Kali Deva
Kali is the being who presides over the Kali Yuga, the fourth and darkest of the four yugas (world ages). He is not the devī Kālī. He stands for discord, adharma, gambling, falsehood and strife, which mark the Kali age. In the Mahābhārata, Kali has a part in how the great war began. Duryodhana is named as the aṃśa (partial birth) of Kali, the human form through which the discord and ruin of the age showed itself. Vyāsa makes this plain in the Bhūdevī-Kali Upākhyāna, which he tells in the Strī Parva.
Nature
Kali is the presiding being of the Kali Yuga in the Purāṇic account of the ages. The four yugas have these marks.
- Kṛta (Satya) Yuga: dharma, truth and purity.
- Tretā Yuga: dharma lessened, with the yajña of fire most common.
- Dvāpara Yuga: a further fall, with Vedic study fading.
- Kali Yuga: under Kali, adharma, strife, falsehood, gambling and lack of religion are most common.
In the Purāṇas Kali is not simply evil without condition. He does a task in the order of the world. The darkness of the Kali Yuga is part of the cycle set by Brahmā, and after it the next Kṛta Yuga will dawn. Yet within the age he rules, his pull draws people to the very qualities that bring suffering.
Kali’s aṃśa in Duryodhana
In the Strī Parva (Chapter 8), Vyāsa tells Dhṛtarāṣṭra the larger reason behind the war. Bhūdevī, the earth, asked Bhagavān Viṣṇu to lift the burden of unrighteous kṣatriya power from her. Bhagavān Viṣṇu ordered that the devas take birth and bring about a great war. In this sharing out, the aṃśa of Kali entered the womb of Gāndhārī as Duryodhana.
Duryodhana was full of envy of the Pāṇḍavas. He delighted in gambling (dyūta). He refused to give even five villages for peace. He did this although advisers such as Bhīṣma, Droṇa and Vidura taught him dharma. The war he began lightened the burden of kṣatriya power on the earth.
Kali and gambling
The Purāṇas link Kali with dyūta (gambling, dice) in plain words. In the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa (Canto 1), Parīkṣit meets Kali after the Kurukṣetra age. He finds Kali living in gambling, gold, wine and women, the four chief places of adharma. Parīkṣit drives Kali out of his kingdom, except for these four places. This is one of the founding accounts of the ethical teaching of the Bhāgavata.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Strī Parva, Chapter 8 (the Bhūdevī-Kali Upākhyāna)
- Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Canto 1