Anyone know where I can find pictures and/or statues of Kali?
- Jill
That’s one thin god you got there, Jill 
http://www.hindumythology.com/kali.htm
A search at http://www.google.com on “hindu kali” turned up this and several others.
Look up Hans Zimmer’s books on Hindu Mythology – one of the volumes is all pictures.
“Kali – Dark Goddess of Dakshineswar” has LOTS of pictures of the goddess from that temple in India. I can’t recall the author’s name, but you can find it on Amazon or elsewhere.
“Secret Societies” by Doug MacKenzie (I believe). The British edition is packed with pictures, but the Ameruican paperback has very few.
Try encyclopedias. The old “Man, Myth, and Magic” encyclopedia has a few pictures of Kali in it.
Look in various books on Indian art.
Be aware that there are several variations on the image of Kali. She is often portrayed as a beautiful woman with multiple arms, but “Smashan Kali” is downright eerie, with bulging eyes, an emaciated body with pendulous breasts, and a foot-long tongue. There is a picture of Kali from a Thuggee temple in MacKenzie. While it might not be as ugly as the supposed “Kali” from “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (I’ve never seen a Kali that looked like that one) it does not look like any of the canonical" images. One 19th century British lady compared it to a child’s doll.
I talk about this a bit in my book “Medusa” (www.MedusaMystery.com )
See, I have this… altar in my hallway. Just a fun kind of thing. I have a few pictures of Kali and am looking for more. Statues would be good, too.
Depends on where you live. Go into any indian grocery, and they should be able to direct you to where you can find statues and stuff.
A search on “kali statue” at google has many links. Including places to buy statues online.
One is http://www.sacredsource.com
There used to be a store called “The Gods” in Back Bay Boston, but they are, sadly, gone. There was a sister/brother store in Provincetown, which may or may not be there.
If you try Indian stores or import/export stores you may find something.
This may sound downright blasphemous, but the Archie McPhee company sells lunch boxes (!!!) with Kali on them. I think they sell other Kali merchanidise, too. Check ot their online catalog. I think it’s at http://www.archiemcphee.com
I’ve just gone over to the Archie McPhee site. Not only do they have the lunch boxes (soft and hard-sided), they also have a T-shirt:
http://www.archiemcphee.com/bigindex/current/10447.html
http://www.archiemcphee.com/bigindex/current/M5606.html
And something I won’t even try to describe:
http://www.archiemcphee.com/bigindex/current/10558.html
Somehow I can’t imagine them doing this with statues of the Catholic saints. Although I have seen (elsewhere) Hopi kachinas turned into liquor bottles.
[[Somehow I can’t imagine them doing this with statues of the Catholic saints.]]
You haven’t been to New Mexico where people paint La Virgen de Guadalupe on the hoods of their Chevys.