Bhadrakali

Bhadrakali is the goddess of the temple at Aharapada on the bank of the Salandi river, a few kilometres from Bhadrak town in northern Odisha. Local belief holds that the town and the district take their name from her. Her black granite image sits in lotus posture on a lion, so some devotees see in her Durga as much as Kali. The Shakta tradition honours her as a protective mother. Kali Puja in the month of Kartik, together with Vijaya Dashami and Deepavali, brings the largest gatherings to the shrine.

The name Bhadrakali appears in Shakta literature for a gentle yet powerful form of Kali, a goddess who destroys evil and protects her devotees. At Aharapada, the identity of the goddess is discussed: because of her name she is taken to be Kali, but because she sits on a lion, some hold that she is...