Table of ContentIntroductionHer early model: four-armed Mahalakshmi formGaja-Lakshmi formLakshmi as Vishnu's consort: now a unanimous positionModel of beautyLakshmi in Vishnu's Ardhanarishvara imageryLakshmi as PadmavatiConclusion
Table of Content
Introduction
Her early model: four-armed Mahalakshmi form
Gaja-Lakshmi form
Lakshmi as Vishnu's consort: now a unanimous position
Model of beauty
Lakshmi in Vishnu's Ardhanarishvara imagery
Lakshmi as Padmavati
Conclusion
In early Puranic texts like the Devi-Mahatmya in the Markandeya Purana, she is seen as the most valorous warrior on the battlefield and eliminator of the demon Mahisha. Lakshmi is also a Vedic divinity with her origin in the Rig-Veda that identifies her as Sri and devoted to her three independent Suktas.
The great text identifies her as the goddess of fertility who is blessed with progeny, rich crops, and abundant food. It seems that Lakshmi had her proto form in the Indus Mother Goddess who represented fertility, blessed with progeny, and was also a protective deity.
Goddess Lakshmi as Visualized in the Atharva Veda
The Atharva-Veda is the earliest known textual source and Sanchi reliefs are her earliest manifest image that gives some idea of Lakshmi's beauty and her power to procreate and feed. The Atharva-Veda alludes to her form containing an abundance of milk the same as have Mother goddess statues and Lakshmi's Sanchi reliefs.
Besides, the reported range of Mother goddess statues exhibits a wide range of costume fashions suggesting that she also represented absolute womanhood. Interestingly, Lakshmi imagery - the medieval and the modern, also displays elaborate costumes and jewelry fashions and was seen as representing the highest form of womanhood.
It was perhaps such a long tradition of Lakshmi's divinity that there developed around her a cult wider than that of Vishnu or rather any Vaishnava deity so much so that from a rich man's coffer to an alcove of a tribal's hut - depository of his day's earning, Lakshmi's presence is everywhere seen.
Apart from her manifestations in the Buddhist and the Jain pantheons and other early sources the Devi-Mahatmya also represents one of her early forms. Her epithet in the Devi-Mahatmya is Mahalakshmi. She is the wrathful four-armed goddess of the battlefield represented by holding various weapons.
35" Sitting Maha Lakshmi | Handmade | Madhuchista Vidhana (Lost-Wax) | Panchaloha Bronze from Swamimalai
She is seen plundering death on demons, the demon Mahisha being the foremost. Except for her four arms the classical tradition dispensed with her warrior form and Mahalakshmi name; however, in the folk tradition and in rural India the goddess's 'Mahalakshmi' epithet still continues though her nature has undergone a complete transformation.
Instead of being the ferocious goddess of the battlefield, she is now a torch-bearer lighting his dark hutment and path. This tribe's or the village man's Mahalakshmi is modeled as carrying lamps on her palms, head, and sometimes even on her shoulders.
Such Mahalakshmi icons are cast in clay, especially on Diwali, the festival of light. Earlier such Mahalakshmi icons were immersed in a river or pond after seven days of Diwali worship but exceptionally artistic now these icons are often preserved.
Pair of Deeplakshmi
A form of Lakshmi seated over a lotus laid over a golden seat and a pair of white elephants - sometimes multi-trunked, pouring on her milk believed to have been brought in their trunks, or gold pots carried in their trunks, from the Kshirasagara - the ocean of milk, the abode of Vishnu, is a favored image of Lakshmi commonly known in art tradition as Gaja-Lakshmi. This form of the goddess, when cast riding an elephant, is also called Mahalakshmi. Otherwise, Mahalakshmi images are cast riding an elephant usually having a multi-trunk form.
Glorious Gajalakshmi Tanjore Painting With Large Wooden Traditional Door Frame | Traditional Colors With 24K Gold | Teakwood Frame | Gold & Wood | Handmade | Made In India
Dually auspicious for assimilating, besides the goddess herself, many auspicious entities - white elephants symbolic of Indra's mount Airavata, lotus, milk, and hence more prompt in bestowing riches and accomplishing all desired this Mahalakshmi form more favoured for worship during Diwali rituals. In rituals, Lakshmi is invariably invoked as Mahalakshmi.
Now Lakshmi's status as Vishnu's consort is unanimously accepted. Initially, the goddess seems to have been two-armed but subsequently, she began having four arms - ordinarily, votive images being four-armed, and aesthetic, two-armed.
