The Tridevī

Sarasvatī, Lakṣmī, Pārvatī — the three great goddesses beside the three great gods: their powers, their partners, and the tradition that turns the whole picture round to make the Goddess first.

On the ninth day of Navaratri, Tamil homes stack their schoolbooks and veena before Sarasvatī. A few weeks later, at Deepavali, lamps are lit to welcome Lakṣmī. All year round, in temples from Madurai to Kuala Lumpur, Pārvatī sits beside Shiva as Mīnākṣī, Kāmākṣī, Amman. Together they are the Tridevī, “three goddesses” — the divine partners of Brahmā, Vishnu and Shiva. This page introduces them side by side; Lakshmi & Saraswati and Devi — the Divine Mother explore them in depth.

Śakti: the power of the gods

The Trimūrti divides the work of the universe into creation, preservation and dissolution. The Tridevī are their śakti, their power: the energy without which each god could not act. So Sarasvatī, goddess of knowledge and speech, partners Brahmā, for creation begins with the word; Lakṣmī, goddess of fortune and abundance, partners Vishnu, for preserving the world means sustaining its prosperity; Pārvatī, daughter of the mountain, partners Shiva, the great ascetic, whom her love draws into the life of the world.

A well-known piece of wordplay makes the point. Take the vowel i out of Śiva in Sanskrit script and you are left with śava, “a corpse”. Without his Śakti, the saying goes, even Shiva cannot stir. Popular tradition

Three goddesses

Tap each goddess for an overview:

Sarasvatī is one of the few deities as important in the Ṛgveda as she is today. There she is a great river, “best of mothers, best of rivers, best of goddesses”, and already the inspirer of sacred speech. Over time the river goddess became Vāc, the Word itself, and the patron of learning, music and the arts.

She is dressed in white, seated on a white lotus, playing the vīṇā and holding a book and rosary; her mount is the swan. Students honour her before exams, and on the ninth day of Navaratri; in north India she has her own spring festival, Vasanta Pañcamī.

At a glance

Tap each tile to compare the three. Seeker’s synthesis These are the common pictures; temple images and regions vary a great deal.

Three forms in the Devī Māhātmya

The great text of Goddess worship, the Devī Māhātmya, tells three episodes (caritas) of the Goddess’s battles. Recitation tradition gives each a presiding form, named in the meditation verses recited before each part and in the appendices that accompany the text:

Notice that these are not simply Pārvatī, Lakṣmī and Sarasvatī. All three are warrior forms of one Goddess, and the “great” Sarasvatī of the third episode rides into battle. One appendix, the Prādhānika Rahasya, goes further: it makes Mahālakṣmī the primordial source, from whom the other two goddesses — and even the three gods and their partners — come forth. Śākta view The popular division of Navaratri into three nights each for Durgā, Lakṣmī and Sarasvatī is a related but different scheme, described on Navaratri.

The Śākta inversion

So far the goddesses have appeared as partners of the gods. The Śākta traditions turn the picture round. Śākta view For them the Goddess is the supreme reality, and Brahmā, Vishnu and Shiva are her instruments, created by her and acting through her power. The most famous statement opens the Saundaryalaharī, “The Wave of Beauty”, a hymn traditionally ascribed to Adi Shankara:

शिवः शक्त्या युक्तो यदि भवति शक्तः प्रभवितुं
न चेदेवं देवो न खलु कुशलः स्पन्दितुमपि ।
अतस्त्वामाराध्यां हरिहरविरिञ्चादिभिरपि
प्रणन्तुं स्तोतुं वा कथमकृतपुण्यः प्रभवति ॥ śivaḥ śaktyā yukto yadi bhavati śaktaḥ prabhavituṃ
na ced evaṃ devo na khalu kuśalaḥ spanditum api,
atas tvām ārādhyāṃ hari-hara-viriñcādibhir api
praṇantuṃ stotuṃ vā katham akṛta-puṇyaḥ prabhavati Only when joined with Śakti is Shiva able to create; if not, the god cannot so much as stir. How then could one who has gained no merit bow to you or praise you — you who are worshipped by Vishnu, Shiva, Brahmā and the rest? Saundaryalaharī 1

Notice that the verse names the three gods of the trimūrti — Hari, Hara and Viriñci (Brahmā) — as her worshippers. The Lalitā Sahasranāma, the “thousand names” of the Goddess recited in Śrī Vidyā, does the same in three of its names, making her the doer of all three cosmic works:

