A plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of plant-based foods.Plant-based diets encompass a wide range of dietary patterns that
contain low amounts of animal products and high amounts of plant
products such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. They do not need to be vegan or vegetarian but are defined in terms of low frequency of animal food consumption.
Terminology
Origin of the term "plant-based diet" is attributed to Cornell University nutritional biochemistT. Colin Campbell who presented his diet research at the US National Institutes of Health in 1980. Campbell's research about a plant-based diet extended from The China Project,
a decade-long study of dietary practices in rural China, giving
evidence that a diet low in animal protein and fat, and high in plant
foods, could reduce the incidence of several diseases. In 2005, Campbell and his son published The China Study, a best-selling book emphasizing the potential health benefits of a plant-based diet.Campbell also used the plant-based concept to educate consumers about
how eating meat had significant environmental consequences.
Some authors draw a distinction between diets that are "plant-based" or "plant-only". A plant-based diet may be defined as consuming plant-sourced foods that are minimally processed.
A review analyzing the use of the term plant-based diet in
medical literature found that 50% of clinical trials use the term
interchangeably with vegan, meaning that the interventional diet did not
include foods of animal origin. 30% of studies included dairy products
and 20% meat.
In 2021, the World Health Organization
(WHO) stated that "plant-based diets constitute a diverse range of
dietary patterns that emphasize foods derived from plant sources coupled
with lower consumption or exclusion of animal products. Vegetarian
diets form a subset of plant-based diets, which may exclude the
consumption of some or all forms of animal foods." The WHO lists flexitarian, lacto-vegetarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian, ovo-vegetarian, pescatarian and vegan diets as plant-based.
A 2023 review paper defined plant-based as "a dietary pattern in which foods of animal origin are totally or mostly excluded".
Motivation and prevalence
As of the early 21st century, some 4 billion people are estimated to
live primarily on a plant-based diet, some by choice and some because of
limits caused by shortages of crops, fresh water, and energy resources.
Main motivations to follow a plant-based diet appear to be health
aspirations, taste, animal welfare, environmental concern, and weight
loss.
Health research
Plant-based diets are of interest in preventing and managing chronic diseases. The British Dietetic Association
have stated that a plant-based diet "can support healthy living at
every age and life stage", but as with any diet it should be properly
planned.
Diet quality
Not all plant-based foods are equally healthy. Rather, plant-based
diets including whole grains as the main form of carbohydrate,
unsaturated fats as the main form of dietary fat, an abundance of fruit
and vegetables, and adequate n-3 fatty acids can be considered healthy.
With processed plant-based foods, such as vegan burger patties or
chicken nuggets, becoming more available, there is also concern that
plant-based diets incorporating these foods may become less healthy.
In practice lacto-ovo vegetarians or vegans seem to have a higher
overall diet quality compared with nonvegetarians. The reason for this
is the closer adherence to health organisation recommendations on
consumption of fruits, whole grains, seafood and plant protein and
sodium. The higher diet quality in vegetarians and vegans may explain
some of the positive health outcomes compared with nonvegetarians.
Weight
Observational studies show that vegetarian diets are lower in energy intake than non-vegetarian diets and that, on average, vegetarians have a lower body mass index than non-vegetarians.
Two reviews of preliminary research found that vegetarian diets
practiced over 18 weeks or longer reduced body weight in the range of
2–3 kilograms (4.4–6.6 lb), with vegan diets used for 12 weeks or longer reducing body weight by 4 kg.
In obese people, a 2022 review found that plant-based diets improved weight control, LDL and total cholesterol, blood pressure, insulin resistance, and fasting glucose.
Diabetes
Some reviews indicate that plant-based diets including fruits,
vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts are associated with a lower
risk of diabetes.
When the focus was whole foods, an improvement of diabetesbiomarkers occurred, including reduced obesity.
In diabetic people, plant-based diets were also associated with
improved emotional and physical well-being, relief of depression, higher
quality of life, and better general health.
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine stated that diet can
achieve remission in many adults with type 2 diabetes when used as a
primary intervention of whole, plant-based foods with minimal
consumption of meat and other animal products. There remains a need for
more randomized controlled trials
"to assess sustainable plant-based dietary interventions with whole or
minimally processed foods, as a primary means of treating diabetes with
the goal of remission."
Cancer
Plant-based diets are associated with a decreased risk of colorectal and prostate cancer.Vegetarian diets are associated with a lower incidence from total
cancer (-8%). A vegan diet seems to reduced risk of incidence from total
cancer by -15%. However, there was no improvement in cancer mortality.
Microbiome
Preliminary studies indicate that a plant-based diet may improve the gut microbiome.
Cardiovascular diseases
Prospective cohort studies show that vegetarian diets are associated with reduced risk of CVD and Ischemic Heart Disease, but not stroke. For vegan diets only a reduced risk in IHD was found.
Clinical trials show that plant-based diets, including vegan and vegetarian diets, may lower blood pressure, and blood cholesterol levels.
People on a long-term vegan diet show improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors. Clinical trials also show that the changes in blood pressure associated with a vegan diet without
caloric restrictions are comparable to those of dietary practices
recommended by medical societies and use of portion-controlled diets.
Bone health
The effect of plant-based diets on bone health is inconclusive.
Preliminary research indicates that consuming a plant-based diet may be
associated with lower bone density, a risk factor for fractures.
Inflammation
Plant-based diets are under study for their potential to reduce inflammation. C-reactive protein – a biomarker for inflammation – may be reduced by consuming a plant-based diet, particularly in obese people.
Mortality
A 2020 review stated that dietary patterns based on consuming
vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, whole grains, unsaturated vegetable
oils, fish, lean meat or poultry, and are low in processed meat,
high-fat dairy and refined carbohydrates or sweets, are associated with a
decreased risk of all-cause mortality.
