Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Deities

Parvati

PAR-vah-tee
Hindu Deities

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Parvati is the daughter of the mountain, the consort of Shiva and the mother of Ganesha and Kartikeya. She is understood as the reborn Sati, and the Puranas tell at length of the asceticism by which she wins a god who has withdrawn into meditation and burnt the god of desire to ash for disturbing him. Their marriage is Hinduism's central image of the reconciliation of the ascetic and the householder, and the arguments and reconciliations of the pair fill a very large body of story and sculpture. In Shakta theology she is a benign form of the one Goddess, of whom Durga and Kali are the fierce forms; whether those are aspects or distinct goddesses is answered differently by different schools.

Facts
Belief
Theology
Debated 1
Origins
Origin of the Name
Parvati's name means daughter of the mountain, naming her as the daughter of the personified Himalaya whose asceticism wins her Shiva as a husband. 2
Cult
Principal Cult Centre
At Madurai her chief shrine, the Meenakshi Amman temple, venerates her as Meenakshi, the fish-eyed goddess, one of the most important Shakti temples in South India and a rare case of a Parvati form giving a major city its central pilgrimage identity. 1
Attributes and Iconography
Parvati is typically shown as a serene, benevolent figure paired with Shiva, often depicted together with their sons Ganesha and Kartikeya as a family group, an iconographic convention that distinguishes her domestic aspect from the fierce independent forms, Durga and Kali, that other traditions consider transformations of the same goddess. 2
Worship and Practice
Parvati is honored across India each autumn in the festival of Navaratri and Durga Puja under her fierce aspect, while the spring festival Gauri Puja, especially prominent in Maharashtra and Karnataka, venerates her gentler form as an ideal of marital devotion. 1
Attributions
Mythic Association
Before her marriage she is said to have created Ganesha from the turmeric paste or clay of her own body to guard her door while she bathed, setting him against Shiva himself when he tried to enter, which in some versions leads to Ganesha's beheading and the elephant head he receives in its place. 2
Mythic Association
Parvati is described in Hindu tradition as the reincarnation of Sati, the first wife of Shiva, who won him a second time through prolonged ascetic practice. 2
Attestation
Era of Attestation
200 BCE to 2026 CE 1
Veneration Today
Actively venerated in a living tradition 1
Historicity
Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 2
Practice
Lineage
Puranic accounts describe Parvati as the daughter of Himavat, the personified Himalayas, and his wife Mena, born specifically to win Shiva's love after the death of his first wife Sati. 3
Function
Domain / Function
Mountains 1
Domain / Function
Motherhood 1
Domain / Function
Marriage and the household 1
Identity
Gender
Female 1
Position Profile
Key Text
One widely told account of Ganesha's origin holds that Parvati created him from turmeric paste or clay she rubbed from her own body while bathing, setting him to guard her door, a role in which he barred Shiva's own entry and was consequently beheaded by him before Shiva restored him to life with an elephant's head. 2
Sources
Textual Note
Kalidasa's Sanskrit poem Kumarasambhava, the birth of the war god, gives the classical literary telling of Parvati's courtship of Shiva, including the episode in which the god of desire, Kama, is burned to ash for interrupting Shiva's meditation on her behalf, before Parvati wins him through her own asceticism instead. 1
Learn More
The Daughter of the Mountain

Parvati is the consort of Shiva, the mother of Ganesha and Kartikeya, and one of the principal forms of the Great Goddess in Hinduism. Her name means daughter of the mountain, for she is the child of Himavat, the personified Himalaya, and Mena; she is also understood as the rebirth of Sati, Shiva's first wife, who gave up her body in grief and anger at her father Daksha's insult to her husband. As Parvati she is born again to be Shiva's wife once more, and much of her story concerns how she wins a god who has withdrawn utterly from the world. She is the gentle, domestic and benevolent face of the goddess, often called Gauri, the fair one, and shown at Shiva's side in the life of the divine family.

The definitive literary telling of Parvati's courtship of Shiva is the Kumarasambhava, The Birth of the War-God, a Sanskrit epic by the poet Kalidasa, usually dated to around the fifth century CE and counted among the masterpieces of classical Sanskrit literature; it narrates at length her long ascetic practice in the Himalayan wilderness, undertaken specifically to draw the meditating Shiva's attention after the god of love Kama is burned to ash by Shiva's opened third eye for attempting to disturb his austerities, and it remains, for many later poets and artists across South Asia, the primary literary reference point for the whole episode rather than any single Puranic version alone.

The Asceticism That Won a God, and the Many Forms

The Puranas tell at length of the austerities by which Parvati wins Shiva. After Sati's death Shiva sinks into deep meditation on the mountain, indifferent to the world; at first Parvati tries to draw him through her beauty and service, and the god of love, Kama, is sent to kindle desire in him, for which Shiva burns Kama to ashes with a glance from his third eye. Undiscouraged, Parvati withdraws to perform tapas, extreme ascetic discipline, matching the god's own withdrawal with her own, until her devotion and spiritual power move him at last to accept her, and their marriage restores the balance of the world.

