{"id":301,"date":"2014-11-01T23:48:48","date_gmt":"2014-11-01T18:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/?p=301"},"modified":"2015-06-03T04:17:40","modified_gmt":"2015-06-02T22:47:40","slug":"kali-ma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/?p=301","title":{"rendered":"Kali Ma"},"content":{"rendered":"

I prefer Kali to Durga. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Since I’m not exactly sure, I thought I’d use the writing of this post to help figure it out.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0677\"<\/p>\n

In Kolkata, Kali certainly has less fanfare than the almighty Durga, but from my vantage point, Kali’s devotees appear to have as much or maybe even more fervor for their goddess. \u00a0While Durga is considered to be the goddess of supreme power, Kali is thought of as the goddess of empowerment<\/em>. \u00a0That strikes a chord in\u00a0me – copacetic to what I feel and think when making my figurative sculpture in Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n

Kali fascinates me — consider her lolling tongue, that rhythmically wonderful strand of severed, grimacing heads around her neck, and \"DSC_0514\"her very active gesture of stomping on her consort Lord Shiva (other interpretations are that of accidentally doing so, and also that her foot on his body calms her anger).<\/p>\n

Regarding Durga, even with all ten of her hands loaded with weapons, it always appears to me that her lion is doing, well, the lion’s share of the work (sic) when it comes to battling Mahishasura.<\/p>\n

Dilipda and his assistants began their Kali in Dilipda’s studio. \u00a0\"DSC_0029\"Once \u00a0the figures of Kali and Shiva had been formed in straw, they moved them to the street outside of the Shovabazar Rajbari, just next to a tiny Shiva shrine. \u00a0Over the next several days, a bamboo, cloth and paper pandal was built over and around the figures. \u00a0I enjoyed observing this process immensely, because simply by being present in the situation, I became part of \u00a0the rhythm of the street.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"DSC_0276\"
Netal Pal buiilding up Kali’s strand of demon heads.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"DSC_0484\"
Dilipda at final clay detailing stages of his Kali Ma<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"DSC_0548\"
Dilipda’s Kali, now painted and adorned with flowing black tresses. Dilipda completes the final details on Kali’s consort, Lord Shiva.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"DSC_0599\"<\/p>\n

The fabulous Kali figure above\u00a0stunned me outside another shop in Kumartuli! \u00a0Kali Ma!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I prefer Kali to Durga. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Since I’m not exactly sure, I thought I’d use the writing of this post to help figure it out. In Kolkata, Kali certainly has less fanfare than the almighty Durga, but from my vantage point, Kali’s devotees appear to have as much or maybe even more fervor for their … Continue reading Kali Ma<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,18,99,14,39,26,95,49,96,24,21,17,43,98,100],"class_list":["post-301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-calcutta","tag-clay","tag-clay-and-straw-sculpture","tag-httpwww-cynthiasiegel-com","tag-dilipda","tag-fulbright-nehru","tag-kali","tag-kali-puja","tag-kali-ma","tag-kolkata","tag-kumartuli","tag-sculpture","tag-shovabazar-rajbari","tag-terracruda","tag-unfired-clay-sculpture","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":829,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions\/829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cynthiasiegel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}