After some more research and hearing Laura's feedback, I've decided to focus on the Hindu goddess Kali. I really love the dual understanding of her nature and the recent feminist retellings. As I've said before in one of my blog posts, I really love origin stories. It just so happens that Kali has three different origin stories, so I decided to research those as a starting point.
1. In the first version, the goddess Durga was in a battle and became so angry that her rage burst Kali forth from her forehead. Once on the battlefield, Kali ate all the demons she encountered, stringing their heads on a chain that became her famous and horrifying necklace. This is also the story where the famous image of Kali stepping on Shiva comes from, as his putting himself in his path is the only thing that stops her rampage.
2. There's a couple of versions where Parvati becomes Kali, but the one I'm most interested in is when the gods were trying to defeat Daruka, who could only be killed by a woman. Parvati jumps down Shiva's throat, combines with a poison he had swallowed to protect the earth years ago, and becomes Kali. In her new form, Kali kills Daruka.
3. In the third version, the gods were attempting to fight the demon Raktabija. Every time a drop of his blood hit the ground, more demons sprang from the earth. The gods combined all of their shakti to create one superbeing to destroy him-Kali. She swallowed all of his demons whole so as to not spill their blood, then beheaded Raktabija, drinking all of his blood before it hit the ground.
I haven't decided what spin I'm going to put on any of these stories or what format I'd tell them in. I thought of potentially combining all three into a choose-your-own-adventure style format where the reader ends up choosing how Kali is created, but I'm not sure if that's feasible. I'd have to play around with it some to see.
Sources (I'll be adding more as I figure out my direction more):
Wikipedia
Ancient History Encyclopedia
1. In the first version, the goddess Durga was in a battle and became so angry that her rage burst Kali forth from her forehead. Once on the battlefield, Kali ate all the demons she encountered, stringing their heads on a chain that became her famous and horrifying necklace. This is also the story where the famous image of Kali stepping on Shiva comes from, as his putting himself in his path is the only thing that stops her rampage.
2. There's a couple of versions where Parvati becomes Kali, but the one I'm most interested in is when the gods were trying to defeat Daruka, who could only be killed by a woman. Parvati jumps down Shiva's throat, combines with a poison he had swallowed to protect the earth years ago, and becomes Kali. In her new form, Kali kills Daruka.
3. In the third version, the gods were attempting to fight the demon Raktabija. Every time a drop of his blood hit the ground, more demons sprang from the earth. The gods combined all of their shakti to create one superbeing to destroy him-Kali. She swallowed all of his demons whole so as to not spill their blood, then beheaded Raktabija, drinking all of his blood before it hit the ground.
I haven't decided what spin I'm going to put on any of these stories or what format I'd tell them in. I thought of potentially combining all three into a choose-your-own-adventure style format where the reader ends up choosing how Kali is created, but I'm not sure if that's feasible. I'd have to play around with it some to see.
Sources (I'll be adding more as I figure out my direction more):
Wikipedia
Ancient History Encyclopedia
(Kali stepping on Shiva by Raja Ravi Varma. Souce.)
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