Chapter 13

Lakshmi and Saraswati

Lakshmi and Saraswati in Their Own Right

Shri before Lakshmi

In the Shri Sukta, a later appendix to the Rigveda, worshippers appeal directly to Shri for prosperity, cattle, grain and children. Her marriage to Vishnu, central to later Vaishnava tradition, is not the subject of the hymn.

Early Buddhist monuments such as Sanchi show a woman surrounded by lotuses and elephants. Some scholars identify her as Gajalakshmi; others connect the figure with Maya, the Buddha's mother. Whatever her precise identity, the image shows that this combination of elephants, water, lotuses and an auspicious female figure is older than the standard later iconography of Lakshmi with Vishnu.

Lakshmi at the churning

Lakshmi appeared during the churning of the ocean. She surveyed the gods and other beings gathered there, then chose Vishnu and placed a garland around his neck.

Later tradition turned this into the familiar image of Lakshmi as Vishnu's consort.

A Shakta reading places the emphasis elsewhere: Lakshmi emerges from the ocean as a goddess in her own right, and the choice is hers.

Lakshmi's shadow

In some Puranic accounts another goddess comes out of the churning before Lakshmi — Jyeshtha, linked to Alakshmi. She is the "elder" sister.

She is a goddess of misfortune, associated with idleness, quarrels and neglect. Lakshmi remains in a household only when Alakshmi is kept away.

In this respect, Jyeshtha invites comparison with Dhumavati among the Mahavidyas (Chapter 10). If the Goddess encompasses all experience, she contains want and misfortune as well as abundance. This is an interpretive parallel, not a claim that every tradition identifies the two goddesses.

Saraswati and Vak

Saraswati's oldest identity is not "Brahma's wife."

In the Vedic literature Saraswati is first a goddess tied to a river and to inspiration. In later tradition she became the presiding deity of speech, learning, music and the arts, while her identification with Vak grew steadily stronger.

But it would not be right to call the speaker of Rigveda 10.125 Saraswati directly. The seer and speaker of that hymn is Vak Ambhrini. The clear merging of Saraswati and Vak developed in the later Vedic and Puranic traditions.

Saraswati and Brahma

Another strand of tradition is more unsettling.

Many Puranic accounts tell of a woman created by Brahma, whom different traditions connect with Shatarupa, Savitri or Saraswati. Brahma becomes infatuated with her; she keeps turning away, and Brahma grows extra faces to keep watching her.

This is neither Saraswati's only story nor her oldest. But where it does appear, simply calling her "Brahma's wife" smooths over the tension at the heart of the story.

Mahasaraswati

The Devi Mahatmya uses these names differently.

The three caritas of the Saptashati have three presiding goddesses: Mahakali for the first carita (Madhu-Kaitabha); Mahalakshmi for the middle (Mahisha); Mahasaraswati for the last (Shumbha and Nishumbha).

In this ritual division the presiding goddess of the Mahisha carita is Mahalakshmi and of the Shumbha-Nishumbha carita is Mahasaraswati. Here these names do not mean simply the consort of Vishnu or Brahma; they express the wider forms of the supreme Goddess. This is the Shakta recitation tradition's own religious framework.

Note: The Shri Sukta is a khila, or appendix, of the Rigveda, and among the oldest independent references to Shri/Lakshmi. The identity of Sanchi's "woman and elephants" image is disputed among scholars — some read it as Gajalakshmi, some as Maya. The story of Brahma's extra heads and his infatuation with a woman of his own creation is found in different Puranas with different names and forms — in some the woman is Shatarupa, in some she is linked to Savitri or Saraswati. The story of Shiva cutting off Brahma's fifth head is also told in different Puranic traditions for different reasons. None of these should be taken as one fixed version. The Shakta tradition links the independent identities of Lakshmi and Saraswati by treating both as forms of the Mahadevi.

Source: from several texts, Lakshmi and Saraswati

Now — how much stayed with you?

Fact

What is Lakshmi's oldest identity — "Vishnu's wife", or something else?

  • Vishnu's wife, from the churning of the ocean
  • Only "Kamala" among the Mahavidyas
  • "Shri"
  • Jyeshtha, the goddess of misfortune
Read the whole story — Shri, before Vishnu

Vishnu is not in Lakshmi's oldest layer. In the Shri Sukta she is called on directly — for wealth, grain and children.

Gaja-Lakshmi — the goddess on a lotus between two elephants — is among the oldest goddess sculptures in India, and not as anyone's wife.

So Lakshmi was Shri, an independent power, and the relation to Vishnu was attached afterwards.

Whose son?

Why does the tradition call the story of Saraswati and Brahma uneasy?

  • Because in one story Brahma creates her and is then smitten by her; she moves away and he grows new heads to keep watching
  • Because Saraswati is older than Brahma
  • Because Brahma cursed Saraswati
  • Because Saraswati refused to marry Brahma
Read the whole story — A relation that wavers in the telling

The story itself says that the frame of "Brahma's wife" does not sit on Saraswati — she is created, and then pursued.

One of Brahma's five heads is later cut off by Shiva (Shiv-Mahima has its own version of this) — so the infatuation costs Brahma too.

Devi-Charit keeps this story because the "wife" frame is not always quiet or natural — sometimes it shows its own discomfort.

Who am I?

I came out of the churning of the ocean before Lakshmi — the elder, Jyeshtha. I am the goddess of misfortune: where there is quarrelling, sloth and filth, there I am. Lakshmi stays in a house only while I am outside it. Who am I?

  • Durga
  • Kamala
  • Saraswati
  • Alakshmi, Jyeshtha
Read the whole story — A shadow to the auspicious

Alakshmi or Jyeshtha was a real worship tradition in South India — the goddess of misfortune, appeased and then sent out of the house.