There is scientific consensus that plant-based diets offer lower greenhouse gas emissions,
land use and biodiversity loss. In addition, dietary patterns that
reduce diet-related mortality also promote environmental sustainablity.
As a significant percentage of crops around the world are used to
feed livestock rather than humans, eating less animal products helps to
limit climate change (such as through low-carbon diets) and biodiversity loss. Especially beef, lamb and cheese have a very high carbon footprint. While soy cultivation is a "major driver of deforestation in the Amazon basin", the vast majority of soy crops are used for livestock consumption rather than human consumption. Adopting plant-based diets could also reduce the number of animals raised and killed for food on factory farms.
European respondents to a climate survey conducted in 2021–2022 by the European Investment Bank say that most people will switch to a plant-based diet within 20 years to help the environment
Research from 2019 on six diets found the plant-based diets more
environmentally friendly than the diets higher in animal-sourced foods.
Of the six mutually-exclusive diets; individuals eating vegan, vegetarian and pescetarian diets had lower dietary-carbon footprints than typical omnivorous diets, while those who ate 'paleolithic' and ketogenic diets had higher dietary-carbon emissions due to their animal sourced foods.
A 2020 study found that the climate change mitigation effects of shifting worldwide food production and consumption to plant-based diets, which are mainly composed of foods that require only a small fraction of the land and CO2 emissions required for meat and dairy, could offset CO2
emissions equal to those of past 9 to 16 years of fossil fuel emissions
in nations that they grouped into 4 types. The researchers also
provided a map of approximate regional opportunities.
According to a 2021 Chatham House report, supported by the United Nations Environment Programme, a shift to "predominantly plant-based diets" will be needed to reduce biodiversity loss and human impact on the environment.
The report said that livestock has the largest environmental impact,
with some 80% of all global farmland used to rear cattle, sheep and
other animals used by humans for food. Moving towards plant-based diets
would free up the land to allow for the restoration of ecosystems and
the flourishing of biodiversity.
A 2022 study published in Nature Food
found that if high-income nations switched to a plant-based diet, vast
swaths of land used for animal agriculture could be allowed to return to their natural state, which in turn has the potential to pull 100 billion tons of CO2
out of the atmosphere by the end of the century. Around 35% of all
habitable land around the world is used to rear animals used by humans
in food production.
A 2023 study published in Nature Food found that a vegan
diet vastly decreases the impact on the environment from food
production, such as reducing emissions, water pollution and land use by
75%, reducing the destruction of wildlife by 66% and the usage of water by 54%.
Politics
A reduction in meat consumption and a shift to more plant-based diets
is needed to reach climate targets, addressing public health problems,
and protecting animal welfare. Research has been done on how to best
promote such a change in consumer behaviour.
Some public health organisations advocate a plant-based diet due
to its low ecological footprint. These include the Swedish Food Agency
in its dietary guideline and a group of Lancet researchers who propose a planetary health diet. Vegan climate activist Greta Thunberg also called for more plant-based food production and consumption worldwide. A 2022 report by the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Council On Energy, Environment and Water included protecting animal welfare
and adopting plant based diets on a list of recommendations to help
mitigate the ecological and social crises bringing the world to a
"boiling point".
Insect cognition describes the mental capacities and study of those capacities in insects. The field developed from comparative psychology where early studies focused more on animal behavior. Researchers have examined insect cognition in bees, fruit flies, and wasps.
Research questions consist of experiments aimed to evaluate insects abilities such as perception, emotions attention, memory (wasp multiple nest), spatial cognition, tools use, problem solving, and concepts. Unlike in animal behavior the concept of group cognition plays a big part in insect studies. It is hypothesized some insect classes like ants and bees think with a group cognition to function within their societies; more recent studies show that individual cognition exists and plays a role in overall group cognitive task.
Insect cognition experiments have been more prevalent in the past decade than prior. It is logical for the understanding of cognitive capacities as adaptations to differing ecological niches under the Cognitive faculty
by species when analyzing behaviors, this means viewing behaviors as
adaptations to an individual's environment and not weighing them more
advanced when compared to other different individuals.
Insect foraging cognition
Insects foraging on a yellow flower
Insects inhabit many diverse and complex environments within which they must find food. Cognition
shapes how an insect comes to find its food. The particular cognitive
abilities used by insects in finding food has been the focus of much
scientific inquiry. The social insects are often study subjects and much has been discovered about the intelligence of insects by investigating the abilities of bee species. Fruit flies are also common study subjects.
Learning and memory
Learning biases
Through
learning, insects can increase their foraging efficiency, decreasing
the time spent searching for food which allows for more time and energy
to invest in other fitness related activities, such as searching for mates. Depending on the ecology
of the insect certain cues may be used to learn to quickly identify
food sources. Over evolutionary time insects may develop evolved
learning biases that reflect the food source they feed on.
Biases in learning allow insects to quickly associate relevant
features of the environment that are related to food. For example, bees
have an unlearned preference for radiating and symmetric patterns —
features of natural flowers bees forage on.
Bees that have no foraging experience tend to have an unlearned
preference for the colours that an experienced forager would learn
faster. These colours tend to be those of highly rewarding flowers in
that particular environment.
Time-place learning
In addition to more typical cues like color and odor, insects are able to use time as a foraging cue. Time is a particularly important cue for pollinators.
Pollinators forage on flowers which tend to vary predictably in time
and space, depending on the flower species, pollinators can learn the
timing of blooming of flower species to develop more efficient foraging
routes. Bees learn at which times and in which areas sites are rewarding
and change their preference for particular sites based on the time of
day.
These time-based preferences have been shown to be tied to a circadian clock
in some insects. In the absence of external cues honeybees will still
show a shift in preference for a reward depending on time strongly
implicating an internal time-keeping mechanism, i.e. the circadian clock, in modulating the learned preference.
