Note 84 — THE KING AND HIS FOUR MINISTERS.

Sambhavi and Mahámayi are among the numerous names of Kálí, the goddess of destruction, called also Parvati and Durga: the daughter of Himálaya, sovereign of the snowy mountains. She is described as terrible in form and very irascible in temper. In her amiable form she is called Bhaváni. To address a deity by a number of appellations, as above, is considered as the readiest way to secure favour.—Mr. Natésa Sástrí, in a note in Indian Notes and Queries for Sept. 1887, p. 215, states that “the goddess Kálí is much worshipped in the Madras Presidency, and especially so during an epidemic. During an outbreak of cholera in Madras in 1884, the Kálí image in the Minakshí temple, near the Dvaja Stambha, was daily propitiated by a thousand pots each of ghí (clarified butter) milk, oil, etc.”