In this fierce depiction of Kali, draped in a dark grey cloak, an anonymous artist is working in the powerfully blunt and compact style cultivated at Mandi, a large state in the Punjab Hills.
The dark blue goddess is shown in her archetypal form, with third eye and four arms. These symbolise the cycle of creation and dissolution. In her left hands she holds a trident and a sword. In her right hands are a shield and a staff topped by a crescent moon. A crescent moon also features on her forehead, a symbol commonly associated with Shiva, her consort. She wears a garland of demon heads, variously enumerated as either 108 or 51. The latter number represents the Varnamala, or Garland of Letters, of the Devanagari alphabet. Our devi wears a leopard skin skirt, with the tail of the animal wrapped around her waist. Her anklets, earrings and a bangle are all made out of small bones and four hissing snakes adorn her wrists. A baby tiger skin is casually draped over the left
shoulder.
Kali takes centre stage against an unmodulated dark green field with tufts of grass, while two diminutive jackals by her feet are standard attributes of Kali. The spatial sequence is reversed at the top of the composition, where nebulous bands of white and blue sky lie behind tiny flocks of tiny birds. This formula, which is a staple of Mandi painting from 1675 to 1750, is employed to great effect in this work of c. 1750.