Moreover, not only can bees remember when a particular site is
rewarding but they can also remember at what times multiple different
sites are profitable. Certain butterfly species also show evidence for time-place learning due to their trap-line foraging behaviour.
This is when an animal consistently visits the same foraging sites in a
sequential manner across multiple days and is thought to be suggestive
of a time-place learning ability.
Innovation capacity
0:17A
bumblebee with experience in the string-pulling task pulls the string
to reach an artificial blue flower filled with sugar solution
Insects are also capable of behavioral innovations. Innovation is defined as the creation of a new or modified learned behavior not previously found in the population. Innovative abilities can be experimentally studied in insects through the use of problem solving tasks. When presented with a string-pulling task, many bumblebees cannot solve the task, but a few can innovate the solution.
Those that initially could not solve the task can learn to solve
it by observing an innovator bee solving the task. These learned
behaviors can then spread culturally through bee populations. More recent studies in insects have begun to look at what traits (e.g. exploratory tendency) predict the propensity for an individual insect to be an innovator.
Social aspects of insect foraging
Social learning of foraging sites
Insects
can learn about foraging sites through observation or interaction with
other individuals, termed social learning. This has been demonstrated in
bumblebees. Bumblebees become attracted to rewarding flowers more
quickly if they are occupied by other bumblebees and more quickly learn
to associate that flower species with reward.
Seeing a conspecific on a flower enhances preferences for flowers of
that type. Additionally, bumblebees will rely more on social cues when a
task is difficult compared to when a task is simple.
Ants will show conspecifics food sites they have discovered in a process called tandem running. This is considered to be a rare instance of teaching, a specialized form of social learning, in the animal kingdom.
Teaching involves consistent interactions between a tutor and a pupil
and the tutor typically incurs some sort of cost in order to transmit
the relevant information to the pupil. In the case of tandem running the
ant is temporarily decreasing its own foraging efficiency in order to
demonstrate to the pupil the location of a foraging site.
Evidence for Cumulative culture
Studies
in bumblebees have provided evidence that some insects show the
beginnings of cumulative culture through the act of refining existing
behaviours into more efficient forms. Bumblebees are able to improve
upon a task where they must pull a ball to a particular location, a
previously socially learned behaviour, by using a more optimal route
compared to the route that their demonstrator used.
This demonstration of refinement of a previously observed existing
behaviour could be considered a rudimentary form of cumulative culture,
although this a highly controversial idea. It is important to say that
true cumulative culture has been difficult to show in insects and
indeed, in all species. This would require culture accumulating over
generations to the point where no single individual could independently
generate the entire behaviour.
Neural basis of insect foraging
Role of mushroom bodies
A diagram of a fruit fly mushroom body
One important and highly studied brain region involved in insect foraging are the mushroom bodies,
a structure implicated in insect learning and memory abilities. The
mushroom body consists of two large stalks called peduncles which have
cup-shaped projections on their ends called calyces. The role of the
mushroom bodies is in sensory integration and associative learning. They allow the insect to pair sensory information and reward.
Experiments where the function of the mushroom bodies are
impaired through ablation find that organisms are behaviourally normal
but have impaired learning. Flies with impaired mushroom bodies cannot
form an odour association and cockroaches with impaired mushroom bodies cannot make use of spatial information to form memories about locations.
Electrophysiological underpinnings of the cognition in different parts
of the insect brain can be studied by various techniques including in vivo recordings from these parts of the insect brain.
Mushroom body plasticity
Mushroom
bodies can change in size throughout the lifespan of an insect. There
is evidence these changes are related to the onset of foraging as well
as the experience of foraging. In some Hymenoptera mushroom bodies increase in size when nurses become foragers and begin to forage for the colony.
Young bees begin as nurses tending to the feeding and sanitation
of the hive’s larvae. As a bee ages it undergoes a shift in tasks from
nurse to forager, leaving the hive to collect pollen. This shift in job
leads to changes in gene expression within the brain which are
associated with an increase in mushroom body size.
Some butterflies have also been shown to undergo an experience-dependent increase in mushroom body size.
The period of greatest increase in brain size typically is associated
with a period of learning through experiences with foraging
demonstrating the importance of this structure in insect foraging
cognition.
Mushroom body evolution
Multiple
insect taxa have independently evolved larger mushroom bodies. The
spatial cognition demands of foraging has been implicated in cases where
more sophisticated mushroom bodies have evolved.
Cockroaches and bees, which are in different orders, both forage over a
large area and make use of spatial information to return to foraging
sites and central places which likely explains their larger mushroom
bodies. Contrast this with a dipteran such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, which has relatively small mushroom bodies and less complex spatial learning demands.
Kali's earliest appearance is when she emerged from Durga.
The goddess is stated to destroy evil in order to defend the innocent.
Over time, Kali has been worshipped by devotional movements and Tàntric
sects variously as the Divine Mother, Mother of the Universe, Principal
energy Adi Shakti. Shakta Hindu and Tantric sects additionally worship her as the ultimate reality or Brahman. She is also seen as the divine protector and the one who bestows moksha, or liberation.
Worshipped throughout India but particularly in Kashmir, South India,
Bengal, and Assam, Kali is both geographically and culturally marginal.
Etymology
Kālī is the zesty form of Kāla (an epithet of Shiva) and thus the consort of Shiva. The homonym kālá (appointed time) is distinct from kāla (black), but these became associated through popular etymology. She is called Kali Mata ("the dark mother") and also kālī which can be read here either as a proper name or as a description "the dark or black one".
Origins
Although the word Kālī appears as early as the Atharva Veda, the first use of it as a proper name is in the Kathaka Grhya Sutra (19.7).
