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The 18th-century poet Rāmprasād Sen is most well known for his songs to the goddess Kālī. His poems and songs mixed imagery from kuṇḍalinīyoga (see yoga) and esoteric tantric meditation with devotion to the goddess, and he created a new style of goddess worship in India, which is often called Śākta bhakti. He also mixed classical melodies, Bāul personalism, Vaiṣṇava kīrtan, and local folk styles of music together in his songs, which came to be called Rāmprasādī Saṅgīt. He has been called the main originator and founder of the new Śākta movement, the firs…

Kālī is a Hindu goddess who is understood in many ways. In some areas of India, she is a tribal and village goddess who protects a group of people or a geographical region, an ancestress who grants the desires of her people. She is also a tantric and yogic goddess of death and transcendence who gives the gift of liberation to her followers. She may also be understood as a loving mother who saves her devotees from painful rebirth and gives them protection from harm as well as entrance into her he…