Parvati

(“daughter of the mountain”) Wife of
the god Shiva, and an important
Hindu goddess, Parvati is the daughter
of the minor deity Himalaya (the
Himalaya Mountains personified), and
his wife Mena. Parvati appears in
human form to draw Shiva out of the
ascetic isolation in which he has been
lost since the death of his first wife,
Sati, and to induce him to father the
son necessary to kill the demon
Taraka. According to her myths, even
in her childhood Parvati vows that she
will have only Shiva for her husband.
Her parents try to discourage her,
since Shiva has taken a vow of asceticism and is absorbed in deep meditation on Mount Kailas.
Parvati’s first effort to arouse Shiva’s
desire ends in a dismal failure. Kama,
the god of love, tries to shoot Shiva with
an arrow of desire, but Shiva lets loose a
stream of fire from the third eye in his
forehead, burning Kama to ash.
Undeterred, Parvati goes into the mountains and begins a program of harsh
physical asceticism (tapas) of her own:
standing on one foot for immense periods of time, enduring the heat of summer and cold of winter, and practicing
severe fasting (upavasa) and self-denial.
The spiritual power generated by her
asceticism eventually awakens Shiva,
and he comes to her, disguised as an
aged brahmin. He tries to discourage
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Parvati
Parvati by making disparaging remarks
about Shiva’s lifestyle and personality, but
Parvati, unshaken in her resolve, refuses
to listen. Eventually Shiva reveals his true
form to her, and they are married.
Although in his devotion to his wife
Shiva is the Hindu symbol for the ideal
husband, their family life is unusual.
Since Shiva is the symbol for the perfect
ascetic, the couple has no fixed home or
means of support, and occasionally
Parvati is portrayed as complaining of
being an ascetic’s wife. Symbolically, their
marriage represents the domestication of
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Parvati
Parvati with her husband Shiva and their sons Ganesh and Skanda.
the ascetic and his entrance into social
and family life. Their union highlights
the cultural tension between the two
most important Hindu religious ideals:
the householder and the renunciant
ascetic. Perhaps to illustrate the contradiction of being a married ascetic, Shiva
and Parvati have children but not in the
normal way: Skanda develops from
Shiva’s semen, which falls on the ground
during their interrupted love-making,
while Ganesh is formed of the enlivened
dirt from Parvati’s body.
Parvati, as with all married Hindu
goddesses, is generally seen as benign
and benevolent. In some mythic stories
she can be spiteful, but on the whole she
projects a nurturing and motherly presence. Her mythology is almost completely connected with that of Shiva,
showing her subordination as the model
wife, and her worship is generally connected with him as well. She occupies
an important position in tantra, a
secret, ritually based religious practice,
since in tantric texts Parvati is usually
portrayed as the person questioning
Shiva and then as the student receiving
his instruction. For more information
on Parvati and all the goddesses of
Hinduism, see David R. Kinsley, Hindu
Goddesses, 1986.