According to David Kinsley, Kāli is first mentioned in Hindu
tradition as a distinct goddess around 600 AD, and these texts "usually
place her on the periphery of Hindu society or on the battlefield."
Legends
Her most well-known appearance is on the battlefield in the sixth century text Devi Mahatmyam. The deity of the first chapter of Devi Mahatmyam is Mahakali, who appears from the body of sleeping Vishnu as goddess Yoga Nidra to wake him up in order to protect Brahma and the world from two asuras (demons), Madhu-Kaitabha.
When Vishnu woke up he started a war against the two asuras. After a
long battle with Lord Vishnu when the two demons were undefeated
Mahakali took the form of Mahamaya to enchant the two asuras. When Madhu
and Kaitabha were enchanted by Mahakali, Vishnu killed them.
In later chapters, the story of two asuras who were destroyed by Kali can be found. Chanda and Munda attack the goddess Durga.
Durga responds with such anger it causes her face to turn dark,
resulting in Kali appearing out of her forehead. Kali's appearance is
dark blue, gaunt with sunken eyes, and wearing a tiger skin sari and a garland of human heads. She immediately defeats the two asuras. Later in the same battle, the asura Raktabija
is undefeated because of his ability to reproduce himself from every
drop of his blood that reaches the ground. Countless Raktabija clones
appear on the battlefield. Kali eventually defeats him by sucking his
blood before it can reach the ground, and eating the numerous clones.
Kinsley writes that Kali represents "Durga's personified wrath, her
embodied fury".
Other origin stories involve Parvati and Shiva. Parvati is typically portrayed as a benign and friendly goddess. The Linga Purana describes Shiva asking Parvati to defeat the asura Daruka,
who received a boon that would only allow a female to kill him. Parvati
merges with Shiva's body, reappearing as Kali to defeat Daruka and his
armies. Her bloodlust gets out of control, only calming when Shiva
intervenes. The Vamana Purana
has a different version of Kali's relationship with Parvati. When Shiva
addresses Parvati as Kali, "the dark blue one", she is greatly
offended. Parvati performs austerities to lose her dark complexion and
becomes Gauri, the golden one. Her dark sheath becomes Kausiki, who while enraged, creates Kali.
Slayer of Raktabīja
In Kāli's most famous legend, Durga and her assistants, the Matrikas, wound the demon Raktabīja,
in various ways and with a variety of weapons in an attempt to destroy
him. They soon find that they have worsened the situation for with every
drop of blood that is dripped from Raktabīja, he reproduces a duplicate
of himself. The battlefield becomes increasingly filled with his
duplicates. Durga summons Kāli to combat the demons. The Devi Mahatmyam describes:
Out of the surface of her (Durga's)
forehead, fierce with frown, issued suddenly Kali of terrible
countenance, armed with a sword and noose. Bearing the strange khatvanga
(skull-topped staff), decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a
tiger's skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping
mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep reddish eyes,
filling the regions of the sky with her roars, falling upon impetuously
and slaughtering the great asuras
in that army, she devoured those hordes of the foes of the devas and
caught the blood of Raktabīja before it could fall to the ground,
stopping him from creating more duplicates.
Kali consumes Raktabīja and his duplicates, and dances on the corpses of the slain. In Devi Mahatmya version of this story, Kali is also described as a Matrika and as a Shakti or power of Devi. She is given the epithet Cāṃuṇḍā (Chamunda), i.e. the slayer of the demons Chanda and Munda.Chamunda is very often identified with Kali and is very much like her in appearance and habit. In Tantric Kali Kula Shaktism, Kali is the supreme goddess and she is source of All Goddesses. In Yoginī Tantra, Kālī kills Kolasura and Ghorasura.
Iconography and forms
The goddess has two depictions: the popular four-armed
form and the ten-armed Mahakali avatar. In both, she is described as
being black in colour, though she is often seen as blue in popular
Indian art. Her eyes are described as red
with intoxication and rage. Her hair is disheveled, small fangs
sometimes protrude out of her mouth, and her tongue is lolling.
Sometimes she dons a skirt made of human arms and a garland of human heads. Other times, she is seen wearing a tiger skin. She is also accompanied by serpents and a jackal while standing on the calm and prostrate Shiva, usually right foot forward to symbolize the more popular dakṣiṇācāra ("right-hand path"), as opposed to the more infamous and transgressive vamachara ("left-hand path"). These serpents and jackals are shown to drink the blood of Raktabīja head, which is dripping while the goddess carries it in her hand, and preventing it from falling on the ground.
In the ten-armed form of Mahakali, she is depicted as shining
like a blue stone. She has ten faces, ten feet, and three eyes for each
head. She has ornaments decked on all her limbs. There is no association
with Shiva.
The Kalika Purana describes Kali as possessing a soothing
dark complexion, as perfectly beautiful, riding a lion, four-armed,
holding a sword and blue lotus, while her right hands are in varabhaya
posture, her hair unrestrained, body firm and youthful.
When Sri Ramakrishna
once asked a devotee why one would prefer to worship Mother over him,
this devotee rhetorically replied, "Maharaj, when they are in trouble
your devotees come running to you. But, where do you run when you are in
trouble?"
Classic depictions of Kali share several features, as follows:
Kali's most common four armed iconographic image shows each hand
carrying variously a Khadga (crescent-shaped sword or a giant sickle), a
trishul (trident), a severed head, and a bowl or skull-cup (kapāla) collecting the blood of the severed head. This is the form of Bhima Kali.
Two of these hands (usually the left) are holding a sword and a
severed head. The sword signifies divine knowledge and the human head
signifies human ego which must be slain by divine knowledge in order to
attain moksha. The other two hands (usually the right) are in the abhaya (fearlessness) and varada (blessing) mudras,
which means her initiated devotees (or anyone worshipping her with a
true heart) will be saved as she will guide them here and in the
hereafter. This is the form of Dakshina Kali.