Except in some classical forms in Lakshmi-Narayana imagery, Lakshmi is ordinarily two-armed. When Lakshmi enshrines a sanctum independently she has a four-armed form. Whatever Vishnu's authority he is Narayana only when Lakshmi is along him.
The Divine Glamour Of Devi Lakshmi
Except for Badrinatha like a few pithas - shrines, that Vishnu enshrines independently, as also in other forms such as Shesh-sayana or Shesh-sayi, in Commander's disposition or in Yogasana, most of his sanctum images are along Lakshmi, obviously as Lakshmi-Narayana. In Shesh-sayana imagery she is often represented as massaging his feet. In such icons, she is invariably two-armed.
Sheshasayi Vishnu with Lakshmi
Incarnation theory is the crux of Vaishnavism. Vishnu incarnates alone but Lakshmi also incarnates in simultaneity. When he incarnates as Rama, Lakshmi incarnates as Sita, and when Krishna Lakshmi incarnates as Radha.
Rama Sita
Radha Krishna
As Rama, Vishnu was required to eliminate Ravana and the ranks of his demons, Sita leads to accomplish that end; as Krishna, Vishnu was required to lead to the path of devotion through love. Krishna could not accomplish it without Radha. Krishna also eliminates numerous demons but not being his primary objective Radha is not his partner in his act of demon-eliminating.
The model of supreme beauty, images of Lakshmi are always lavishly bejeweled, richly costumed, and elegantly crowned. She is endowed with unearthly beauty and timeless youth which is also reflected in her imagery. Her presence is always graceful and benign. The supreme good incarnate, she invariably carries a full-blown lotus, sometimes more than one.
Lotus is in Indian tradition the symbol of good and auspice. She is often seen as sitting on a lotus seat and sometimes also bears a garland of fresh lotus flowers. Lakshmi has her own system of symbols. In her iconography pot symbolizes the earth and the riches that the earth contains, and the lotus, besides good and auspicious, also growth, grace, and beauty.
Super Large Size Goddess Lakshmi on Lotus
'Abhaya' is the usual gesture of the goddess; on the other hand, 'varada' is far rarer perhaps because she assures abundance and a happy life, not so much the release from it. 'Abhaya' imparts fearlessness but in her imagery, it stands for assurance of a happy prosperous life.
Though very rare some enthused artists have conceived on Ardhanarishvara line also Vishnu's Ardhanarishvara images. In such images, Vishnu's left half consists of Lakshmi's left half. In such images, Lakshmi has a normal two-armed form with one arm visible.
Such form is relatively plain though with appropriate jewelry and costume well distinguished from the other half. This left half does not have such a towering crown as the other half. Vishnu's Ardhanarishvara images are reported mostly in paintings; such form has not been reported so far in sculptures or statues in any medium.
48" Half Vishnu & Half Lakshmi (Lakshmi Narayana) | Handmade | Madhuchista Vidhana (Lost-Wax) | Panchaloha Bronze from Swamimalai
She is also represented through a few of Tantric diagrams. Sri, Padmavati, Kamala, Dharini, Vaishnavi, and Narayani are some other names of Lakshmi. She has been named Padmavati and Kamala after lotus, Dharini, after the mother earth, and Vaishnavi and Narayani, after her consort Vishnu who is also Narayana.
Padmavati is Lakshmi's transformation popularly worshipped in the South. The four-armed tall goddess is the enshrining principal deity of many temples in the Southern part of the country. She is as popular as Vishnu himself. Unlike Lakshmi-Narayana imagery Padmavati enshrines the sanctum independently without Vishnu.
Vishnu-like standing image of Padmavati bears a Vishnu-like towering crown and Vaijayanti and carries lotuses in her hands. The Padma Purana carries a legend as to how deserting Baikuntha Lakshmi reached the South and settled there forever.
The Calming Gaze Of Padmavati Lakshmi
Goddess Padmavati
The symbolism goes further. Lakshmi who had a physically manifesting form had already deserted him after the Bhragu incident and never returned. It was Padmavati who lotus-like sprouted within and was Vishnu's spouse by realization. She was thus part of Vishnu but was also a divine entity by herself and is, hence worshipped with him but also independently.
It is different with Lakshmi. The legendary king who had found Vishnu from under the earth and built the worldwide Venkateshvara temple could see Vishnu alone, not Lakshmi dwelling within his heart as she was Vishnu's spiritual realization. Shrines devoted to her independently in the north are very few. In most other Vaishnava shrines, she shares sanctums with Vishnu. In the South, she is the deity in her own right and is independently worshipped.
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