In Rajputana, in one festival, Lakshmi is depicted by the type of riches, evidently the beneficent Ana Purna in another garb, and the agricultural community place a corn - measure, filled with grain and adorned with flowers, as her representative ; or if they adorn her effigies, they are those of Padma, the water-nymph, with a lotus in one hand and the pashu (or fillet for the head) in the other. As Lakshmi was produced at ' the churning of the ocean,' and hence called one of the fourteen gems, she is confounded with Rembha, chief of the Apsara, the Venus of the Hindus. Though both were created from the froth (sara) of the waters (ap or up), they are as distinct as the representations of riches and beauty can be. Lakshmi became the wife of Vishnu or Kaniya, and is represented at the feet of his marine couch when he is floating on the chaotic waters.
In some parts of Northern India, Lakshmi is a personification of the luni-solar year, in the same manner as Durga is that of the solar one ; but this allegory is rejected by the pandits of the Karnatic, who likewise deny that she lends occasionally her name to the moon, and even to Jupiter. Amongst
the Rajputs. Gouri seems to be the analogue of Ceres, and the festival of the Ahairea or Muhurat ka Shikar—the slaying of the wild boar—is in honour of Gouri or Ceres.
Lakshmi has no temples, but, being goddess of abundance and good fortune, she is assiduously courted, and is not likely to fall into neglect. She is worshipped on the full moon of Aswin (September—October), by bankers and merchants especially. A ceremony in her honour is per formed by a bride and bridegroom when the bride has been brought to her husband's house.
Gaja-Lakshmi, in the Kailasa temple at Ellora, is represented with a lotus in her hand, and four attendant elephants, who are pouring water over her. Like Aphrodite, she sprang from the fyoth of the ocean (when it was churned), in full beauty, with a lotus in her hand.—Pergoson and Burgess, p. 458; IV.