She wears a garland of human heads, variously enumerated at 108 (an auspicious number in Hinduism and the number of countable beads on a japamala or rosary for repetition of mantras) or 51, which represents Varnamala or the Garland of letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, Devanagari. Hindus believe Sanskrit is a language of dynamism,
and each of these letters represents a form of energy, or a form of
Kali. Therefore, she is generally seen as the mother of language, and
all mantras.
She is often depicted naked which symbolizes her being beyond the covering of Maya since she is pure (nirguna)
being-consciousness-bliss and far above Prakriti. She is shown as very
dark as she is Brahman in its supreme unmanifest state. She has no
permanent qualities—she will continue to exist even when the universe
ends. It is therefore believed that the concepts of color, light, good,
and bad do not apply to her.
Mahakali, goddess of time and death, depicted with a black complexion with ten heads, arms and legs.
Mahakali (Sanskrit: Mahākālī, Devanagari: महाकाली, Bengali:
মহাকালী), literally translated as "Great Kali," is sometimes considered
as a greater form of Kali, identified with the Ultimate reality of Brahman. It can also be used as an honorific of the Goddess Kali, signifying her greatness by the prefix "Mahā-". Mahakali, in Sanskrit, is etymologically the feminized variant of Mahakala or Great Time (which is interpreted also as Death), an epithet of the God Shiva in Hinduism. Mahakali is the presiding Goddess of the first episode of the Devi Mahatmya. Here, she is depicted as Devi in her universal form as Shakti. Here Devi serves as the agent who allows the cosmic order to be restored.
Kali is depicted in the Mahakali form as having ten heads, ten
arms, and ten legs. Each of her ten hands is carrying a various
implement which varies in different accounts, but each of these
represents the power of one of the Devas
or Hindu Gods and are often the identifying weapon or ritual item of a
given Deva. The implication is that Mahakali subsumes and is responsible
for the powers that these deities possess and this is in line with the
interpretation that Mahakali is identical with Brahman. While not
displaying ten heads, an "ekamukhi" or one headed image may be displayed
with ten arms, signifying the same concept: the powers of the various
Gods come only through her grace.
The name Mahakali, when kali is rendered to mean "black", translates to Japanese as Daikoku (大黒).
Dakshinakali
Dakshina Kali, with Siva devotedly at her foot.
Dakshinakali is the most popular form of Kali in Bengal.
She is the benevolent mother, who protects her devotees and children
from mishaps and misfortunes. There are various versions for the origin
of the name Dakshinakali. Dakshina
refers to the gift given to a priest before performing a ritual or to
one's guru. Such gifts are traditionally given with the right hand.
Dakshinakali's two right hands are usually depicted in gestures of
blessing and giving of boons. One version of the origin of her name
comes from the story of Yama, lord of death, who lives in the south (dakshina). When Yama heard Kali's name, he fled in terror, and so those who worship Kali are said to be able to overcome death itself.
Dakshinakali is typically shown with her right foot on Shiva's
chest—while depictions showing Kali with her left foot on Shiva's chest
depict the even more fearsome Vamakali. Vamakali is usually worshipped
by non-householders.
The pose shows the conclusion of an episode in which Kali was
rampaging out of control after destroying many demons. Lord Vishnu,
Kali's brother, confronted Kali in an attempt to cool her down. She was
unable to see beyond the limitless power of her rage and Lord Vishnu had
to move out of her way. Seeing this the devas became more fearful,
afraid that in her rampage, Kali would not stop until she destroyed the
entire universe. Shiva saw only one solution to prevent Kali's endless
destruction. Lord Shiva lay down on the battlefield so that Goddess
Mahakali would have to step on him. When she saw her consort under her
foot, Kali realized that she had gone too far. Filled with grief for the
damage she had done, her blood-red tongue hung from her mouth, calming
her down. In some interpretations of the story, Shiva was attempting to
receive Kali's grace by receiving her foot on his chest.
The goddess is generally worshiped as Dakshina Kali (with her right feet on Shiva) in Bengal during Kali Puja.
There are many different interpretations of the pose held by
Dakshinakali, including those of the 18th and 19th-century bhakti
poet-devotees such as Ramprasad Sen. Some have to do with battle imagery and tantric metaphysics. The most popular is a devotional view.
According to Rachel Fell McDermott, the poets portrayed Shiva as
"the devotee who falls at [Kali's] feet in devotion, in the surrender of
his ego, or in hopes of gaining moksha by her touch." In fact,
Shiva is said to have become so enchanted by Kali that he performed
austerities to win her, and having received the treasure of her feet,
held them against his heart in reverence.
The growing popularity of worship of a more benign form of Kali, Dakshinakali, is often attributed to Krishnananda Agamavagisha. He was a noted Bengali leader of the 17th century and author of a Tantra encyclopedia called Tantrasara.
Kali reportedly appeared to him in a dream and told him to popularize
her in a particular form that would appear to him the following day. The
next morning he observed a young woman making cow dung patties. While
placing a patty on a wall, she stood in the alidha pose, with her
right foot forward. When she saw Krishnananda watching her, she was
embarrassed and put her tongue between her teeth. Krishnananda took his
previous worship of Kali out of the cremation grounds and into a more
domestic setting. Krishnananda Agamavagisha was also the guru of the Kali devotee and poet Ramprasad Sen.
Samhara Kali
Samhara
Kali, also called Vama Kali, is the embodiment of the power of
destruction. The chief goddess of Tantric texts, Samhara Kali is the
most dangerous and powerful form of Kali. Samhara Kali takes form when
Kali steps out with her left foot holding her sword in her right hand.
