Parvati

• 1. Introduction

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  Parvati, written पार्वती in Sanskrit, is worshipped as a tender mother and also as a fierce warrior who wears a garland of severed heads. Devotees honor her as the goddess of power, energy, nourishment, harmony, love, beauty, devotion, and motherhood. Together with Lakshmi and Sarasvati, she forms the trinity known as the Tridevi.

  Yet the oldest Vedic literature does not use her name. So how does a goddess missing from the earliest scriptures become one of the most beloved figures in Hinduism? Why do some traditions describe her as Shiva's devoted and obedient wife, while others place her above him? And how did a daughter of the Himalayas end up carved into temples as far away as Cambodia and Bali?

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• 2. Names And Faces

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  The Sanskrit word parvata means mountain, and the goddess takes her name from it. She is the daughter of King Himavan, who is lord of the mountains and the personification of the Himalayas. Parvati therefore means "she of the mountain." Her mother is called Mena or Menavati. Other names repeat the theme, including Shailaja, Shailaputri, Haimavati, Girija, and Girirajaputri. The Aparneshara Temple of Yama at Udhampur, in Jammu and Kashmir, is considered her birthplace and the site of her wedding to Shiva.

  The name Uma carries its own story. In the Harivamsa she is called Aparna, "one who took no sustenance." She then becomes Uma because her mother tried to talk her out of harsh austerity with the words u ma, meaning "oh, don't." Earlier texts use Uma for Sati, Shiva's first wife, while the Ramayana treats it as another word for Parvati. Hundreds of further names exist. Ambika means "dear mother," Bhavani points to fertility and birth, and Mataji means "revered mother."

  Two colors seem to pull her in opposite directions. As a calm and placid wife she is Gauri, the golden one. As a destroyer of evil she is Kali, the dark one, also called Shyama. In parts of India, Gauri's golden or yellow skin honors her as goddess of ripened corn and the harvest.

  The Linga Purana shows how one form can turn into another. At Shiva's request, Parvati becomes Kali to destroy a demon named Daruk. Even after his death, Kali's rage will not subside. Shiva appears as a crying baby, and the cries wake her maternal instinct, so she returns to her gentle form. In the Skanda Purana she takes the form of a warrior and defeats a buffalo-shaped demon called Durg, and that victory gives her the name Durga.

  The Devi Bhagavata Purana and the Shaktism and Shaivism traditions call her the lineal progenitor of all other goddesses, with her form depending on her mood. Akhilandeshwari, found in coastal regions, is the goddess of water. Annapurna gives food and nourishment. Meenakshi is the queen of Madurai. Many of these forms began in regional legends, so the differences between them and Parvati still matter. The oldest layers of scripture, though, tell a stranger tale about where she came from.

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• 3. Absent From The Vedas

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  The Rigveda offers Ambika and Rudrani where one might expect Parvati. Verse 3.12 of the Kena Upanishad, dated to the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, mentions a goddess named Uma-Haimavati. The commentator Sayana reads her as Parvati, a divine mediator who reveals the knowledge of Brahman to the gods Agni, Vayu, and Varuna. They had been boasting about defeating a group of demons. The scholar Kinsley warns that tying this figure to the later goddess Sati-Parvati is little more than conjecture.

  The epic period, from 400 BCE to 400 CE, is when the Ramayana and the Mahabharata first present Parvati as Shiva's wife. Rich detail arrives later, in the plays of Kalidasa in the 5th and 6th centuries and in the Puranas, composed between the 4th and the 13th centuries. According to Hopkins, the first explicit use of the name Parvati appears in the late Hamsa Upanishad.

  Scholars offer competing theories about her roots. Kinsley suggests she may have grown out of legends of non-Aryan goddesses who lived in the mountains. Weber notes that Shiva blends the Vedic gods Rudra and Agni, and argues that Parvati likewise blends the wives of Rudra. In his view, Uma, Haimavati, and Ambika form her gentle side, while Kali, Gauri, and Nirriti form her destructive side. Tate proposes a mixture of the Vedic goddesses Aditi and Nirriti.

  Whatever her origins, the Puranas gave her the story that defines her, and it begins with a death.

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• 4. A Death And A Courtship

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  Sati, the first wife of Shiva, married him against the wishes of her father, Daksha. The Puranas describe a quarrel that grew until Daksha refused to invite Shiva to his fire sacrifice. Sati arrived on her own, and Daksha insulted her husband in front of everyone. She gave up her life by immolating herself at the ceremony. Shocked and grief-stricken, Shiva lost interest in the world and withdrew to the mountains to meditate.

  Sati was then reborn as the daughter of Himavat and Mainavati. Her father's other name, Parvat, gave the child the name Parvati. As a young woman she decided to marry Shiva. Her parents discouraged her, but she held to her wish.

