A reincarnation of Sati, she had the hots for Shiva. But beautiful young dancing girls were not really his thing. He much preferred a good book — preferably a really boring one about asceticism.

Love makes people do strange things. In Parvati’s case, she renounced all fun and dedicated her life to being as dull and austere as her hero. Of course Shiva found her drab lifestyle incredibly alluring and she became his partner. The resulting children included Ganesha and Kârttikeya.

At some point during her austerity practice she became a little worried about the darkness of her skin and hid herself away in a forest. After praying to Brahma he rewarded her dedication by giving her a golden skin and allowing her to become Gauri, the ‘Yellow’ or ‘Brilliant One’.

In this guise she is pretty good and benevolent, but there is a Kali side to her nature as well. Watch out if her eyes go red.

Share this page Cite this article

Article last revised on September 18, 2018 by Rowan Allen.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders

References: Coming soon.

Permissions page

---