She is the Kali of death, destruction and is worshiped by tantrics. As
Samhara Kali she gives death and liberation. According to the Mahakala
Samhita, Samhara Kali is two armed and black in complexion. She stands
on a corpse and holds a freshly cut head and a plate to collect the
dripping blood. She is worshiped by warriors, tantrics – the followers
of Tantra.
Other forms
Other
forms of Kali popularly worshipped in Bengal include Raksha Kali (form
of Kali worshipped for protection against epidemics and drought), Bhadra
Kali and Guhya Kali. Kali is said to have 8, 12, or 21 different forms
according to different traditions. The popular forms are Adya kali,
Chintamani Kali, Sparshamani Kali, Santati Kali, Siddhi Kali,
Dakshina Kali, Rakta Kali, Bhadra Kali, Smashana Kali, Adharvana Bhadra
Kali, Kamakala Kali, Guhya Kali, Hamsa Kali,Shyama Kali, and
Kalasankarshini Kali.
Symbolism
Interpretations
of the symbolic meanings of Kali's appearance vary depending on Tantric
or devotional approach, and on whether one views her image in a
symbolic, allegorical or mystical fashion.
Physical form
In
Bengal and Odisha, Kali's extended tongue is widely seen as expressing
embarrassment over the realization that her foot is on her husband's
chest. Pictured is the idol of Kali at the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple.
There are many varied depictions of the different forms of Kali. The
most common form shows her with four arms and hands, showing aspects of
both creation and destruction. The two right hands are often held out in
blessing, one in a mudra saying "fear not" (abhayamudra),
the other conferring boons. Her left hands hold a severed head and
blood-covered sword. The sword severs the bondage of ignorance and ego,
represented by the severed head. One interpretation of Kali's tongue is
that the red tongue symbolizes the rajasic nature being conquered by the white (symbolizing sattvic) nature of the teeth. Her blackness represents that she is nirguna, beyond all qualities of nature, and transcendent.
The most widespread interpretation of Kali's extended tongue
involve her embarrassment over the sudden realization that she has
stepped on her husband's chest. Kali's sudden "modesty and shame" over
that act is the prevalent interpretation among Odia Hindus. The biting of the tongue conveys the emotion of lajja or modesty, an expression that is widely accepted as the emotion being expressed by Kali.
In Bengal also, Kali's protruding tongue is "widely accepted... as a
sign of speechless embarrassment: a gesture very common among Bengalis."
The twin earrings of Kali are small embryos. This is because Kali likes devotees who have childlike qualities in them. The forehead of Kali is seen to be as luminous as the full moon and eternally giving out ambrosia.
Kali is often shown standing with her right foot on Shiva's
chest. This represents an episode where Kali was out of control on the
battlefield, such that she was about to destroy the entire universe.
Shiva pacified her by laying down under her foot to pacify and calm her.
Shiva is sometimes shown with a blissful smile on his face. She is typically shown with a garland of severed heads, often numbering
fifty. This can symbolize the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet and
therefore as the primordial sound of Aum from which all creation proceeds. The severed arms which make up her skirt represent her devotee's karma that she has taken on.
Mother Nature
The name Kali means Kala
or force of time. When there were neither the creation, nor the sun,
the moon, the planets, and the earth, there was only darkness and
everything was created from the darkness. The Dark appearance of Kali
represents the darkness from which everything was born. Her complexion is black. As she is also the goddess of Preservation, Kali is worshiped as the preserver of nature. Kali is standing calm on Shiva, her appearance represents the preservation of mother nature. Her free, long and black hair represents nature's freedom from civilization. Under the third eye of kali, the signs of both sun, moon, and fire are visible which represent the driving forces of nature. Kali is not always thought of as a Dark Goddess.
Despite Kali's origins in battle, she evolved to a full-fledged symbol
of Mother Nature in her creative, nurturing and devouring aspects.
She is referred to as a great and loving primordial Mother Goddess in
the Hindu tantric tradition. In this aspect, as Mother Goddess, she is
referred to as Kali Ma, meaning Kali Mother, and millions of Hindus
revere her as such.
There are several interpretations of the symbolism behind the
commonly represented image of Kali standing on Shiva's supine form. A
common interpretation is that Shiva symbolizes purusha, the universal unchanging aspect of reality, or pure consciousness. Kali represents Prakriti, nature or matter, sometimes seen as having a feminine quality. The merging of these two qualities represent ultimate reality.
A tantric interpretation sees Shiva as consciousness and Kali as
power or energy. Consciousness and energy are dependent upon each other,
since Shiva depends on Shakti, or energy, in order to fulfill his role
in creation, preservation, and destruction. In this view, without
Shakti, Shiva is a corpse—unable to act.
Worship
Mantras
Kali
could be considered a general concept, like Durga, and is primarily
worshiped in the Kali Kula sect of worship. The closest way of direct
worship is Maha Kali or Bhadrakali (Bhadra in Sanskrit means 'gentle'). Kali is worshiped as one of the 10 Mahavidya forms of Adi Parashakti. One mantra for worship to Kali is:
In fact, chanting of Mahishasura Mardhini is a daily ritual in all
Hindu Bengali homes especially during Navratri / Durga Pujo as it is
called.
The chant of the first chapter of Durga Saptashati is considered a
very important hymn to Sri Mahakali as Devi Mahatmyam / Durga
Saptashati dates back to the Upanishadic Era of Indological literature.
