Nitin Kumar
Lakshmi, Mahalakshmi, Padmavathi, Shri and Bhoodevi are all names attributed to various aspects of female cosmic energy, representing fertility, abundance, prosperity, riches, brilliance and beauty.
They are the ‘rajas’ aspect of the phenomenal universe.
Sage Markandeya perceives the divine form, manifesting this female cosmic energy, as one and also as three-aspects of ‘Mahalakshmi Mahakali Saiva Prokta Saraswathi, Eshwari Punyapapana Sarvalokamaheshwari’ (Devi-Mahatmya Part 3, Chapter Vaikrtika Rahasya, verse 25).
This translates as “She is proclaimed as Mahalakshmi, Mahakali, and (Maha) Saraswathi, the Great Ruler of all worlds, reigning over the virtuous and the wicked.”
To sage Markandeya, unity and diversity are attributes of the same, whether the Universe or the Divine Power governing it.
In his equation, as the Universe is one but composed of and represents three basic elements, namely ‘Tamas’, ‘Rajas’ and ‘Sattva’ (Inertia, Dynamism and Luminosity), the female cosmic energy pervading and operating over it is one and also triply manifesting.
Ultimate Power
In Markandeya Purana, Mahalakshmi is the Goddess of War as Mahakali, eliminating evil, and Mahasaraswathi, the Disseminator of Knowledge.
It is only from 3rd century BC that her iconic form, now almost unanimously identified as Lakshmi, began to appear in scriptures and other forms of communication.
This form of Lakshmi, carrying lotuses in her hands, many more growing around, and elephants surrounding her – an image of beauty, appears first in the Sanchi and Bharhut reliefs of the Third and Second Century B C.
Perhaps like many other motifs, the Sanchi and Bharhut sculptors borrowed her form, obviously in view of her aesthetic beauty, from some early tradition for embellishing gates’ facades and other prominent areas of the stupas.
Those relying only on archaeological finds, which little support this theory, might not see in the Lotus Goddess at Sanchi and Bharhut any such continuity of an early tradition.
But even to them, it is nothing less than a form evolved conjointly out of various sources – verbal connotation of the Vedic Mahimata, attributes of Sita, another Vedic visualisation of productive process, Indus fertility cult and an iconographic vision of the Goddess Mother.
Lakshmi in Vedas
The monotheistic Vedas, despite their perception of cosmic unity, deciphered on the very outset the two aspects character of existence and creative process, one, the male, and other, the female. The Rig-Veda perceives the maleness and the femaleness as contained within a single frame but also as two attributes of the ‘contained.’
Apart such mystic duality, the Vedas directly allude to a number of operative attributes, male and female, having cosmic dimensions, deify them, and sometimes even personalise. Among those identified personally Vak, Ushas, Shri, Sita and Ratri are the main. Sita, the furrow-line, and Ratri, the night, are casually alluded to, and that too, in Upanishads.
However, independent ‘Suktas’ are devoted to Vak – speech, and Ushas – dawn.
The Vedas have also alluded to human females, Aditi, the Mother of Gods, Diti, Ila and a few others. Though no hymns are attributed to, or rites ascribed, the Vedas allude to Mahimata, Mother earth, a deity identical to Harappan Mother Goddess.
The Rig Veda has some ‘Suktas’ devoted to Shri but it is completely indifferent to Lakshmi. This Rig-Vedic Shri is not a form of Lakshmi as she becomes later.
The hymn ‘Ashvapurvau Rathamadhyam Hastinadaprabodhineem, Shriyam Devimupahvaye Shrirma Devi Jushatam’; that is, let me be possessed of Shri who equals an army well accomplished with horses, chariots and elephants; and let my home be her perpetual abode, is sometimes contended to relate to Lakshmi.
However, while the hymn perceives Shri as one having immense power equal to an army, Lakshmi represented fertility and abundance.
