This dramatic wooden sculpture of the Hindu goddess Kali from Kerala is a tour de force of sculptural and iconographic complexity. It was carved from Jackwood (Cryptocarya glaucescens), which is a fine-grained softwood of the laurel family that grows in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra. It is often used in making furniture and musical instruments. Unfortunately, due to its softness, many extant Jackwood sculptures from Kerala have suffered severe weathering from the tropical exposure (see M.85.287). This image is exceptional in the preservation of its projecting symbolic attributes held in the seated goddess’ eight hands and in the crispness of the figure’s elaborate ornamentation. The heavily bejeweled goddess wears a tall crown graced with a crescent moon symbolic of her affiliation with Shiva. She has bulging eyes and fangs indicative of her terrifying nature. She wears animal-headed loop earrings, a lion in her right ear and an elephant in her left. In her hands she holds a sickle-shaped sacrificial sword known in Tamil as an arival, bow and arrow, spear, skullcup, and flaming jewel. One attribute is now missing. Kali has an ornate nimbus with bands of jewels and a penultimate register of rearing cobras. See also M.85.287 and M.77.60.
