From Devouring Ogress to Protector of Children

Hariti is a Buddhist goddess of children, motherhood and safe childbirth whose story is one of conversion. In the widely told legend she began as a child-devouring yakshi (ogress) who, though the mother of hundreds of her own children, preyed on the children of others, until the Buddha hid her youngest child beneath his begging-bowl; frantic with grief at the loss of one among so many, she was brought to feel the suffering she had inflicted on other parents, and, converted, vowed thereafter to protect children rather than harm them. She is worshipped for the safety of children and of women in childbirth, and is usually shown as a serene mother surrounded by or nursing infants. Her cult, well attested in the art of Gandhara, spread with Buddhism across Central Asia to China and to Japan, where she is honoured as Kishimojin; she is often paired with the yaksha Pancika as her consort. Her transformation from devourer to guardian became a favourite illustration of the Buddhist power to turn even a harmful being toward compassion.