सद्यस्सङ्गरसङ्गतासुरशिरश्श्रेणीभिरास्त्रोल्ब्णैःराबध्यस्त्रजमुत्तरीयमनया संविभ्रतिं सादरम् । दोर्भि: खेटकपालपन्नगमहाघण्टाशुभङ्कारिका खट्वाङ्गत्रिशिखानसिञ्च दधतीं वन्दे महाभैरवीम् ॥१॥
अञ्जनाचलनिभात्रिलोचनासेन्दुखण्डविलसत्कपर्दिका
रक्तपट्टपरिपरिधायिनी चतुश्चारुदंष्ट्रपरिशोभितानना।
हारनूपुरमहार्हकुण्डलाद्युज्वला घृसृणरञ्जितस्तना
प्रेतरुढगुणसत्कापालिनि खडगचर्मभृदिहास्तु भैरवी ॥२॥
परमेकांशमेवन्तु परमेश्वरलोचने ।
जयते भद्रकाली तु दारुकावधकारिणीम् ॥
In keraladesha Goddess bhadrakAlI is invoked with bAlAbhairavI vidhAnaM hence bAlA mantra is present in famous dashAkShara mantra of bhadrakAlI . Instead of bhadrakAlI devatA one can observe shaktibhairavI devatA in Chhanda of dashAkShara mantra . She carries a trident, head of dArika, sword, vattala and vetAla is her vehicle. She has three eyes, four or eight hands. The appearance of Kali in Kerala is in sitting position.
Local Keralalite legends of bhadrakAlI are recorded in saMskRRita and malayAlabhAShA texts like shrIbhadrolpatti , dArukavadham , dArikavadham
, shrIbhadrakAlImAhAtmyaM & bhadrakAlIsaptashatI .
The story is also alive and narrates well in oral tradition. The entire myth of dArikavadham of Kerala does not appear in any of the authentic version of Purana but appears to have its origin in oral tradition such as ‘thottampattu’ in various versions.
There are small diversions in all of thses texts but main corpose of story remains same .The word kAlI originates from the Sanskrit word kAlakuTa. She got her name because she originates from the kAlakuTa of paramashiva’s neck. The other version is that, the Malayalam word kaluka means horror and one who created horror is known as kAlI.
devagaNa and asuragaNa had a big fight in dwApara yuga and at the time of the war viShNu killed all of the asuras except two woman dinapati and danapati who manged to escape and hide in the underworld pAtAla. The two women wanted restablishment of asuravaMsha and started penance to appease Lord brahmA. Brahma appears infront of them and asked about their wishes. They ask for sons . brahmA replied that, danapati’s penance was not in full honest and that’s why she will give birth to a foolish son and he will be the king of karkapurI and known as karka. dinapati had penance in fullswing and she will get a strong son. His name would be dAruka and he will become the king of dArukapurI .Then brahmA gave little rice and water. These two women left and danapati married bhadra and dinapati married bhikara the king. After both women conceived and gave birth to two boys.karakana grow and one day he tried to eat Sun as his food. Aditya got angry, threw an arrow on karakana and he got killed. dinapati gave birth to dAruka and during his birth time, sea became dirty, animals started runing .When he grows, he asked about his relatives and enemies.When he grew up he came to know that their clan had been destroyed by viShNu and took an oath to take revenge upon him. His mother said that devagaNa were their enemies. viShNu gave help to devagaNa to deafeat their ancestors. She asks him to go and make penance to brahmA and get his wishes fulfilled. To fulfil this purpose he went to gokarNakShetra and observed austerities.The penance continued for a very long time and brahmA did not appear. dAruka starts his penance in standing position, stands in water, and stands around fire.In desperation, he began to cut off his head with a sword. No sooner had the first drop of blood fallen on the ground then Lord brahmA appeared before him and promised to give whatever boon he wanted. Demon dAruka after intense ascetic practice, secured boons of invincibility from lord brahmA . A drop of his blood would generate thousands of dAruka known as upadArukagaNa and no one could kill him. Thus armed, dAruka began to commit numerous depredations. When Shiva came to know of dAruka’s misdeeds, he opened his fiery third eye (trinetra) and an enormous flaming form of bhadrakAlI emerged to destroy dAruka. Shiva gave trident(trishUla), sword(asi), mace(gadA), axe(parashu) in her hand and sent her to kill dAruka .
bhagavati bhadrakAlI went through the forest and sought the help of bloodthirsty vetAla, king of forest ghosts and spirit.Then bhadrakAlI turned to war with dAruka. vetAla spread his enormous tongue over the battlefield, drinking dAruka’s blood as bhadrakAlI cut off his head.
She trew the intestines to pishAchagaNa and flesh to bhUtagaNa. vetAla cut the thighs of dAruka and drank the remaing blood . dAruka’s wife (mandodarI) discovering the death of her husband got angry and began to do penance of shiva .Shiva appeared and gave her a few drops of sweat from his body saying that the person on whom she sprinkled the sweat drops would suffer from small pox. On her way back she met bhadrakAlI at whom she threw the sweat drops to avenge for her husband’s death.dAruka’s wife threw the sweat to bhadrakAlI’s body. Immediately bhadrakAlI fell down on the floor and she got smallpox on her body. bhadrakAlI asked for help. Hearing bhadrakAlI’s cries for help, Shiva created ghaNTAkarNa from his earwax (karNamala). ghaNTAkarNa licked his sister’s body to remove the small pox but out of modesty could not touch her face which remained scarred.The furious bhadrakAlI returned to kailAsha, holding dAruka’s head in her left hand.She offered the head of dAruka to Shiva. Shiva gives blood from his little finger of right hand and try appeases her with blood offerings . On seeing still fearful nature goddess, Shiva attempted to calm her saying daughter dance up on my body and release your temper. Doing this, she was satisfied and henceforth began to receive offerings from devotees as a boon from Shiva.
रक्ताङ्गीं रक्तवस्त्रां करिकरविलसत्कुंडलां चण्डदंष्ट्रां कंठोद्यद्रुंडमालां परिसरविलसच्छोभिपैशाचवृंदाम् ।
घोरां घोराट्टहासां करकलितकपालासिरौद्रां त्रिनेत्रां शत्रूणां प्राणहन्त्रीं शशिशिशुमकुटां भावयेद्भद्रकालीम् ॥
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