return to Home Page
or move on to Goddess Urvasi, next chronologically,
or use Her Cyclopedia Index

Uma, Gracious-One.
UM*
[to Whom the twenty-eighth day of March, day 087, is dedicated]

Geography/Culture: Hindustani: Dravadian.
Linguistic Note: Her name may be derived from Amma, a common name for Dravidian Mother-Goddesses, see also Linguistic notes under Amba (qv Ambika). Uma also means flax or tumeric.
Description: Ascetic and Virginal Goddess of light, splendour, great beauty and wisdom; Great mountain Mother; She Who nourishes the world with life sustaining vegetables which emerge from Her body during the rains; Matron of yogic ascetisim; She with Whom many Goddesses have become identified and by Whose names She is also known.
Sometimes considered Goddess of death; Mother of demons; She Who has `hard teeth like thunderbolts with sharp tips inside the vagina'.
To Whom Sacred: flax; tumeric; cow; peaks of the Himalayas.
Male Associate: consort, Siva.

<<<>>>
Uma, Parvati and Durga
are sometimes said to be three aspects of the same Goddess
Whose consort is Siva.
<<<>>>
Source: Stutley HDH 311; New Larousse EM 335, 375, 358; Walker WEMS 1026.
Aparna, Without-a-Leaf.
1P1RN*

Geography/Culture: Hindustani. Originally non-Aryan. Worshipped by the Sabaras, Barbaras, Pulindas, and other tribes.
Description: Goddess of asceticism, austerity and abstinence; She Who lives on air; Great ascetic; She Who practised such extreme austerities (tapas) that She became able to exist without eating even so much as a leaf.
Male Associate: consort, Siva.

Source: Stutley HDH 16, 311.
Bhadrakali, Auspicious-Kali.
BH1DR1K*LE

Geography/Culture: Hindustani.

Source: Stutley HDH 311.
Haimavati, She-of-the-Himalayas.
HIM1V1TE
Alternate meanings: Daughter-of-Himavat.

Geography/Culture: Hindustani.
Description: Goddess of the Himalayas.


Mena,-----.
MAN*

Geography/Culture: Hindustani. She is mentioned in the Rig Vedas (I.51,13).
Linguistic Note: Is it possible that Mena is related to moon and measuring words?
Male Associates: consort Himavat, (the personified Himalya), son Mainaka.

Source: Stutley HDH 190, 174.
Parvati, She-of-the-Mountains.
P*V1TE
Alternate meanings: Lady-of-the-Mountain.

Geography/Culture: Hindustani.

Source: Stutley HDH 222.
Umahi, ----.
UM*HE

Geography/Culture: Japanese Buddhist.
Male Associate: consort, Jizaiten (Mahesvara) who came from the forehead of Avalokiteshvara.

Source: New Larousse EM 358.
worked on: October, May 1995; June 1992; July, August 1991; June, July 1990.
Return to the top of this document.