KALARATHRI:

Ma Kalaratri 7th appearance of Ma-Durga is known as 'Kalaratri It is believed that Prajapathy Daksha, father of the unfortunate Sati Devi (Shiva’s first consort; Parvathi is considered as the rebirth of Sati), performed a yaga, renowned as ‘Daksha Yaga’, at Kottiyoor. Sati had married Siva against the wishes of her father and thereby incurred her father’s wrath. The wicked Daksha performed a great yanja, with the sole intention of insulting Shiva, to which he sent invitation to all the Gods and Goddesses demanding their participation except to his daughter and son-in-law. Sati, who was exasperated by this treatment of her father, set off to meet him to ask the reason for it. Daksha insulted Sati in the name of her husband before the guests who were present for the ceremony. Being an ideal consort, Sati could not bear this. Being enraged with anger, she immediately jumped into the fire and committed suicide.
On hearing about the sad demise of his consort, Lord Siva became ferocious and took the spot by storm. Upon the orders of Lord Shiva, his creations - Veerabhadra and Bhadrakali (kalarathri) unleashed terror and destroyed the entire place. On a vengeance spree, Veerabhadra even beheaded Daksha. On seeing the burnt reminiscent of Sati, Shiva was so infuriated that he lifted the corpse on his shoulder and started the dance of destruction – The Mystic ‘Thandavam’.