सृष्टिकर्त्री ब्रह्मरूपा गोप्त्री गोविन्दरूपिणी ।
संहारिणी रुद्ररूपा … sṛṣṭi-kartrī brahma-rūpā goptrī govinda-rūpiṇī,
saṃhāriṇī rudra-rūpā … She who creates, in the form of Brahmā; she who protects, in the form of Govinda; she who dissolves, in the form of Rudra… Lalitā Sahasranāma (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Lalitopākhyāna)

The Devī Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the great Purāṇa of the Śāktas, tells a striking story to the same effect: Brahmā, Vishnu and Shiva are carried to the Goddess’s jewelled island, Maṇidvīpa, and on approaching her they find themselves changed into women, her attendants — before she restores them and sends them out to do their cosmic work as her servants. The Puranas page explains why the Śāktas count this Purāṇa among the eighteen great ones.

How other schools read the Goddess
  • Śrīvaiṣṇava: Lakṣmī is inseparable from Vishnu — the Lord is always Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, “Nārāyaṇa with Śrī”. She is the compassionate mediator (puruṣakāra) who pleads for the soul; Vedānta Deśika’s school also counts her as sharing in the Lord’s supremacy, the Teṉkalai school less so. See Vishishtadvaita.
  • Shaiva Siddhanta: Śakti is Shiva’s own power, as heat is inseparable from fire — not a second ruler. Through her he performs his five acts and gives grace. See Shaiva Siddhanta.
  • Kashmir Shaivism: Śiva and Śakti are one reality’s two aspects, light and its self-awareness. See Kashmir Shaivism.
  • Advaita: Śakti is the Lord’s power of manifestation, māyā, and the Goddess is saguṇa Brahman worshipped as Mother — many Advaita teachers, from the Shankara maṭhas to Ramakrishna, have worshipped her so.

Historians trace a long “rise of the Goddess”: goddesses were present from the Vedas on, but the claim that a single Great Goddess is the supreme reality appears clearly for the first time in the Devī Māhātmya, usually dated to around the fifth or sixth century CE, and was developed in the Tantras and the Devī Bhāgavata.

One honest caution. Reverence for goddesses has not, by itself, given women equal standing in Hindu society; the same tradition that bows to Sarasvatī has often restricted women’s learning. Many Hindus — women teachers, gurus and scholars among them — have drawn on the goddesses precisely to argue for change.

Try this

Before you begin to study, read or practise something new, say the short traditional prayer to Sarasvatī that many Hindu children learn at school, sarasvati namas tubhyaṃ; it is given in full, with a translation, on Lakṣmī & Sarasvatī.

Check your understanding:

Quick check

Which goddess was first a great river in the Ṛgveda?

Sarasvatī, the river who became the goddess of speech and learning.

In the Devī Māhātmya’s scheme, which form presides over the slaying of Mahiṣa?

The middle episode belongs to Mahālakṣmī; the first to Mahākālī, the last to Mahāsarasvatī.

The Saundaryalaharī says Shiva without Śakti…

“If not joined with Śakti, the god cannot so much as stir” (verse 1).

Questions people often ask

Are the three goddesses one goddess?

For the Śākta traditions, yes: one Great Goddess, appearing as all three and as every other goddess. For others, they are distinct persons who are each, in their own way, the power of the one God. Devotees of both views pray to them the same way.

Why do some lists put Durgā or Kālī instead of Pārvatī?

Because Durgā and Kālī are understood as forms of Shiva’s consort, and in Goddess worship her fierce forms are often the most important. A triad of Durgā, Lakṣmī and Sarasvatī, as in Navaratri, is just as common as one with Pārvatī.

Is it true that Brahmā married his own daughter Sarasvatī?

Some Purāṇic tellings say Sarasvatī was born from Brahmā before becoming his partner, and old texts already treat Prajāpati’s desire for his daughter as a troubling story. Traditional commentators read it symbolically — the creator and his own creative word — while others simply find it uncomfortable. Both responses have a long history.

॥ Pause and reflect

  1. Knowledge, abundance, power and love: which do you most need to welcome into your life right now?
  2. Does it change anything for you to think of the divine as Mother rather than Father?
  3. “Without Śakti, Shiva cannot stir.” What gives you the power to act on what you know?

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Key terms on this page

Sources & further reading