z:\ ambedkar\vol 04\vol4 03.indd MK SJ YS 21 9 2013/YS 8 11 2013 101
RIDDLE NO. 12 101
distinguished by the three colours black, white and red, she said, ‘From your glances was I produced : do you not know your own omnipotent energies ?’ Brahma then praising her said, ‘Thou shalt be named the goddess of three times (past, present and future), the preserver of the universe, and under various appellations shalt thou be worshipped, as thou shalt be the cause of accomplishing the desires of thy votaries. But, O goddess, divide thyself into three forms, according to the colours by which thou art distinguished. She then, as Brahma had requested, divided herself into three parts ; one white, one red, and one black. The white was ‘Saraswati of a lovely, felicitious form, and the co-operator with Brahma in creation ; the red was Lakshmi, the beloved of Vishnu, who with him preserves the universe ; the black was Parvati endowed with many qualities and energy of Siva.”
Here is an attempt to suggest that Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati are different forms of one and the same divinity. When one remembers that Sarasvati is the wife of Brahma, Lakshmi is the wife of Vishnu and Parvati is the wife of Shiva, and also that Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva were at war, this explanation given by the Varah Puran seems very odd.
Who is Gauri ? The Purana says that Gauri is another name for Parvati. The reason how Parvati was called Gauri [1] is that when Shiva and Parvati lived on mount Kailasa, occasionally there were quarrels between them, and on one occasion Shiva reproached her for the blackness of her skin. This taunt so grieved her that she left him for a time, and, repairing to a deep forest, performed a most severe course of austerities, until Brahma granted her as a boon that her complexion should be golden and for this circumstance she is known as Gauri.
Taking the other Goddesses it is not quite certain whether they are different names for one and the same Goddess or whether they are different Goddesses. In the Mahabharata there is a hymn sung by Arjuna to Durga in which he says [2 ] :
“Reverence be to thee, Siddha-Senani (generalaless of the Siddhas), the noble, the dweller on Mandara, Kumari (Princess), Kali, Kapali, Kapila, Krishna-pingala. Reverence to thee, Bhadrakali ; reverence to thee, Maha Kali, Chandi, Chanda, Tarini (deliveress), Varavarini (beautiful-coloured). O fortunate, Kalyani, O Karali, O Vijaya, O Jaya (victory), younger sister of the chief of cowherds (Krishna), delighting always in Mahisha’s blood’. O Uma, Sakambhari, thou white one, thou black one, O destroyer of
1 Wilkins pp. 289-90.
2 Quoted in Wilkins pp. 306-07.