It is the same idea as Dhumavati among the Mahavidyas (chapter 10): if the Mahadevi is everything, she is also absence.

So Lakshmi does not come alone — she has an elder sister, and only one of them can stay in the house.

Who said it?

Which three goddesses preside over the three charitas of the Devi Mahatmya, and what does that claim?

  • All three are Mahakali
  • Mahakali for the first charita, Mahalakshmi for the middle, Mahasaraswati for the last
  • All three are Durga under different names
  • All three are Lakshmi
Read the whole story — Wives who turned out to be supreme forms

It is the Devi Mahatmya's boldest claim: Lakshmi and Saraswati — whom common tradition calls somebody's wife — are here Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati, who killed asuras themselves.

So the whole story of Shumbha and Nishumbha (chapters 5 to 8) is, in the tradition, Mahasaraswati's — the goddess of learning and speech, and also of war.

Devi-Charit records it because it is an answer to the "one or many" question: three names, one power, and not one of them anybody's wife.

What happened?

What became of the three in the folk story of Ganga, Lakshmi and Saraswati?

  • The three of them left Vishnu together
  • The three became one and became Durga
  • From their quarrel and curses, Ganga became a river, Saraswati became a river, and Lakshmi became the tulsi plant, or stayed on with Vishnu
  • All three went to Brahma
Read the whole story — Goddesses who became geography

The folk story takes the "wife" frame to its logical end: if a goddess is only somebody's wife, then she quarrels, is cursed, and finally becomes a river or a plant.

It has a practical job too — explaining why the rivers carry goddesses' names.

Devi-Charit sets it right beside the Shakta claims so the difference is visible: on one side "Shri, whom kings ask", on the other "the wife who became a river".

Riddle

In chapter 1 I was saying "I am the one" — the power of the word. I am also a river. Common tradition calls me Brahma's wife, but my oldest identity is as the goddess of speech, learning and music. Who am I?

  • Lakshmi
  • Saraswati, that is Vak
  • Ganga
  • Ushas
Read the whole story — One goddess, three identities

Saraswati has three layers: the Vedic river, Vak (the speaker of chapter 1), and Mahasaraswati (the goddess of chapters 5 to 8).

"Brahma's wife" is the latest and weakest of the three — and it is the one repeated most today.

Devi-Charit puts the first and third forward: Saraswati is the one who speaks and the one who fights, not only the one seated with a veena.

Put it in order

How did Lakshmi's identity change in the tradition — which is the correct order?

  • Vishnu's wife → the Shri of the Shri Sukta → Gaja-Lakshmi → Kamala the Mahavidya
  • Kamala → Vishnu's wife → Gaja-Lakshmi → Shri
  • Gaja-Lakshmi → Kamala → the Shri Sukta → Vishnu's wife
  • The "Shri" of the Rig Veda's Shri Sukta and the old Gaja-Lakshmi image, an independent goddess → the churning of the ocean and the attaching of the "Vishnu's wife" relation → "Mahalakshmi" in the Devi Mahatmya, presiding over the killing of Mahisha → "Kamala" the Mahavidya in tantra
Read the whole story — Independent, then wife, then independent again

Lakshmi's story is a circle: first she was Shri, then she became Vishnu's wife, and the Shakta and tantric tradition made her an independent power again — Mahalakshmi, Kamala.

The same happened to Saraswati: Vak → Brahma's wife → Mahasaraswati.

Devi-Charit shows the circle because it is the historical form of the "one or many" question: the same goddess looks different in different hands at different times.

The texts disagree

Are Lakshmi and Saraswati supreme powers or somebody's wives — what do the traditions say?

  • All traditions agree they are wives
  • Vaishnava and brahminical tradition attaches them to Vishnu and Brahma as wives and helpers; Shakta and Vedic tradition calls them independent powers
  • All traditions agree they are supreme and independent
  • The question is never raised in any text
Read the whole story — Wife, or power — whose pen is it

This is the clearest form of the spine of Devi-Charit: the same goddess, "Vishnu's wife" in one text and "Mahalakshmi who killed Mahisha" in another.

In chapter 7 Shivaduti made Shiva her own messenger — that reversal is this chapter's whole point, at a larger scale.

Devi-Charit calls neither side right. It records that the answer depends on which tradition is speaking.

Who am I?

In the Devi Mahatmya I am "Mahalakshmi", presiding over the middle charita. Common tradition calls me Vishnu's wife and the goddess of wealth. But in the Saptashati I killed a buffalo-asura myself. Who am I?

  • Saraswati
  • Kali
  • Lakshmi
  • Parvati
Read the whole story — The goddess of wealth, who killed a buffalo

It is the most startling join in Devi-Charit: the fierce goddess of Mahishasura-mardini is called "Mahalakshmi" by the tradition.

So in the Shakta tradition "Lakshmi" is not only the goddess seated on a lotus with a pot of gold — she is the supreme power of the middle charita, and one of her forms is war.

It joins chapter 4, Mahishasura-mardini, to chapter 10, Kamala the Mahavidya — one goddess, three very different faces.

Later tradition

At Diwali and at Vasant Panchami, are these two goddesses worshipped as wives, or directly?

  • At both festivals the Goddess is worshipped directly
  • At Diwali it is Vishnu who is worshipped, with Lakshmi alongside
  • At Vasant Panchami it is Brahma
  • Neither festival involves worship of these goddesses
Read the whole story — Festivals that worship the Goddess directly

Whatever the texts call her, on the night of Diwali the worship in tens of millions of houses is Lakshmi's — the lamps, the rangoli, the strongbox.

In the same way, on Vasant Panchami children set books, pens and instruments before Saraswati — with no mention of Brahma.

So in living practice these goddesses are independent — the "wife" frame is present in the texts far more than in the worship.