Goddesses play an important role in the study and practice of Tantra Yoga, and are affirmed to be as central to discerning the nature of reality as are the male deities. Although Parvati is often said to be the recipient and student of Shiva's wisdom in the form of Tantras, it is Kali who seems to dominate much of the Tantric iconography, texts, and rituals. In many sources Kāli is praised as the highest reality or greatest of all deities. The Nirvana-tantra says the gods Brahma, Vishnu,
and Shiva all arise from her like bubbles in the sea, ceaselessly
arising and passing away, leaving their original source unchanged. The Niruttara-tantra and the Picchila-tantra declare all of Kāli's mantras to be the greatest and the Yogini-tantra, Kamakhya-tantra and the Niruttara-tantra all proclaim Kāli vidyas (manifestations of Mahadevi, or "divinity itself"). They declare her to be an essence of her own form (svarupa) of the Mahadevi.
In the Mahanirvana-tantra, Kāli is one of the epithets for the primordial ṥakti, and in one passage Shiva praises her:
At the dissolution of things, it is
Kāla [Time] Who will devour all, and by reason of this He is called
Mahākāla [an epithet of Lord Shiva], and since Thou devourest Mahākāla
Himself, it is Thou who art the Supreme Primordial Kālika. Because Thou
devourest Kāla, Thou art Kāli, the original form of all things, and
because of Thou art the Origin of and devourest all things Thou art
called the Adya [the Primordial One]. Re-assuming after Dissolution
Thine own form, dark and formless, Thou alone remainest as One ineffable
and inconceivable. Though having a form, yet art Thou formless; though
Thyself without beginning, multiform by the power of Maya, Thou art the
Beginning of all, Creatrix, Protectress, and Destructress that Thou art.
The figure of Kāli conveys death, destruction, and the consuming
aspects of reality. As such, she is also a "forbidden thing", or even
death itself. In the Pancatattva ritual, the sadhaka boldly seeks to confront Kali, and thereby assimilates and transforms her into a vehicle of salvation. This is clear in the work of the Karpuradi-stotra, short praise of Kāli describing the Pancatattva ritual unto her, performed on cremation grounds. (Samahana-sadhana);
He, O Mahākāli who in the
cremation-ground, who wear skull garland and skirt of bones and with
dishevelled hair, intently meditates upon Thee and recites Thy mantra,
and with each recitation makes offering to Thee of a thousand Akanda
flowers with seed, becomes without any effort a Lord of the earth. Oh
Kāli, whoever on Tuesday at midnight, having uttered Thy mantra, makes
offering even but once with devotion to Thee of a hair of his Shakti
[his energy/female companion] in the cremation-ground, becomes a great
poet, a Lord of the earth, and ever goes mounted upon an elephant.
The Karpuradi-stotra, dated to approximately 10th century ACE, clearly indicates that Kāli is more than a terrible, vicious, slayer of demons who serves Durga or Shiva.
Here, she is identified as the supreme mother of the universe,
associated with the five elements. In union with Lord Shiva, she creates
and destroys worlds. Her appearance also takes a different turn,
befitting her role as ruler of the world and object of meditation.
In contrast to her terrible aspects, she takes on hints of a more
benign dimension. She is described as young and beautiful, has a gentle
smile, and makes gestures with her two right hands to dispel any fear
and offer boons. The more positive features exposed offer the
distillation of divine wrath into a goddess of salvation, who rids the sadhaka of fear. Here, Kali appears as a symbol of triumph over death.
In Bengali tradition
Statue of Kali tramping of ShivaIdol of goddess Kali kept near Nimtala ghat for Visarjan or Immersion in the waters of river Hooghly
Kali is a central figure in late medieval Bengal devotional literature, with such notable devotee poets as Kamalakanta Bhattacharya (1769–1821), Ramprasad Sen (1718–1775). With the exception of being associated with Parvati as Shiva's
consort, Kāli is rarely pictured in Hindu legends and iconography as a
motherly figure until Bengali devotions beginning in the early
eighteenth century. Even in Bengāli tradition her appearance and habits
change little, if at all.
The Tantric approach to Kāli is to display courage by confronting
her on cremation grounds in the dead of night, despite her terrible
appearance. In contrast, the Bengali devotee adopts the attitude of a
child, coming to love her unreservedly. In both cases, the goal of the
devotee is to become reconciled with death and to learn acceptance of
the way that things are. These themes are addressed in Rāmprasād's work.
Rāmprasād comments in many of his other songs that Kāli is indifferent
to his wellbeing, causes him to suffer, brings his worldly desires to
nothing and his worldly goods to ruin. He also states that she does not
behave like a mother should and that she ignores his pleas:
Can mercy be found in the heart of her who was born of the stone? [a reference to Kali as the daughter of Himalaya]
Were she not merciless, would she kick the breast of her lord?
Men call you merciful, but there is no trace of mercy in you, Mother.
You have cut off the heads of the children of others, and these you wear as a garland around your neck.
It matters not how much I call you "Mother, Mother." You hear me, but you will not listen.
To be a child of Kāli, Rāmprasād asserts, is to be denied of earthly
delights and pleasures. Kāli is said to refrain from giving that which
is expected. To the devotee, it is perhaps her very refusal to do so
that enables her devotees to reflect on dimensions of themselves and of
reality that go beyond the material world.
A significant portion of Bengali devotional music features Kāli as its central theme and is known as Shyama Sangeet ("Music of the Night"). Mostly sung by male vocalists, today women have taken to this form of music.
Kāli is especially venerated in the festival of Kali Puja in eastern India – celebrated when the new moon day of Ashwin month coincides with the festival of Diwali.
The practice of animal sacrifice is still practiced during Kali Puja in
Bengal, Orissa, and Assam, though it is rare outside of those areas.
The Hindu temples
where this takes place involves the ritual slaying of goats, chickens
and sometimes male water buffalos. Throughout India, the practice is
becoming less common. The rituals in eastern India temples where animals are killed are generally led by Brahmin priests. A number of TantricPuranas
specify the ritual for how the animal should be killed. A Brahmin
priest will recite a mantra in the ear of the animal to be sacrificed,
in order to free the animal from the cycle of life and death. Groups
such as People for Animals continue to protest animal sacrifice based on
court rulings forbidding the practice in some locations.
