JBS
Call for Papers Vol. 9 No. 1 (Submission deadline 15 October 2026)
Keywords:
Mother Goddess, Bird Goddess, Harappan cultic figurines of the feminine, skull
faced figurines from Harappan civilization as Destructrix, Creatrix, Prakṛti of
Tantra and Sāṃkhya, Ādyā, Nityā, Avyaktā, Jagadkāraṇa, Supreme Goddess, Goddess Kālī, Dakṣiṇakālī,
Vāmākālī, Rakṣākālī, Śmaśānakālī, Mahākālī, Guhyakālī, Siddhakālī, Precursors
of Kālī like Cāmuṇḍā and Carcikā, Saptamātṛkā, Daśamahāvidyā, Śaktipīṭha,
Siddhapīṭha, Śakti, Śākta, Kālī Kula, Kaula, Kālī Yantra, Tantras of Kālī,
Dhyānamantras of Kālī in Bṛhad
Tantrasāra of Krishnananda Agambagish, Possible Allusions to Kālī in Rātri
Sūkta of Ṛg Veda, Kālī in Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad, Kālī in Mahābhārata, Kālī in the
Purāṇas (including Śrī Śrī Caṇḍī), Pala and Sena Periods of Bengal, Buddhist
Goddess cults, Nairātmā, Vajrayoginī, Chinnamastā Kālī, Hindu and Buddhist
Tantra and Kālī, Kālacakrayāna and Sahajayāna and Kālī, Kālī in the late
medieval era, Kālī and Baro Bhuiyan
(particularly King Pratapaditya), Dakat Kālī of middle ages, Kālī as patron deities of families and localities
and communities, Kolkata as Kālī Kṣetra
Journal
of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277 9426), an online, open access, interdisciplinary,
double-blind peer-reviewed academic journal to study the history and culture of
the Bengali people, is glad to announce the Call for Papers for its upcoming
issue (Vol. 9 No. 1) on Goddess Kālī.
This
issue of JBS will explore many dimensions of Kali as the Supreme
Goddess: Her increasingly prominent position within the evolution of the
Goddess religions in this part of the world: Her philosophy, theology,
mythology, iconology and rituals; Her prehistory, proto-history, history as
well as Her contemporaneity; Her popular religious celebrations round the year
and the crucial occasions of Her annual worship; Her local manifestations as
the guardian deities of various communities and families and places; Her
esoteric cults, initiatory orders, scriptural discourses; Her myriad textual
mentions spanning from epics, Tantras
and Purāṇas; Her archaeology that might predate Her authoritative inclusion
into the Brahminical pantheon; Her stories, myths, legends and popular
representations in art and culture, literature and society; above all, Kālī as
the Guardian Goddess, or Patron Deity of
Bengal: ‘Kālikā Vangadeśe Ca’.
JBS
Vol. 9 No. 1 is going to be published on the occasion of Dīpānvitā Kālī Pūjā on
the tithi of Kārtikī Amāvasyā, 8 November 2026.
Goddess
Kālī
The
topics for submission will include the following but will not be limited to the
same:
Ø The
living traditions of the Goddess Kālī vis-à-vis the prehistoric as well as
historical antiquity of Goddess worship. Sukumar Sen for example observes that
the concept of a dark Goddess of night as the creatrix of the universe is very primitive
and is attested in the Indo-European myths including Vedic scriptures (Prabandha
Sankalan 3rd Vol & 4th Vol). At the same time,
some forms of a terrible Supreme Goddess controlling birth and death could have
existed in the early prehistory of South Asia within the arguably non-Vedic
Harappan Civilization, as Debiprasad Chattopadhyay in his Bharatiya Darshan proposes.
For a detailed discussion, see Tamal Dasgupta’s articles “Ma Kalir Utthan” and
“Ma Kalir Utshoron” published in the Shoptodina Journal (ISSN 2395- 6054),
accessible at https://shoptodina.wordpress.com
Ø Historical
development of the supreme creatrix: for example, Surendranath Dasgupta in his A
History of Indian Philosophy argues that the evolution of the current iconology
of the Goddess where She stands atop a corpse (Śavaśiva) captures the essence
of a dynamic Prakṛti and inert Puruṣa.
Ø The
philosophy, theology, scripture and textual discourse of Goddess Kālī.
Ø Popular
religious celebrations of Goddess Kālī and the local goddesses worshipped by
the Bengalis across the region.
Ø Kaula
orders and initiatory cults of the Goddess Kālī: Tantra and beyond.