  In the best-known version, the god Indra sends Kama, the god of desire, to wake Shiva from his meditation. Kama shoots an arrow of desire. Shiva opens the third eye in his forehead and burns Kama to ashes. Parvati does not give up. She goes to live in the mountains as Shiva does, practicing asceticism, yoga, and tapas, until her devotion gets his attention.

  Shiva visits her in disguise and lists his own faults, hoping to put her off. She refuses to listen. He finally accepts her, and the two marry. A hymn attributed to Shiva, in Stella Kramrisch's translation, sums up the bond: "I am the sea and you the wave, you are Prakriti, and I Purusha." After the wedding, Parvati moves to Mount Kailash, his home.

  Kalidasa's epic Kumarasambhavam, meaning "Birth of Kumara," tells this tale in full. In his version, the burning of Kama leaves the universe barren and lifeless, and life returns only after the marriage. Parvati later asks Shiva to bring Kama back to life.

  The Harivamsa gives Parvati two younger sisters, Ekaparna and Ekapatala. The Devi Bhagavata Purana and the Shiva Purana say that Himalaya and Mena appeased Adi Parashakti, who was then born as their daughter. Each region tells the courtship a little differently, which hints at how much local imagination went into it. Once the marriage is made, the harder question begins: who rules the household?

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• 5. Ascetic And Householder

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  Hindu ethics recognize two honored ways of living, called Ashramas. One is renunciation and asceticism, and the other is the life of the householder. Shiva is the ideal ascetic, withdrawn in the mountains with no interest in society. Parvati is the ideal householder, eager to nurture the world around her. Their marriage holds the two ideals together, and many legends turn on their mutual devotion, their debates on philosophy, and their disagreements.

  Shiva's Tandava dance is violent and destructive. Parvati is described as calming him with the slow, creative steps of her own Lasya dance. In other legends she acts less like a complement than a rival, and she tricks, seduces, or lures him away from his ascetic discipline.

  In the Mahabharata, Parvati speaks as Uma about the duties of a wife and mother. Her husband is her friend and refuge. She is cheerful even when her family is angry, and she stands with them in sickness. She also takes an interest in worldly affairs beyond the home, welcomes guests, and feeds them. In Book 13 she declares her family life and home to be heaven.

  The scholar Rita Gross finds this picture of the ideal wife and mother incomplete. Parvati, like other goddesses, is tied to a wide range of valued goals. Durga balances her as a figure strong and capable without giving up her femaleness. Gross argues that Parvati's many aspects show a Hindu belief that the feminine has a universal range, and gender is no limit.

  Shaiva traditions tend to see Parvati as Shiva's submissive and obedient wife. Shakta texts instead stress her equality or superiority, and some name her the Supreme Being. The birth of the ten Mahavidyas, the Wisdom Goddesses of Shakta Tantrism, illustrates the point. Shiva and Parvati are living in her father's house when they argue, and he tries to walk out. Her rage takes the form of ten terrifying goddesses who block every exit.

  David Kinsley reads the episode as a statement of her superiority. Physically restraining Shiva shows her power. The couple living in her father's house reverses the usual Indian custom, where a wife joins her husband's family, and thus suggests her priority too. The same tradition that honors the faithful wife also remembers the goddess who would not let her husband leave.

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• 6. Gesture And Image

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  In the gentle form, Parvati is usually shown wearing a red sari, sometimes with a head-band. Beside Shiva she has two arms, but alone she may have four. Her hands can hold a trident, mirror, rosary, bell, dish, goad, sugarcane stalk, or a lotus. One front hand may form the Abhaya mudra, meaning "fear not." A child, typically Ganesha, sits on her knee while her younger son Skanda plays nearby. In ancient temples a calf or cow often stands close to her. Bronze is the chief metal for her sculptures, with stone the next most common.

  Her hand gestures carry meaning. Kataka, held closer to the devotee, suggests fascination and enchantment. Hirana evokes the antelope and the elusive quality of nature. Tarjani, made with the left hand and held far from the devotee, signals menace. Chandrakal evokes the moon, a symbol of intelligence. With the Varada mudra, she grants wishes. In Indian dance, Parvatimudra is one of sixteen Deva Hastas described in the Abhinaya Darpana, and a dancer who performs it expresses the divine mother.

  In her fierce forms, such as Kali, she may have eight or ten arms. She rides a tiger or lion and wears a skirt of disembodied hands. As Kamakshi or Meenakshi, a parrot sits near her right shoulder and stands for cheerful love talk, seeds, and fertility. A crescent moon near her head marks her as half of Shiva. South Indian legend explains the parrot. She won a bet with her husband and demanded his loincloth as her prize. Shiva kept his word but first turned her into a parrot. She flew to the mountain ranges of the south and appeared as Meenakshi.

  Three images lie at the heart of her philosophy. The first joins Shiva and Shakti. The second is Ardhanarisvara, the Lord who is half woman, an androgynous figure that shows each partner as half of the other. The third is the linga and yoni. In ancient literature yoni means womb and place of gestation, and the linga-yoni icon, widespread in Shaivite temples, stands for the union of feminine and masculine energies in the renewal of life.

