In Hinduism, Kalamukhi Vartali, also sometimes referred to as Kalamukti, is a female Goddess closely related to Goddess Lalita or Goddess Tripurasundari. She is considered to be the dandanayika, the agent of rendering punishment and reward to the wrongdoers and devotees. Kalamukhi Vartali stands by Lalita, the consort of Shiva, for receiving and obeying her command, punishes rogues and bestows rewards on those who perform righteous acts.
In Agni Purana Chapter 50, she is described as bearing a staff, a sword, a conch shell and a club in four of her hands and seated on a buffalo. In one of the seals found at Nalanda (Bihar), she bears four items three of them can be easily identified as the club, sword, lotus, the fourth one is difficult to identify. Also depicted on the seal is a buffalo. Sometimes, she is conceived as eight-armed. She bears a disc on the right upper hand and next below it a sword and a club, and her posture is that of fearlessness. In one of her left arms, she bears a conch and in another, a plough.
It appears that Goddess Kalamukhi Vartali is worshipped for the purpose of attaining supremacy over and subduing inimical forces either present within as evil forces, or outside in the form of beings. From the mantra that is uttered as a prayer and used as a nyasa (or placement in the limbs), it is evident that the worshiper of the deity desires that she should arrest speech, mind, eyes, mouth, movement and tongue of all the wrong-doers. The worshiper should place a seat (a peetha) for Kalamukti properly made on a gold, silver, or copper plate or on sandal paste spread over the flat surface of a plate. Then prepare a proper seat for the goddess, which should be good looking and well-proportioned. The devotee worships the peetha.