Parvati is also understood, in the wider theology of the Goddess, as one form of the single Mahadevi, whose other aspects include the warrior Durga and the terrible Kali; she is the benign form of a power that can also blaze forth in fury when the world requires it. As the ideal wife and mother of the divine household, and as the loving half of the cosmic pair whose union underlies creation, Parvati is among the most beloved goddesses of the tradition.

Correspondences & Relations

Archetypes

Pantheons

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

This source names Parvati directly: "and feminine form of Shiva and Parvati, four-armed and standing beside Nandi; the Nataraja panel, though badly damaged, shows Shiva as the cosmic dancer; and the Gangadhara panel shows Shiva..."

This source names Parvati directly: "(a Tritiya), presided over by Gauri (Parvati)."

Source History of Dharmasastra, Volume VP. V. Kane

This source names Parvati directly: "dialogue between Shiva and the Goddess Parvati on the philosophy, ethics and ritual framework of Kaula practice."

This source names Parvati directly: "of Indra and Chamunda of Chandi or Parvati, each riding her parent god's own vahana and carrying his attributes."

Meenakshi is identified with Parvati, and at Madurai she is the senior of the pair rather than the consort.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)

This source names Parvati directly: "Wikipedia's article on Parvati, describing her artistic conventions across Hindu sculpture, naming bronze as the chief metal used for her image and stone the next most common, and describing her..."

Source Parvati (Wikipedia)
Shakti, Deities

Why this is disputed. Parvati is understood in Shakta theology as a benign form of the one Goddess, of whom Durga and Kali are the fierce forms; whether these are aspects of Shakti or distinct goddesses is answered differently by different schools.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)

This source names Parvati directly: "an axe and an antelope; his consort Parvati (Uma), mirroring his pose and wearing a marriage cord; and their infant son Skanda, also called Kartikeya, seated on a projecting section of the base..."

This source names Parvati directly: "and an antelope, beside his consort Parvati (Uma), who wears a marriage cord and mirrors his pose, with their infant son Skanda, also called Kartikeya, seated on a projecting section of the base..."

This source names Parvati directly: "depicting Shiva with his consort Uma (Parvati) and their son Skanda (Murugan or Kartikeya) shown as a child between them, confirming the three-figure identification independently of any single..."

This source names Parvati directly: "record for its Standing Uma (Parvati), accession 146:1966, an eleventh century Chola dynasty bronze funded by the Merrill Trust Foundation, showing the goddess in the triple bend pose, adorned with..."

Thaipusam commemorates the spear Parvati gave to her son to destroy the demon Surapadman.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)

Every major Puranic telling of Ganesha's origin, whatever it says about the exact manner of his creation or how he acquired an elephant head, makes Parvati his mother and the one who brings him into being, whether by shaping him from turmeric paste, clay, or the substance of her own body. Hindu tradition treats the different versions of the story as complementary regional and sectarian tellings rather than as competing claims, and Parvati's role as his mother is common to all of them; what varies between the accounts is the manner of his creation, not the parentage.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Tritiya, Tithis

This source names Parvati directly: "deity is traditionally Gauri (Parvati); the day is sacred in festivals such as Akshaya Tritiya, held especially auspicious for new beginnings, purchases, and enduring gain."

Children

Ganesha, Deities

Ganesha's own description: "He is the son of Shiva and Parvati." Source already cited on the entity.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Kartikeya, Deities

Kartikeya's own description: "second son of Shiva and Parvati." Source already cited on the entity.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)

Depicted In

Held to Be the Same Figure

Annapurna, Deities

Annapurna, goddess of food and the full store, is a form of Parvati holding a ladle and a bowl of cooked rice.

Ardhanarishvara is Shiva and Parvati in a single body, the left side female with an earring, a breast, a curved hip and colour on the foot.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)

Married To

Shiva, Deities

Parvati's own description: "the consort of Shiva." Source already cited on the entity.

Related To

Sibling Of

Ganga, Deities

Ganga is a daughter of Himavat, the Himalaya, and thus a sister of Parvati.

Worshipped In

Hinduism, Religions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Hinduism
Denise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.), Routledge, 2008s.v. ParvatiView the Source
2. Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition
David R. Kinsley, University of California Press, 1988View the Source
3. Vishnu Purana
Anonymous, Trubner & Co., 1864The Vishnu Purana, a System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition, tr. H.H. Wilson, on Vedic ritual
Quote, The Vishnu Purana, a System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition, tr. H.H. Wilson, on Vedic ritual
The prevailing character of the ritual of the Vedas is the worship of the personified elements; of Agni or fire; Indra, the firmament; Vayu, the air; Varuna, the water; of Aditya, the sun; Soma, the moon.
View the Source
Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. Parvati; the daughter of the mountain and consort of ShivaView the Source
Bhagavata Purana
AnonymousBook description
Quote, Book description
The English translation of the Bhagavata Purana, one of the eighteen major puranas containing roughly 18,000 verses written in Sanskrit shloka format. This book covers a wide range of topics, including ancient Indian geography, history, religion, philosophy, mythology, etc.
View the Source

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