Worshippers. — Many Hindus adopt the ten-armed Doorgfi as their guardian deity, and she is considered as the image of the divine energy. Her worship in Lower Bengal is so popidar that on the occasion of a great an- nual festival all business is suspended, and even the Eu- ropean courts, custom-house, and other public offices are closed.
The professional robbers and murderers so long known and dreaded throughout India, and notorious elsewhere as Thugs, are the special devotees of the four-armed Kali. In the hope of greater success in their work, they consecrate to her their instruments of death, and. their victims are held to be immolated in her honor. These men will join travellers, and accompany them for days, gaining their confidence if possible, xmder some disguise, until, watching their opportunity, they can ad- minister drugs,or choke them with a small cord, and then rob them of all they possess. Formerly, it is supposed, the goddess rendered them much more assistance than of late, by putting out of the way the corpses of those slain ; but, in consequence of one of their number look- ing behind him after a murder, she ceased to render them so certainly this assistance, as this was a violation of the express condition on which she kept secret all traces of their deeds. The accounts of the occasion of their losing her assistance in this particular arc cc in- flicting, and scarcely worthy of reproduction. I'ersons wishing to trace the matter may refer to Illustrations of the History a lul Practices of the Thugs (Lond. 1837). See Thugs.
Cti-emonies. — Distinct from the great festival alluded to above in honor of Doorgfi as tlie "ten-armed goddess" is a famous and popular festival held in her service un- der the special form of Kali. It is observed with much the same form as tlie other. Annual sacrifices of sweet- meats, sugar, garments, rice, plantains, and pease are of-
KALI
KALMUCKS
fered in great abundance. The first day ends with singing, dancing, and feasting, and with the lower class- es in great debauchery and shameless licentiousness, the arak, an intoxicating liquor, being consecrated to the idol goddess. On the second morning images of all sizes representative of the goddess are made, and, after consecration by the Brahmaus, are carried through the streets in procession to the Hooghly Eiver, and there, carried out in boats, are thrown into it, and with this act terminate these wild and terrible orgies. Immense sums are expended by many of these devotees during these festivals. Mr. Ward estimates as much as £9000 sterling to have been expended annually at the single shrine in Calcutta, and narrates cases of individual offer- ings, at one time, of £10,000, comprising rich beds, sil- ver plate, and food for the entertainment of a thousand persons.
Temples. — There arc many buildings devoted to her worship. The greatest and most popular of these is that of Kali-Ghat, about three miles to the south of Calcutta. There are fifty other edifices in various parts of India devoted to Doorga under her variety of forms and names. All these are said to have originated in an incident connected with her history previous to her having assumed the shape of Parwati, when Vishnu sev- ered her body into fifty-one separate pieces, which were strewn over the earth, and conferred a peculiar sanctity on the places where they happened to fall. All of these became sites of temples, in which an image' of some one of her thousand forms was set up. The whole of the country to the south of Calcutta, including the spot known as Kali-Ghat, was thus rendered sacred, the toes of the right foot being deposited at the latter place. The temple at Kali-Ghat consists of one room, with a large pavement around it. The image of Kali is in this temple (Ward, ii, 157).
There is, perhaps, no fabled impersonation in all the Hindu mj^thology exerting a greater or more gloomy influence over millions of men than Doorga, under the title of Kali.
Literature. — Journ. of the Asiatic Society's Research- es, vol. V. ; Coleman, Mytholor/y of the Hindoos ; Moor, Hindoo Pantheon ; Ward, Hindoo Mi/tholof/t/ ; account of temple at Kali-Ghat in the Calcutta Christian Ob- server, Sept. 1833 ; Col. Sleeman, Journey through Oudh. (J.T.G.)
Kali. See Parched Coex.
Kallghi is the name of one (the tenth) impersona- tion of the Hindu god Vishnu. See Kiusiina.
EZaliph (more generally Caliph), originally a depu- ty or lieutenant, but afterwards applied chiefly to the suc- cessors of Mohammed. As a representative of the proph- et and Islam, the caliph exercised a power which was primarily spiritual, and in theory, therefore, he claimed the obedience of aU Mohammedans. In practice the claim was soon disregarded, and the Fatimite caliphs of Africa and the sovereigns of the Ommiad dynasty of Spain each professed to be the only legitimate represent- atives of Jlohammed, in opposition to the Abasside ca- liphs of Bagdad. The latter caliphat reached its high- est splendor under Haroun al-Eascliid, in the 9th cen- tury; but his division of the empire among his sons showed how completely the caliph had lost sight of the spiritual theorj' of his office. For the last two hundred years the appellation of caliph has been swallowed up in shah, sultan, emir, and other titles peculiar to the East. See Brande and Cox, Dictionary of iSciencej Literature, and A rt, i, 350.