Parvati

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This article is about the goddess. For other uses, see Parvati (disambiguation) or
Urvi (film).
Parvati
Mother Goddess,[1] Goddess with Creative Power[2]
WLA lacma Hindu Goddess Parvati Orissa.jpg
A 12th-century sculpture of Parvati
Devanagari ???????
Sanskrit transliteration Parvati
Affiliation Tridevi, Adi Parashakti, Shakti, Devi, Kali, Durga, Tripura Sundari,
Sati (Goddess)
Abode Mount Kailash
Mount Tiger (Manasthala), Lion (Dawon) and Nandi
Personal Information
Consort Shiva
Children Ganesha
Kartikeya
Parents Himavan (Daksha)
Mena (Mainavati)[3][4]
Parvati (Sanskrit ???????, IAST Parvati) or Uma (IAST Uma) is the Hindu goddess of
fertility, love and devotion; as well as of divine strength and power.[5][6][7]
Known by many other names, she is the gentle and nurturing aspect of the Hindu
goddess Shakti and one of the central deities of the Goddess-oriented Shakta sect.
She is the mother goddess in Hinduism,[1][8] and has many attributes and aspects.
Each of her aspects is expressed with a different name, giving her over 100 names
in regional Hindu stories of India.[9] Along with Lakshmi (goddess of wealth and
prosperity) and Saraswati (goddess of knowledge and learning), she forms the
trinity of Hindu goddesses (Tridevi).[10]

Parvati is the wife of the Hindu god Shiva - the protector, the destroyer (of evil)
and regenerator of universe and all life.[11] She is the daughter of the mountain
king Himavan and queen Mena.[12] Parvati is the mother of Hindu deities Ganesha and
Kartikeya. The Puranas also referenced her to be the sister of the god Lord Vishnu
and the river-goddess Ganga.[13][14]

With Shiva, Parvati is a central deity in the Shaiva sect. In Hindu belief, she is
the recreative energy and power of Shiva, and she is the cause of a bond that
connects all beings and a means of their spiritual release.[15][16] In Hindu
temples dedicated to her and Shiva, she is symbolically represented as the argha or
yoni. She is found extensively in ancient Indian literature, and her statues and
iconography grace Hindu temples all over South Asia and Southeast Asia.[17][18]

Contents [hide]
1 Etymology and nomenclature
2 History
3 Iconography and symbolism
4 Manifestations and aspects of Parvati
5 Legends
6 Parvati in culture
6.1 Festivals
6.2 Arts
6.3 Numismatics
6.4 Major temples
6.4.1 List of temples
7 Outside India
8 Related goddesses
9 Notes
10 References
11 External links
Etymology and nomenclature[edit]

Parvati as a two-armed consort goddess of Shiva (left), and as four-armed Lalita

with her sons Ganesha and Skanda, Odisha, India. 11th century sculpture from the
British Museum. 1872,0701.54 .
Parvata (???????) is one of the Sanskrit words for mountain; Parvati derives her
name from being the daughter of king Himavan (also called Himavat, Parvat) and
mother Mena.[11][12] King Parvat is considered lord of the mountains and the
personification of the Himalayas; Parvati implies she of the mountain.[19]

Parvati is known by many names in Hindu literature.[20] Other names which associate
her with mountains are Shailaja (Daughter of the mountains), Adrija or Nagajaa or
Shailaputri (Daughter of Mountains), Haimavathi (Daughter of Himavan), Devi
Maheshwari,[1][2] and Girija or Girirajaputri (Daughter of king of the mountains).
[21]

The Lalita sahasranama contains a listing of 1,000 names of Parvati (as Lalita).[9]
Two of Parvati's most famous epithets are Uma and Aparna.[22] The name Uma is used
for Sati (Shiva's first wife, who is reborn as Parvati) in earlier texts,[which]
but in the Ramayana, it is used as a synonym for Parvati. In the Harivamsa, Parvati
is referred to as Aparna ('One who took no sustenance') and then addressed as Uma,
who was dissuaded by her mother from severe austerity by saying u ma ('oh, don't').
[23] She is also Ambika ('dear mother'), Shakti (power), Mataji ('revered mother'),
Maheshwari ('great goddess'), Durga (invincible), Bhairavi ('ferocious'), Bhavani
('fertility and birthing'), Shivaradni ('Queen of Shiva'), Urvi or Renu, and many
hundreds of others. Parvati is also the goddess of love and devotion, or Kamakshi;
the goddess of fertility, abundance and foodnourishment, or Annapurna.[24]

