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Batara Kala, the Hungry Giant God of Time and Destruction

Batara Kala, the Hungry Giant God of Time and Destruction

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The Borobudur Temple, the massive Mahayana Buddhist temple in Central Java, Indonesia, was built in the ninth century during the reign of the Shailendra Dynasty, which emerged in eighth-century Java. The temple’s design combines the Buddhist concept of attaining Nirvana, the release from karma and the cycle of death and rebirth, with traces of the Gupta art reflecting the influence of ancient India on the region. Apart from being a shrine to the Lord Buddha, Borobudur is also a temple for Buddhist pilgrimage. A pilgrim’s journey begins at the base of the monument and follows a path around the temple. The pilgrim then ascends to the top of the monument through the three realms in the Buddhist cosmology. Those three realms are Kamadhatu (“the world of desire”),  Rupadhatu (“the world of forms”) and  Arupadhatu (“the world of formlessness”). However, to experience this journey, the pilgrim will first walk through the gate of the temple adorned with a terrifying head which gives the illusion of the gate looking like the open mouth of the giant. The giant head represents Kala (“time”).

View of Borobudur, Indonesia. (Anandajoti /CC BY-SA 3.0)

View of Borobudur, Indonesia. (Anandajoti /CC BY-SA 3.0)

Kala Messenger Of Yama

In ancient Indian epics, Kala appears as a god. In the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata, Krishna reveals his identity to the hero Arjuna as the giant, terrifying personification of Kala who would destroy everyone when their time comes. In the Uttara Kanda, the last chapter of the epic Ramayana, Kala appears as the messenger of Yama, the god of death. He told Rama that the time has come for his return to heaven. Rama accepted his advice and along with his brothers, as well as several rakshasas (giants) and monkeys, he went to the river Sarayu. It was from this river that Rama made his journey to the heavens. In the Bhagavata Purana, a holy text in Vaishnavism (a Hindu tradition that reveres the god Vishnu), Kala appears as the force that is responsible for the eventual shift in one’s life as a whole, that is creation and extinction. This impermanence is attributed to the march of time, or Kala.

The narrative bas-reliefs stories position on Borobudur wall. All of these stories derived from Buddhist sacred texts such as Lalitavistara, Manohara, Avadana, Jatakamala, Jataka, Gandavyuha, including Karmavibhangga carved along hidden foot covered by additional base encasement. (Gunawan Kartapranata /CC BY-SA 3.0)

The narrative bas-reliefs stories position on Borobudur wall. All of these stories derived from Buddhist sacred texts such as Lalitavistara, Manohara, Avadana, Jatakamala, Jataka, Gandavyuha, including Karmavibhangga carved along hidden foot covered by additional base encasement. (Gunawan Kartapranata /CC BY-SA 3.0)

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Martini Fisher is an Ancient Historian and author of many books, including ”Time Maps: Gods, Kings and Prophets”  | Check out MartiniFisher.com

Top Image: Kala Head, Bali (CC BY-SA 2.0)

By Martini Fisher

 

Comments

Hi All,

Searching for various Subject's pertaining to Hungry, Hungry Giant's; courtesy of the Lakota A Story of Giant's.

I just wished to update my discussion with this at least for me newest information regarding Giant's in The America's; the Giant Story that is shared by The Lakota on ytube mentions an hungry giant whose appetite was never satisfied, the Giant ate people and apparently, had eaten several key families within The Lakota People.

I won't share more of this story just look it up on ytube; it's about 26 minutes long. Until next time, Everyone, Goodbye!

Hello MARTINIF,

It's been a while since; I've seen your articles and thank you for sharing this one it's left with the feeling of great excitement.

I'm in the middle of doing an in-depth Bible Study of The Biblical Book's of Enoch & Jubilees and from the article here it is proving Enoch Right.

Not to long ago if I heard about Batara Kala in a round about way I would have chucked it off as a Myth in the case of what I'm learning from Enoch I can no longer do this.

If your wondering why am I focusing on Batara Kala it's his name.

Enoch teaches that 200 Son's of God called The Watchers left the abode of Heaven; a 3rd Heaven came over to Earth where they subsequently Polluted All of The Ancient of Days Creation; first, by Marrying and having children with Human women, and then by other mean's.

What's great about Enoch is He provides the names of 55 out of the whole 200 Fallen Angel's name's.

Don't worry I won't share the 55 names at least, for now but, I will share 4 name's...

1. Baraqiel
2. Batarjal
3. Busasejal
4. Baraqijal

As you can see it's the name of Batara Kala that jumps out to me from your article because of the name Batarjal name in Enoch. According to your article this Batara Kala is a Giant god of Time and Destruction.

I do know that Enoch teaches that Batarjal wife (sorry, I haven't seen the names of the 200 Angel's Wives yet), and others like her gave birth to children who grew to be giants.

These giants grew to 3000 feet in Height, they were Warriors Old and Re-known, oh yes and they were Cannibals; they ate our Ancestors. The Earth was filled with much violence and blood shed which ultimately lead to The Great Flood.

The image that is shown in the picture that must have been what Batara Kala actually looked like again going back to the name Batarjal I think their name was equivalent to who Batara Kalas father's name. How so?

It's a possibility it was a lot like today when we're born we get a first name but then a last name of our mother or father is bestowed upon Us due to their family lineage. So in the case of Batara Kala comes from Batarjal.

Look back at all the variety of Pantheons that our Ancient Ancestors maintain lived Long ago; some of our Ancestors stories even has those same deities disappearing one day and no explanation where they went.

Enoch says what happen to them but I have a strong suspicion that answer wouldn't be as satisfying to other people.

One more thing about Enoch in Enoch 2 The Book of Secrets of Enoch He writes that while accompanying two Angels to God's Country He came across two Hells and I'm not kidding I read that there are two Hells in The Universe not on Earth.

The Second Hell ID as 5th Heaven Enoch came across some beings called the Grigori.

Enoch said they were chained up in utter darkness and bound fast, He said that the Grigori were even bigger than the children of the Angel's that were back on Earth.

Remember Enoch 1 said that the children grew too 3000 feet the Grigori were even bigger than They I believe that's past Titan and straight to Colossal now I know where that 7th Wonder of the giant Colossal Statue idea even came from.

Part of Enoch testimony mentions three of those Grigori escaped from their prison and came to Earth as well I guess they and those Angels decided that it was a Free for All type of situation.

If one is to wonder about the name in particular I know Jubilees teaches that up until Tower of Babel The whole World Spoke one language Jubilees says it was Hebrew.

It was Noah and his Family who were witnesses to the World before The Flood.

Noah and later His Sons would teach their children of that previous World that once thrived but by the Time; Tower of Babel happened their names had been changed like that of Batara Kala's is or I'll go back to my original point that Batara Kala is a family name through His Father Batarjal.

That's all I have to say about Batara Kala by the way Kala's image does He appear to have double rows of teeth in addition to the protruding fangs?

That's my only question. So until next time MARTINIF Goodbye!

Bruce Nowakowski's picture

tha face reminds me a lot of the one on the Mayan clock that everyone was talking about a few years back.strange coincidence. 

MartiniF's picture

Martini

Martini Fisher comes from a family of history and culture buffs. She graduated from Macquarie University, Australia, with a degree in Ancient History. Although her interest in history is diverse, Martini is especially interested in  mythologies, folklores and ancient funerary... Read More

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