Ø The
archaeo-religious perspectives on the Goddess Kālī. The Bird Mother Goddess of
Pandu Rajar Dhibi, the various cultic feminine figurines of Harappan
Civilization, particularly those indicating the cult of animal sacrifice
(including sacrifice of goat and buffalo), and finally the Gangaridai
Goddesses: do they contribute to the evolutionary trajectory of Goddess Kālī?
Ø The
ancient and early medieval history of the Goddess Kālī: From the Rātri Sūkta of
Ṛg Veda, hymn of Muṇḍaka Upaṇiṣad, Kālī in Mahābhārata, Kālī
in Śrī Śrī Caṇḍī to the Pala and
Sena period religion, rituals, texts and iconography.
Ø Many
forms and fragments of the Goddess: Śaktipīṭha and the Goddess Kālī, Goddess Kālī
and Daśamahāvidyā pantheon.
Ø The
tremendous rise of the Goddess during the late medieval period. Sarvananda
Thakur, Brahmananda Giri. Worship of the Goddess during the war-torn times of
Baro Bhuiyan. As per popular perception and legend, Krishnananda Agambagish
created the current iconography of the Goddess sometime during the sixteenth
century, but that is a myth. A similar iconography of Kālī can be found in the
Sena period scripture of Bṛhaddharmapurāṇa’s description of Daśamahāvidyā (for
details see the aforementioned articles of Tamal Dasgupta) which was composed
some four centuries before Agambagish. Clearly, this iconography of Kālī was
not created but might have been revived by Agambagish during the late medieval
period.
Ø Dakat
Kālī or the Goddess of the Goons of medieval Bengal. Yavanamarddinī Kālī of
Dakat Beni Ray.
Ø The
role of King Krishnachandra of Nadia in popularising the worship of Kālī at the
point of transition between the medieval and the modern periods of Bengal’s
history.
Ø Ramprasad
Sen and Kamalakanta Bhattacharya and the generic rise of Śākta devotional
songs.
Ø Goddess
Kālī and Rani Rashmoni.
Ø Goddess
Kālī and the rise of revolutionary nationalist movement in Bengal in the early
twentieth century are deeply intertwined. But interestingly the Goddess roots
might have persisted even afterwards, as a little-known article in a little
magazine is known to have made a curious claim that Naxalite leader Charu
Majumder used to have an image of Sevak Kālī, a local guardian deity of the hilly
district of Darjeeling. Majumder too hailed from this district. Whether this
claim is true or not, it goes without saying that the deep, primitive roots of
the Goddess were too tough to be destroyed by rational, progressive irreligiosity
dominant among Bengali intelligentsia.
Ø Kālī
at the margins: Chinese Kālī temple, Phiringi Kalibari, versions of Kālī
worshipped at Mayang, Kālī among Western feminists.
Ø Goddess
Kālī and our interesting times; Goddess Kālī and Kaliyuga (“Nanyadeva Kalau Yuge”,
no other god in Kaliyuga but Kālī)
Ø Goddess
Kālī and etymology: the black goddess, the goddess of time
Ø Kālī
and Kālacakrayāna of Pāla period; Kālī and Sahajayāna movement of Naropa and
Niguma.
Ø Tantric
Buddhist precursors of Kālī: Nairātma as a type study
Ø Tantric
Hindu precursors of Kālī: Cāmuṇḍā
Ø The
contemporaneity of the Goddess Kālī: the increasing scholarly interest and
popular curiosity in the Goddess. Western feminism and the Goddess renaissance;
the lived traditions of the Goddess in Bengal.
Ø Goddess
Kālī in the twenty-first century and beyond.
Submission
guidelines: Articles must be submitted via email to shoptodina@gmail.com with cc to editjbs@gmail.com
Articles
should follow MLA format (the ninth edition of MLA Handbook, 2021). Articles
must be typed in ms-word, complete with bibliography and notes (if any), with a
minimum word length of 3000 words and maximum word length of 15000 words. A
separate bio-note should be attached in the email informing about the scholarly
credentials and interests of the author including institutional affiliations
etc. Reviews are also welcome. Reviews should have a minimum word length of
2000 and maximum word length of 5000 words, and should follow the
aforementioned MLA format.
Last
date of submission: 15 October 2026.
The
author must not use the endnote/footnote function of ms-word and must manually provide
the notes at the end of the article.
For
any query, feel free to email shoptodina@gmail.com
and/or whatsapp/telegram (+91) 8017467479.
The editorial board of JBS remains the sole and final authority on the
decisions regarding the publication or non-publication of any submitted article
in original or modified forms.
Editor:
Dr Rituparna Koley
Check
out our past issues at https://bengalistudies.blogspot.com
and www.bengalistudies.com
