Sorry for the late strip everyone! It was the first week back to school for me and I had to help my mom move today. I should have the strips up on time next week!
If your goal is to keep your behind in tact, it seems like a bad idea to anger the ten-armed goddess of destruction, Kali.
Is there a goddess with only one arm? No arms? Maybe try defacing HER statues.
It is often said that if you’re going to learn a language, some are more difficult than others for native English speakers like myself. Mandarin Chinese, for example, is not recommended for people that won’t take it seriously. If world mythologies were languages, the Hindu belief system would be Mandarin Chinese.
I don’t presume to know the much about Hinduism, so this blog post will be relatively brief as I’d rather not spread false information. While Hindu beliefs may be complex and very alien to many people living in Europe and the Americas, it is deeply fascinating. One of the most ancient religions in the world, it is a powerful philosophy with tales that resonate more strongly with modern sensibilities than you’d imagine. With stories of battles, gods, goddesses, great heroes, terrible monsters, and, throughout it all, a strong underpinning of philosophical thought and moral teachings, it’s hard not to see the value (entertainment or otherwise) inherent in its texts. The only thing that makes it difficult to get into is the sheer volume of foreign concepts. There’s a reason that conversion to Hinduism is a rare thing. Being born into it comes with an understanding of many of the foundation concepts that may otherwise confound and confuse the practitioner.
The Goddess Kali is seen as a destroyer goddess and her visage is one of the single most terrifying forms ever conceived in mythology. With a long protruding tongue, wild hair, crazed eyes, a necklace of skulls (or human heads), a skirt of arms (or tiger hide), and anywhere from four to ten arms most of which wield weapons or hold grisly remains, it’s hard to find a religious figure that’s more imposing. The interesting bit is that while Kali is seen as a destroyer, an aspect of time and death, she is also a mother and a protector. While many of her hands hold weapons or death, she also blesses her worshipers with her other hands. This duality is precisely what makes entry into Hindu beliefs so difficult for the part of the world that grew up with Christianity. The Christian Church, for thousands of years has preached duality: right and wrong, good and bad, god and the devil, but there has long been a sense that these two things are separate. What God does is good and what the Devil does is bad. Good people go to heaven, bad people to Hell. Hindu mythology offers a different perspective where all things are one; where the gods Shiva and Kali are represented of death and destruction but also of life and change and protection. While they are discussed as separate entities, they are also seen as only facets of the same ultimate reality that governs everything.
It gets more difficult than that, but we won’t really get into it right now.
Hinduism is a beautiful religion with very complex worldviews and many many adherents.
One of my goals in the future is to visit India and talk to people there and learn more about it first hand. Until then, books will have to suffice and I’ve got a few just waiting to be read through.
I can’t say I’m looking forward to drawing more comics about Hindu gods, however. They’re way too complex to be drawing all the time!
At least she put down her weapons before spanking that mischievous Hindu boy.
Hey K,
As a non-Hindu, you did a valiant job trying to explain the Goddess Kali, or as we Hindus will sometimes call her Kali Ma.I don’t know the literal translation but I suppose this would translate into Kali Mother in English. Kali is basically like the Archangel Micheal in Christianity; she destroys demons and evil spirits. The main god who would be the “destroyer” god would be Shiva. I guess the best way to explain this would be that there are three main gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh (Shiva) who make up one entity. See it’s like a tree. The trunk is the one creator god, the big branches are the three main gods and the little branches and leaves are minor gods. They all represent the same thing, it’s just that most humans can’t grasp an omnificent shapeless body, which is the creator god. This is why Hindus split it up into different gods; each god is kinda like someone’s own representation. This way people can also pray to a specific god for a specific goal, but it also makes things a whole more confusing.
So basically Kali would be under Shiva. Oh and if you would like to get more books on Hinduism, you could stop by a temple near you. Usually the temple will have a store that would have comic books on mythology, and they’re usually in English too
. They might give you the ” what the heck is a white person doing here” look but if you explain that you’re really interested in learning about Hinduism, they would be happy to show you. ( That is assuming you are white; I really wouldn’t know..)
And if you’re ever in ATL, come by and see the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir or as I like to call it ,the bloody big white temple. It is gorgeous but a bit more conservative than most so watch what you wear.
Hope that helped and didn’t confuse you. I love your comics btw. They are awesome
I wouldn’t bring up Christianism so clearly: there is a reason why many of the foundational elements of Judaism are so deeply misunderstood or misappropriated by Christians (essentially, the fact that, though being of the same root, the two are rather disparate on a number of issues, primarily in a number of subjects that stem from developmental differences).
Otherwise, that was very helpful!
Thank you!
What was he trying to paint on her face…?
A mustache, I believe.
I disagree that Christians don’t present such a display; it usually has to do with what a Christian’s beliefs are like about several things.
