Most scholars believe that Shashthi's roots can be traced to Hindu folk traditions. References to this goddess appear in Hindu scriptures as early as 8th and 9th century BCE, in which she is associated with children as well as the Hindu war-god Skanda. Early references consider her a foster-mother of Skanda, but in later texts she is identified with Skanda's consort, Devasena. In some early texts where Shashthi appears as an attendant of Skanda, she is said to cause diseases in the mother and child, and thus needed to be propitiated on the sixth day after childbirth. However, over time, this malignant goddess became seen as the benevolent saviour and bestower of children.
The general consensus among scholars of Hinduism traces the origins of Shashthi, like Skanda, back to ancient folk traditions.[8] Over the course of the early centuries BCE, the Vedic fertility goddess of the new moon, Sinivali-Kuhu, and Shri-Lakshmi, the Vedic antecedent of Lakshmi, were gradually fused with the folk-deity Shashthi. This merger created a "new" Shashthi that was associated in various ways with Skanda (also known as Kartikeya or Murugan).[8] From her origins as a folk goddess, Shashthi was gradually assimilated into the Brahmanical Hindu pantheon, and ultimately, came to be known in Hinduism as the Primordial Being and Great Mother of all.[8] The fifth century text Vayu Purana includes Shashthi in a list of 49 goddesses,[8] while a Puranic text calls her "the worthiest of worship among mother goddesses."[5] However, the long-standing universality of her worship has led scholar David Gordon White to challenge the classification of Shashthi as a folk goddess, observing that Shashthi has been worshipped on the sixth day after childbirth by "all Hindus: rural as well as urban people, since the Kushan era."[3]
Cat Goddess Preteen
Shashthi is historically associated with a variety of other deities. The second century BCE composition Manava Grhya Sutra identifies Shashthi with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and beauty. It also describes the Shashthi-kalpa rite was performed on the sixth lunar day of every fortnight invoking Shashthi to provide sons, cattle, treasures, corn, and the fulfilment of wishes.[3][13] The scripture Padma Purana, composed between the 8th and 11th centuries, describes Shashthi as the daughter of Indra.[8] Texts written over the last 500 years, such as the Brahma Vaivarta Purana and the Devi Bhagavata Purana describe Shashthi as the daughter of the creator-god Brahma. In addition, she is associated with Mula-Prakriti, the universal female energy said to be composed of six aspects: one of these, typically the sixth aspect, is said to be Shashthi.[8][10]
Over time, the characterisation of Shashthi underwent a gradual evolution. Aforementioned folk traditions originating between the 10th and 5th centuries BCE associated the goddess with both positive and negative elements of fertility, birth, motherhood and childhood. However, between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE, a shift occurred in which Shashthi was increasingly depicted as a malevolent deity associated with the sufferings of mothers and children. The fifth century text Kashyapa Samhita calls Shashthi by the epithet Jataharini ("one who steals the born") and provides a list of the malevolent activities in which Shashthi is believed to engage, including her practice of stealing foetuses from the womb and devouring children on the sixth day following birth. For this reason, the text recommends that she be propitiated through worship in her honour on this day in the lying-in room and on the sixth day of every fortnight thereafter.[8]
Eventually, Shashthi came to represent all goddesses and forces responsible for causing diseases in children and their mothers, who needed to be propitiated on the sixth day after childbirth to prevent these illnesses. Consequently, Shashthi came to personify the sixth day of a child's life.[8][12] The sixth day of the lunar fortnight is itself called Shashti, a name derived from the name of the goddess.[8][14] The Yajnavalkya Smriti, composed during Gupta rule between the 3rd and 5th centuries CE, describes the rites of Shashthi Puja in which Shashthi is worshipped on the sixth day after childbirth to ensure the protection of the newborn baby.[9] According to one explanation for the worship of Shashthi on this day, folk belief associates this critical time in an infant's life with great susceptibility to diseases related to childbirth, such as puerperal fever and tetanus, and that worship of Shashthi is performed to help ward off these diseases.[15]
Over the past 1500 years, the characterisation of Shashthi gradually shifted toward that of a benevolent and protective figure.[8] In Banabhatta's 7th century work Harshacharita, Shashthi is called Jatamatr ("mother of the born one"), while the Kadambari by the same author calls her Bahuputrika, meaning "having many children".[8] Shashthi's evolution mirrors that of the demoness Jara of the Mahabharata[n 1] and a similar Buddhist goddess, Hariti:[n 2][3] all of them are characterised in early texts as malevolent goddesses, but over the course of time these deities transform from devourers of children into their saviours and protectors.[8]
