears throughout the Hindu Shastras as Prakriti or Bhagwati. She is said to have had a thousand names, and to have appear- ed in a vast number of forms in different periods: thus, as Sati, she first became the wife of Siva, but renounced her life on hearing her father reproach her husband. She again appeared as " the mountain-born goddess" under the name of Parirati, and again married Siva. After giving birth to her sons Ganesh and Katik, she became renowned for her achievements in war agamst the giant enemies of the gods.
Tins goddess assumed the name of Kali on the occa- sion of a battle with a thousand-headed giant demigod whom she slew. In her excessive delight over her vic- tor}-, she danced till she shook the foundation of the earth, and the gods were compelled to induce her hus- band Siva to influence her to stop, which, however, he found no means of doing till he resorted to the expedi- ent of throwing himself among the bodies of the slain. Kali, observing herself dancing on the body of her hus- band, was shocked, and, protruding her tongue in her surprise, stood still. In this attitude she is re^^resented in the images of her now made, and sold, and worship- ped tlirougliout Bengak
Lnages. — In allusion to the above contest with the giant. Kali is often represented as " a ten-armed god- ilcss." Her image in this aspect is that of a yeUow woman with ten arms, richly dressed and ornamented, standing erect, resting lier left foot on the back of a prostrate buffalo, and her right on that of a couchant lion, holding in her hands a spear, an axe, a discus, a trident, a club, an arrow, and a shield.
Her most common image, however, is that of a black or very dark blue-colored woman with four arms ; the
upper left arm holding a cimeter, the louver left a hu- man head by the hair. The other right arm is held up to indicate either that she is bestowing a blessing or the restoration of nature from the devastation which she has caused, and to which her lower right hand is pointing. iVll her hands are bloody. In this form she is standing on the body of her husband, who is a white man, stretch- ed at fidl length upon his back.' Around her waist, as a covering, she wears a string of bloody human hands. She wears an immense neclvlace, reaching below her knees, which is composed of human skulls. In some images a pair of dead human bodies hang by the hair from her ears. Her tongue, as above set forth, protrudes from her mouth upon her chin.
She appears, moreover, under other forms : sitting on a dead body, with two giants' heads in her arms ; as a black female sitting on a throne, etc.
Character. — Kali, in Hindu mj'thology, is nothing more nor less than a, female Satan. She is a very san- guinary goddess; her eyebrows are bloody, and blood falls in a stream down her breast. Her eyes are red, like those of a drunkard.
Sacrifices. — ]Mr. Ward makes a summary from one of the Puranas to the effect that a tiger's blood offered to her in sacrifice will please her for a hundred years ; that of a lion, a reindeer, or a man, a thousand years ; and that of three men for ten hundred thousand years. In the event of a human person being offered in sacrifice, it must be performed in a cemetery, or at a temple, or in a mountain. Only a person of good appearance should be offered. The victim should be adorned with chaplets and besmeared with sandal-wood, after various ablu- tions. The deformed, timid, leprous, or crippled must not be offered ; nor must a priest, nor a childless broth- er. The victim must be prepared the day before the offering, his neck being besmeared with blood from the axe with which he is to be sacrificed. Besides this, however, persons may draw blood from their own bod- ies, or cut off their flesh, to be presented to this goddess as a burnt-offering, or burn the body by the flame of a lamp.