The apparent contradiction that Parvati is addressed as the fair one, Gauri, as
well as the dark one, Kali or Shyama, as a calm and placid wife Parvati mentioned
as Gauri and as a goddess who destroys evil she is Kali. Regional stories of Gauri
suggest an alternate origin for Gauri's name and complexion. In parts of India,
Gauri's skin color is golden or yellow in honor of her being the goddess of ripened
cornharvest and of fertility.[25][26]

History[edit]
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The word Parvati does not explicitly appear in Vedic literature.[27] Instead,
Ambika, Rudrani and others are found in the Rigveda.[27] The verse 3.12 of the Kena
Upanishad dated to mid 1st millennium BCE contains a goddess called Uma-Haimavati,
a very common alternate name for Parvati.[27] Sayana's commentary in Anuvaka,
however, identifies Parvati in the Kena Upanishad, suggesting her to be the same as
Uma and Ambika in the Upanishad, referring to Parvati is thus an embodiment of
divine knowledge and the mother of the world.[20] She appears as the shakti, or
essential power, of the Supreme Brahman. Her primary role is as a mediator who
reveals the knowledge of Brahman to the Vedic trinity of Agni, Vayu, and Indra, who
were boasting about their recent defeat of a group of demons.[28] But Kinsley notes
it is little more than conjecture to identify her with the later goddess Sati-
Parvati, although [..] later texts that extol Siva and Parvati retell the episode
in such a way to leave no doubt that it was Siva's spouse.. [IAST original][27]

Sati-Parvati appears in the epic period (400 BC400 AD), as both the Ramayana and
the Mahabharata present Parvati as Shiva's wife.[27] However, it is not until the
plays of Kalidasa (5th-6th centuries) and the Puranas (4th through the 13th
centuries) that the stories of Sati-Parvati and Shiva acquire more comprehensive
details.[29] Kinsley adds that Parvati may have emerged from legends of non-aryan
goddesses that lived in mountains.[21] While the word Uma appears in earlier
Upanisads, Hopkins notes that the earliest known explicit use of the name Parvati
occurs in late Hamsa Upanishad.[30]

Weber suggests that just like Shiva is a combination of various Vedic gods Rudra
and Agni, Parvati in Puranas text is a combination of wives of Rudra and Agni. In
other words, the symbolism, legends and characteristics of Parvati evolved over
time fusing Uma, Haimavati, Ambika in one aspect and the more ferocious,
destructive Kali, Gauri, Nirriti in another aspect.[20][31] Tate suggests Parvati
is a mixture of the Vedic goddesses Aditi and Nirriti, and being a mountain goddess
herself, was associated with other mountain goddesses like Durga and Kali in later
traditions.[32]

Iconography and symbolism[edit]

Uma Maheshvara (Parvati with Shiva), 12th-13th century from Odisha, India,
currently in the British Museum.

Shivlinga icons are common for Parvati and Shiva. She is symbolically the yoni in
the core of a 9th-century Hindu temple of Java, Indonesia temple (left), and in
Pashupatinath Temple of Nepal (right).
Parvati, the gentle aspect of Devi Shakti, is usually represented as fair,
beautiful, and benevolent.[33][34] She typically wears a red dress (often a sari),
and may have a head-band. When depicted alongside Shiva, she generally appears with
two arms, but when alone, she may be depicted having four. These hands may hold a
conch, crown, mirror, rosary, bell, dish, farming tool such as goad, sugarcane
stalk, or flowers such as lotus.[7] One of her arms in front may be in the Abhaya
mudra (hand gesture for 'fear not'), one of her children, typically Ganesha, is on
her knee, while her younger son Skanda may be playing near her in her watch. In
ancient temples, Parvati's sculpture is often depicted near a ca