A Bengali folk-tale about Shashthi tells of the youngest of seven daughters-in-law in a prosperous household who was a glutton that used to secretly steal food and then blame a black cat, which was thrashed as punishment. The black cat happened to be the vahana (mount) of Shashthi and complained about the mistreatment to the goddess, who pledged to avenge it. When the youngest daughter-in-law gave birth to a son, the cat stole the child in the night and gave it to the goddess, and did the same for her next six sons. The neighbours accused the young mother of carelessness and began to believe she might be a witch who ate her own children. Finally, when a daughter was born, the young mother decided to remain awake the whole night to resolve the mystery. She managed to catch the cat in the act of robbery and wounded it with her bracelet, but the cat escaped with the child, leaving a trail of blood. The mother followed this trail to the abode of Shashthi. There she saw her sons playing around Shashthi as the goddess held the mother's infant daughter in her arms. Shashthi explained the reason for the mother's ordeal and told her to ask pardon of the cat. The mother asked the cat's pardon, which was granted, and then she promised the goddess that she would offer worship in a ritual dedicated to her, which would come to be known as the Jamai-Shasthi Vrata. The mother returned home with her children and spread the worship of the goddess, who blessed her family with children, wealth and happiness.[17]
A different version of this tale narrates that when the youngest daughter-in-law was pregnant, she secretly ate the food-offerings ritually dedicated to Shashthi and then blamed the theft on the black cat. Angered by the dishonour of its mistress and the unjust accusation of theft, the cat pledged to teach the young mother a lesson. In this version of the tale, the cat not only stole her six children, but also ate them. But when the seventh child was born, the mother caught the cat fleeing with her child and followed it but tripped in middle of the chase and fainted. The cat took the infant to Shashthi's abode, where she told the goddess the whole tale of her insult. The benign goddess, however, was annoyed with the cat and rushed to the aid of the mother. The goddess explained the reason of her suffering, and after the mother had begged the cat for forgiveness and had sworn to worship Shashthi on anointed days, all seven of her children were returned to her.[18]
Shashthi's Bengali legends appear in the Mangal-Kavya texts, especially in the Shashthi-mangal section of this work.[14] The Mangal-Kavya and Bengali folk tales describe Shashthi as closely related to Manasa, the serpent goddess.[3] Shashthi furthermore appears as an ally of Manasa in a famous Bengali folk-tale describing Shashthi's activities during the Nag Panchami festival of Manasa.[19]
Among Hindus, Shashthi is widely regarded the benefactor and protector of children and tutelary deity of every household.[8] She is also worshipped as a bestower of children to the childless, and regarded as the foremost goddess for blessing children.[10] One of the earliest scriptural sources to describe a ritual in her honour is the second century BCE composition Manava Grhya Sutra, appended to the Yajurveda (written between the 14th and 10th centuries BCE), which describes a ritual called Shashthi-kalpa. In the Shashthi-kalpa rite, which was described as performed on the sixth lunar day of every fortnight, Shashthi was invoked to provide sons, cattle, treasures, corn, and the fulfilment of wishes.[3] Today, Shashthi continues to be worshipped on the sixth day of each of the twelve lunar months of the Hindu calendar,[3][5] as well as on the sixth day after childbirth in the lying-in chamber where the birth has taken place. Shashthi is worshipped in a different form in each of these lunar months as the deities Chandan, Aranya, Kardama, Lunthana, Chapeti, Durga, Nadi, Mulaka, Anna, Sitala, Gorupini or Ashoka.[5]
In North India, Shashthi is worshipped at childbirth and puberty, and during marriage rites.[3] When the pregnant woman is isolated during childbirth in the lying-in chamber, a cow-dung figure of the goddess is traditionally kept in the room. The birth of a living child is considered the blessing of Shashthi, while the birth of a stillborn infant or the early death of a child are considered manifestations of her wrath.[4] Before childbirth, Shashthi is worshipped to protect the welfare of the expecting mother. She is also invoked after childbirth on the sixth day of each month until the child reaches puberty, especially when the child is sick.[20] 2ff7e9595c
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