To better grasp this, I would like to go back a bit on the earlier comment I did direct at Jessica, and twist it a bit: you see, as you are well aware of, Judaism and Christianism are, along with Islam, part of the family of the Abrahamic religions (the only living genus of worth from the much vaster Levantine/Semitic religious order, if you catch my taxonomic drift) that in essence differ from each other in many things, yet are also quite similar.
One aspect of that dualistic disparity-similarity complex is that there is a great tendency for people in all three of these religions to perceive “God” mostly in one of two ways: ultra kind, which is what you describe; but in many cases, far too many in my opinion, as a deeply disturbing figure of outright cruelty to anything that is not like it (of course, most of them are either unaware of how this is cruel, or find such cruelty to be fulfilling and absolutely righteous; see Southboro Baptist Church, but you know ‘em).
Food for thought, if you will. Still, I’ve known a Hindu convert and he was all for believing in the absolute sense (I disagree, by the way) of an over-arching deity that is everything at the same time. Hinduism has as many variations as one can imagine and more, though, anyway…
When you said Kali I thought of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom…does that make me a bad person, or just really naive/less educated. >,<
Me too actually. KALI-MA!
I just recently heard something about the goddess Kahli.
From what I heard, and I’m not sure if this is legit, but the story was that she killed a great Demon or Monster (gahh I forgot which one >.<), and then common people saw her as a great protector. But eventually, she became crazed with the urge to kill, after killing the great monster, and killed numerous of men. The head (or body, because I think statues differ) that she stands on triumphantly, is of her husband's (Shiva).
Like I said, I don't know if this is legit, but all in all, it's an interesting story.
I think the concept of “destruction” in Hinduism is not posing so much as a negative. All things that are born will ultimately decay, and must enter a stage of death in order to allow new life to be born again. Kali and Shiva’s “destruction” is deemed, at least by my prof, as a necessity to bring about new life.
Sometimes Hindu gods seem to assume various different avatars, in the sense that they are all “related” to each other, not just by blood, but by… “Self”. Many of the hindu gods exist in many forms that would serve to balance the desire for peace and the desire for destruction that exist within themselves.
A good example would have been the relationship between Parvati, Durga, and Kali.
I had a friend who mentioned that in one of the mythos, Kali was actually born from the hair of Parvati when she cuts it off in a fit of rage. So in a sense, while Parvati herself is a harmony goddess, she gave form to a mad version of herself that was hidden inside her. (Which reminds me of how Zeus conceived Athena by splitting his head open)
Another famous “mad self” that Parvati conceived was Durga, who was known to have fought and slain the king of the Asuras. It was known that Durga’s laughter was frightening enough to bring the Asura king to his knees.
Here’s another strange analogy I’m seeing in terms of relationship between Norse gods and Hindu gods. The constant strife between Deva and Asura is sort of similar to the strife between Odin and Surt and their respective armies. They’re both… god-like, but one side was, unfortunately, being labeled as a lesser god and thus in some mythology, being viewed conventionally as the “villains”.
Well, the reason for the strife may have been different. I’m not clear on Norse mythology, but the cause for strife between Deva and Asura is that Deva has all the food, and Asura has none. One of the Asura was sneaking in to take milk, and was caught and decapitated. His head now floats in space as a “Star” that bears ill-omen, causing the eclipse of sun and moon that we see today.
Also, I forgot to mention, the necklace of sculls (or heads, it varies), are those of the men which she slaughtered.
Hey K,
It’s great to see you trying your hand at Hindu mythology based comics. I was born a Hindu living in Mumbai, India all my life and was made to sit through a lot of different rituals and ‘functions’ (as they are called in India
). But at some point, I think when I was 9-10, since nobody was able to answer questions of why we were doing the rituals or what was the significance of the thing we were singing or doing, I kind of let go and started calling myself ‘agnostic’ (fancy word I read online when I was 14 i think) and start looking at other religions for inspiration and answers (the two that stood out were Buddhism & Bahai).
But recently I came across an Indian mythologist, Devdutt Pattanaik, who has written some really great books, best among them i think is ‘Myth = mithya’ a sort of starter’s guide to Hindu mythology and a bunch of other interesting books such as ‘the pregnant king’ and ‘Jaya’. They’re very easy to read (as is his blog) and it really helped me understand a lot of the symbolism and significance that Hindu mythology is trying to express.
Hope that helps!
Cheers,
Akshay
Oh also, an easy way into reading some of the stories (which is what I did growing up) is to read ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ which are comics based on Indian history and Hindu mythology.
“It is often said that if you’re going to learn a language, some are more difficult than others for native English speakers like myself. Mandarin Chinese, for example, is not recommended for people that won’t take it seriously. If world mythologies were languages, the Hindu belief system would be Mandarin Chinese.”
I find that VERY interesting, K, as in my personal studies of religion and mythology Hinduism was the first and the easiest subject I tackled. It seemed the most familiar and the most straightforward to me. Lately I’ve been having much more trouble with Taoism and Japanese Mythology. What did you find alien or difficult about Hindu myths?