Dakshayani

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In Hinduism, Gauri or Dakshayani is the Goddess of marital felicity and longevity, who is worshipped particularly by ladies to seek the long life of their husbands. She is an aspect of Devi, is the consort of Shiva.

Other names for Dakshayani include Parvati, Uma, Satī, Aparna, Lalita, Sivakamini and several hundred others; a listing is to be found in the Lalitha Sahasranamam.

Story

The Goddess Uma, a personification of the divine "Omkaara", took human birth at the bidding of Brahma. She was born as a daughter of Daksha Prajapati, a son of Brahma himself, and his wife Prasuti. In bidding the Goddess Uma to take human birth, Brahma's design was that she should wed Shiva; it was therefore natural that Gauri as a child adored the tales and legends associated with Shiva, and grew up an ardent devotee.

As Gauri grew to womanhood, the idea of marrying anyone else, as proposed by her father, became anathema to her. Every proposal from valiant and rich kings made her crave evermore the ascetic of Kailasa, the God of Gods, who bestowed All on this world and himself held nothing.

To win the regard of the ascetic Shiva, the daughter of Daksha forsook the luxuries of her father's palace and betook herself to a forest, there to devote herself to austerities and the worship of Shiva. So rigorous were her penances, that she gradually renounced food itself, at once stage subsisting on leaves alone, and then giving up even leaves; that is how she earned the sobriquet Aparna. Her prayers bore fruit; after testing her resolve, Shiva finally acceded to her wished and consented to make her his bride.

An esctatic Dakshayani returned to her natal home, to await her bridegroom, but found her father less than enthused by the turn of events. The wedding was held in due course, and Gauri went to live with Shiva in Kailasa. Daksha, depicted by legend as an arrogant king, did not get on with his renunciate son-in-law, and basically cut his daughter away from her natal family.

Daksha once organized a grand yagna, to which all the celestials were invited, with the exception of Gauri and Shiva. Wanting to meet her parents, relatives and childhood friends, Gauri reasoned within herself that her parents had neglected to make a formal invitation only because, as family, such formality was unnecessary; certainly, she needed no invitation to visit her own mother and would go anyway. Shiva sought to dissuade her, but she was resolved upon going; he then provided her with an escort and bid her provoke no incident.

Gauri was received coolly by her father. They were soon in the midst of a humungous argument about the virtues (and alleged lack thereof) of Shiva. Every passing moment made it clear to Gauri that her father was gross, vain, obstreperous and entirely incapable of appreciating the many excellent qualities of her husband. The thought came forcibly to Gauri that so much abuse was being heaped on Shiva only because he had wed her; she was the cause of this dishonour to her husband. She was consumed by rage against her father and loathing for his mentality.

Shiva sensed this catastrophe, and his rage was awesome. He created the ferocious Virabhadra and Bhadrakali, two goblins who wreaked havoc and mayhem on the scene of the argument between Daksha and his daughter Gauri. Nearly all those present were indiscriminately felled overnight. Daksha himself was decapitated.

According to some traditions, it is believed that an angry Shiva performed the Tandava dance with Sati's charred body on his shoulders. In the process, the different body parts of Sati fell in different places on earth. These places, 51 in number, are called Shakti Peethas, and are places of pilgrimage. This legend however is not accepted by mainstream traditions of south India and elsewhere.

After the night to horror, Shiva, the all-forgiving, restored all those slain to life and granted them his blessings. Even the abusive and culpable Daksha was restored not only to life, his decapitated head being substituted for that of a goat, but also to his kingship. He spent his remaining years a devotee of Shiva.

Dakshayani was reborn as Pārvatī (the daughter of the mountain or Parvata), this time the daughter of a father whom she could respect, and one who appreciated Shiva fulsomely. Naturally, she sought and received Shiva as her husband.

This story appears in detail in Tantra literature, in the puranas, and in Kalidasa's Kumarasambhavam, an epic that deals primarily with the birth of Subrahmanya.

See also

• Hindu deities

• List of Hindu deities

• List of Hinduism-related articles