The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c11.77.3

v1.c11.77.3

and “the mother of God” of the Mariolaters, is no other than she. The eight divine mothers (*Aṣṭamātṛkās*) of the Tantras are invariably represented, each with a child on her lap, and are the exact counterparts of the “Virgin and Child” of European art. Umā, the wife of Śiva, appears under various forms, as a virgin or a mother, as fair or dark, as lovely or fierce, according to the exigencies of the myths in which she acts the part of heroine. One of her manifestations was Kālī, a nude female of a black complexion, and for her counterparts we have Diana of the Ephesians, Isis, Hecate, Juno, Metes, Ceres, Cybele and Venus Melainis, all of whom were represented black. Nor did the mystical idea which led to the blackness of these divinities cease with them. “In the Cathedral at Moulins; at the chapel at Loretto; at the churches of the Annunciation, St. Lazars and St. Stephens, at Genoa; of St. Francisco at Pisa; at Brisen in the Tyrol, and in one in Padua; in St. Theodore, at Munich; in the Cathedral and the church at Augsburg; in the Borghese chapel of Maria Maggiore; in the Pantheon, and in a small chapel of St.