LAKSHMI, the Hindu goddess of prosperity, is called also Sri, Padma, Hira, Indira, Jaladhi-ja (ocean born), Chanchala or Lola (the fickle, as goddess of fortune), Loka-mata, mother of the world, and other names, which are mentioned below. There are several legends as to her origin. The Taittiriya Sanhita describes Lakshmi and Sri as two wives of Aditya. The Satapatha Brahmana describes Sri as issuing forth from Prajapati. The Ramayana legend makes her spring from the froth of the ocean, like Aphrodite, in full beauty, with a lotus in her hand, when it was churned by the Asuras and the gods, hence called Kshirabdhi tanaya, daughter of the sea of milk. According to the Puranas, she was the daughter of Bhrigu and Khyate, and she was the wife of Rama in all his incarnations. These legends are all comparat ively modern, for though in the Rig Veda the word Lakshmi occurs, it is not as a goddess personifying good fortune, though in a kindred signification.
As the consort or sakti of Vishnu, she is painted yellow, sitting on the lotus or water-lily, and holding in her hand sometimes the kamala or lotus, at others the shell, or the club of Vishnu. At her birth she was so beautiful that all the gods became enamoured of her, but Vishnu at length obtained her. She is the Hindu Ceres, or goddess of abundance ; Sri or Sris, goddess of prosperity. She is called Padma or Kamala, from the lotus or nymphma being sacred to her ; also Varahi (as the energy of Vishnu in the Varaha avatar) ; Ada Maya, the mother of the world; Narayani, Vidgnani, etc. She is described as the daughter of Bhrigu ; but in consequence of the curse of Durvasa upon Indra, she abandoned the three worlds, and con cealed herself in the sea of milk, so that the earth no longer enjoyed the blessing of abundance and prosperity. She is said to have been born from the churning of the ocean, rising from the waters radiant with beauty.
Queen of the gods, she leapt to land, A lotus in her perfect hand ; And fondly, of the lotus sprung, To lotus-bearing Vishnu clung. Her, gods above and men below, As beauty's queen and fortune know.' One of her names by Amara Sinha is Kshirabdhi tanaya, d righter of the milky sea. When as Rembha, t e sea-born goddess of beauty, she sprang as o of the fourteen gems from the ocean, she then assumes the character of the Venus Aphroditekof the Greeks, who, as Hesiod and Homer sing,,i.ose from the sea, ascended to
Olympus, and captiv'hted all the gods.
The followers of Vishnu esteem Lakshmi as the mother of the world, d then call her Ada Maya ; and such Vaishna as as are saktas, that is, adorers of the female en gy or nature active, worship her exclusively as e symbol of the Eternal Being.
The name of this goddess is given to the last stalks of grain which the Hindus, A\the Scotch, carry home from the field and preserve ntil next harvest ; and with all who desire that p sperity attend their Lakshmi, of whom the Roman type is Ceres, it receives their adoration.
In the Belgaum province, until the early part I of the 19th century, Maha Lakshmi was regarded as the goddess on whom the productiveness of the land depended, and every twelfth year a great Jatra was held in her honour, at which buffaloes, goats, and fowls were sacrificed, and their blood mixed with boiled rice, a portion of which was sprinkled over every field to secure its fertility. The Dher killed the buffalo, but the Patels sacri ficed the smaller animals.
The Mahratta cultivators are still attentive to her worship, and when the rabi crops are well above the ground, they proceed to their fields, where they place five stones around a tree, on which they set spots of vermilion and some wheaten flour ; they worship these as the Panch Pandu. In the evening they take a few stalks of sorghum, with a lamp surrounded by a cloth, to their homes, which they regard as their Lakshmi. It is an interesting sight to see the wives of the cultivators each returning to her home with her lit-up basket of sorghum. The ceremonial is per formed on the 28th day of the moon, Amas, which in 1867 fell on Christmas day. The Hindus have other things which they adopt as their Lakshmi, or luck-token. One that is greatly valued is rarely obtained. Snakes when in congress rise upright almost on the tips of their tails, and a Hindu will touch them with a handkerchief, which he carefully preserves at home.