  In art, the pair appears as Uma-Maheshvara or Hara-Gauri, either seated on Shiva's knee or standing beside him. As Annapurna, the goddess of grain, she is sometimes shown giving alms to Shiva himself. Shiva was not the only one to benefit from her care. Her sons have their own stories.

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• 7. Mother And Festival

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  The Matsya Purana, Shiva Purana, and Skanda Purana all tell how Ganesha came to be. Parvati wanted to bathe, but no attendants were near to guard her door. She shaped a boy from the turmeric paste she used to cleanse her body and breathed life into it. She told him to let no one enter, and he obeyed. When Shiva returned, the boy stopped him. Furious, Shiva cut off the boy's head with his trident. Parvati found the lifeless body and demanded that Shiva restore her son. He attached an elephant's head, and the elephant-headed deity was born.

  Her other son, Kartikeya, also known as Skanda and Murugan, leads the celestial armies. Ganesha, the god of wisdom, removes obstacles. In the Puranas, the birth of Kartikeya comes from the couple's lovemaking.

  Gowri Habba, the Gauri Festival, falls on the seventh, eighth, and ninth of Bhadrapada. It is observed chiefly by women, and Parvati is honored as goddess of the harvest and protector of women. It is closely tied to the festival of her son Ganesha, Ganesh Chaturthi, and is popular in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

  Teej celebrates married life and the monsoon, and Parvati is its primary deity. Girls swing from trees, often in green dresses, and sing regional songs. Unmarried women once prayed to her for a good mate, and married women prayed for their husbands. In Nepal, Teej lasts three days, and in Punjab it is called Teeyan.

  In Rajasthan, the Gangaur festival begins on the day after Holi and lasts 18 days. Images of Issar and Gauri are made from clay. Navratri worships all her manifestations over nine days, including Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, and Mahagauri, especially in Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Assam, and Gujarat.

  At Gauri Tritiya, the unwidowed women of a household build a pyramid of platforms with the goddess at the top, and the neighbors receive gifts of turmeric, fruits, and flowers. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Thiruvathira marks the day Parvati met Shiva after her long penance, and women perform the Thiruvathirakali.

  Her story has shaped the arts too. The Kathakali dance-drama Daksha Yagam adapts the romantic episodes of the pair. The Gauri-Shankar bead is a natural rudraksha in which two seeds have fused, and worshippers wear it as a symbol of Parvati and Shiva as equal halves. Her image, though, has also travelled well beyond India.

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• 8. Across Asia And Beyond

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  Coins from the Kushan Empire in Bactria and from King Harsha in North India feature Uma, and they date to between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD. In Bactria her name is spelled Ommo, and she holds a flower. Shiva appears with her, sometimes beside his bull Nandi. On Harsha's coins the two sit on a bull, and the reverse carries Brahmi script.

  Khmer inscriptions in Cambodia, dated as early as the fifth century AD, mention Uma and Siva. Many Cambodian temples, rock reliefs, and river-bed carvings at Kbal Spean honor the pair. Boisselier has identified Uma in a Champa-era temple in Vietnam. Dozens of temples to Uma and Siva stand on the islands of Indonesia and Malaysia, and many in Java date from the second half of the 1st millennium AD. Durga worship there has been dated from the 10th to the 13th century.

  In Japan, her form as Mahakali became Daikokutennyo. In Nakhorn Si Thammarat province in Thailand, excavations at Dev Sathan turned up a sculpture of Parvati in the South Indian style.

  In Bali, Parvati is spelled Parwati and is more often called Uma or Giriputri. She is goddess of the mountain Gunung Agung and the mother who gives fertility to crops. As Dewi Danu she presides over Lake Batur and the volcano Gunung Batur. As Dewi Durga she is ferocious, and as Rangda she is wrathful and rules over cemeteries. As Ibu Pertiwi she is the goddess of the earth. The palm-leaf lontar manuscript Andabhuana records how she changes from one form to another.

  Tara, a goddess of Tibetan and Nepalese Buddhism, is related to Parvati, and both are honored in yantra and mandala art. Comparisons with the Mediterranean world are common. Parvati resembles Cybele and Vesta, and as Durga she parallels Mater Montana. As Bhawani she is the counterpart of Ephesian Diana. In Crete the mountain goddess Rhea parallels her, and Diktynna, also called Britomartis, mirrors her terrifying side. Carl Jung placed aspects of Parvati in the same category as Artemis, Isis, and Mary in Mysterium Coniunctionis. Edmund Leach likened her partnership with Shiva to Aphrodite, a symbol of sexual love.

  The temple list shows how far her worship spreads inside India alone. Tamil Nadu has the Meenakshi Amman Temple, and Bhubaneswar has the Lingaraj temple complex, where she appears as Annapurna.

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