In Tantric Buddhism
Tröma Nagm in Tibetan Buddhism, shares some attributes of Kali.
Tantric Kali cults such as the Kaula and Krama had a strong influence on Tantric Buddhism, as can be seen in fierce-looking yoginis and dakinis such as Vajrayogini and Krodikali.
In Tibet, Krodikali (alt. Krodhakali, Kālikā, Krodheśvarī, Krishna Krodhini) is known as Tröma Nagmo (Classical Tibetan: ཁྲོ་མ་ནག་མོ་, Wylie: khro ma nag mo, English: "The Black Wrathful Lady"). She features as a key deity in the practice tradition of Chöd founded by Machig Labdron and is seen as a fierce form of Vajrayogini. Other similar fierce deities include the dark blue Ugra Tara and the lion-faced Simhamukha.
Worship in the Western world
Theorized early worship
A form of Kali worship may have already transmitted to the west already in Medieval times by the wandering Romani. A few authors have drawn parallels between Kali worship and the ceremonies of the annual pilgrimage in honor of Saint Sarah, also known as Sara-la-Kali ("Sara the Black", Romani: Sara e Kali), held at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a place of pilgrimage for Roma in the Camargue, in southern France. Ronald Lee (2001) states:
If we compare the ceremonies with those performed in France at the shrine of Sainte Sara (called Sara e Kali in Romani), we become aware that the worship of Kali/Durga/Sara has been transferred to a Christian figure... in France, to a non-existent "sainte" called Sara, who is actually part of the Kali/Durga/Sara worship among certain groups in India.
In modern times
An
academic study of modern-day western Kali enthusiasts noted that, "as
shown in the histories of all cross-cultural religious transplants, Kali
devotionalism in the West must take on its own indigenous forms if it
is to adapt to its new environment." Rachel Fell McDermott, Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures at Columbia University
and author of several books on Kali, has noted the evolving views in
the West regarding Kali and her worship. In 1998 McDermott wrote that:
A variety of writers and thinkers have found Kali an exciting figure for reflection and exploration, notably, feminists and participants in New Age
spirituality who are attracted to goddess worship. [For them], Kali is a
symbol of wholeness and healing, associated especially with repressed
female power and sexuality. [However, such interpretations often
exhibit] confusion and misrepresentation, stemming from a lack of
knowledge of Hindu history among these authors, [who only rarely] draw
upon materials written by scholars of the Hindu religious tradition ...
It is hard to import the worship of a goddess from another culture:
religious associations and connotations have to be learned, imagined or
intuited when the deep symbolic meanings embedded in the native culture
are not available.
By 2003, she amended her previous view.
... cross-cultural borrowing is
appropriate and a natural by-product of religious
globalization—although such borrowing ought to be done responsibly and
self-consciously. If some Kali enthusiasts, therefore, careen ahead,
reveling in a goddess of power and sex, many others, particularly since
the early 1990s, have decided to reconsider their theological
trajectories. These [followers], whether of South Asian descent or not,
are endeavoring to rein in what they perceive as excesses of feminist
and New Age interpretations of the Goddess by choosing to be informed
by, moved by, an Indian view of her character.
In Réunion
In Réunion, a part of France in the Indian Ocean, veneration for Saint Expeditus (French: Saint Expédit) is very popular. The Malbars have Tamil ancestry but are, at least nominally, Catholics.
The saint is identified with Kali.
Comparative scholarship
Scholar Marvin H. Pope in 1965 argues that the Hindu
goddess Kali, who is first attested in the 7th century CE, shares some
characteristics with some ancient Near Eastern goddesses, such as
wearing a necklace of heads and a belt of severed hands like Anat, and drinking blood like the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet and that therefore that her character might have been influenced by them.
Levantine Anat
The Bronze Age epic cycles of the Levantine city of Ugarit include a myth according to which the warrior goddess Anat
started attacking warriors, with the text of the myth describing the
goddess as gloating and her heart filling with joy and her liver with
laughter while attaching the heads of warriors to her back and girding
hands to her waist until she is pacified by a message of peace sent by her brother and consort, the god Baʿlu.
The Hindu goddess Kālī similarly wore a necklace of severed heads
and a girdle of severed hands, and was pacified by her consort, Śiva,
throwing himself under her feet. The sickle sword wielded by Kālī might
also have been connected to similar sickle swords used in early dynasticMesopotamia.
Egyptian Sekhmet
According to an Ancient Egyptian myth, called The Deliverance of Mankind from Destruction, the ancient Egyptian supreme god, the Sun-god Ra, suspected that mankind was plotting against him, and so he sent the goddess Hathor, who was the incarnation of his violent feminine aspect, the Eye of Ra, to destroy his enemies.
Hathor appeared as the lion-goddess Sekhmet
and carried out Ra's orders until she became so captured by her
blood-lust that she would not stop despite Ra himself becoming
distressed and wishing an end to the killing. Therefore, Ra concocted a
ruse whereby a plain was flooded with beer which had been dyed red,
which Sekhmet mistook for blood and drank until she became too
inebriated to continue killing, thus saving humanity from destruction.
Similarly, while killing demons, Kālī became ecstatic with the joy of battle and slaughter and refused to stop, so that the Devas feared she would destroy the world, and she was stopped through ruse when her consort Śiva threw himself under her feet.
A version of Kali is on the cover of the first issue of feminist magazine Ms., published in 1972. Here, Kali's many arms symbolize the many tasks of the contemporary American woman.
Mahakali — Anth Hi Aarambh Hai (2017) is an Indian television series in which Parvati (Mahakali), Shiva's consort, assumes varied forms to destroy evil and protect the innocent.
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