Kali

This image of Kali, the ferocious slayer of demons, appeared in various versions till as late as the 1920s. This particular image attained iconic status in part because of its wide distribution and use to advertise cigarettes. Part of the text below the deity is as follows:

If you care to improve the manufacture of national products, if the welfare of the nation’s poor laborers is your concern, if you have a sense of good and bad, then O Hindu brothers, smoke these Kali cigarettes. (Translated by C. Pinney)

Credit: Purchase, Anonymous Gift, 2013