Svāhā, Svadhā and Dakshiṇā (Devī Bhāgavata)

The Ninth Skanda of the Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa gives three chapters to Svāhā, Svadhā and Dakshiṇā. These are three divine śaktis (powers) who make ritual work. All three are aṃśas (portions) of the Mūla Prakṛti, the root Prakṛti. Each came forth for one purpose: to carry offerings to the devas, to the pitṛs (ancestors) and to the brāhmaṇas. Without them a havis (offering) does not reach the one it is meant for. The devas go hungry, the ancestors are not satisfied, and the yajña is empty.

Svāhā

How she came forth

At the beginning of creation the devas gathered in Brahmā’s court and asked for food. Brahmā could not solve their problem. The brāhmaṇas were making offerings in the yajña, but the devas were not receiving the havis. The offerings were not reaching them.

Brahmā prayed to Śrī Kṛshṇa. Śrī Kṛshṇa told him to please the Mūla Prakṛti. Then the Parāśakti brought forth her first ritual śakti, Svāhā Devī. She was a very beautiful devī of dark complexion, bright as a crore (ten million) of rising suns, and dressed in divine ornaments. She rose smiling, with the look of one about to give a vara (boon), and stood before Brahmā.

Her work

Brahmā told her about the crisis: the devas had no way to receive the havis offered to them in the fire. Svāhā said she would be the means by which all offerings pass. Any havis offered into fire with the word svāhā would be received by the deva it was meant for. Without the word svāhā, and so without her, no offering made in fire reaches its deva. She is the living śakti who carries the havis from the human world to the divine.

From that first moment every deva began to receive food through Svāhā, and the devas’ hunger ended. Svāhā became inseparable from Agni (fire) and from all fire rites. She is the śakti within every invocation, and Agni is described in the tradition as her husband.

Svadhā

How she came forth

The pitṛ-devatās (ancestors) were in the same trouble at the dawn of creation. The food their descendants offered did not reach them. Brahmā made seven groups of pitṛs (pitṛ-gaṇas). Three groups were in teja form, bright and without a body. Four groups were in mūrti form, with a body. He gave them the śrāddha offerings of their descendants as their food. But the pitṛs still could not receive the offerings. The dāna (gifts) of the brāhmaṇas did not reach them.

Then Brahmā brought forth from his own mind a very beautiful devī. She was white as a champaka flower and shining, and she had hundreds of lotus marks on her hands and feet. He gave her to the pitṛ-gaṇas as their śakti of receiving. Her name was Svadhā.

Her work

Svadhā is the power that makes pitṛ-tarpaṇa (water offerings to the ancestors) and śrāddha-dāna (gifts at the śrāddha) work. When the brāhmaṇas make offerings with the word svadhā, the pitṛs receive their food through her. Without Svadhā even the grandest śrāddha is empty. The ancestors stay hungry, and the descendants do not receive the blessing of their ancestors.

Brahmā gave the brāhmaṇas this instruction. When they make an offering to the pitṛs, they must say the mantra that ends with svadhā. Svadhā herself will carry the offering to the one who receives it.

Dakshiṇā

Dakshiṇā is the third ritual śakti. She is the power that makes the payment effective: the fees, gifts and dāna given to brāhmaṇas and to the priests who officiate at a yajña. Without Dakshiṇā the yajña is not complete. The Devī Bhāgavata says:

dakshiṇā-hīna yajño vṛthā

A yajña without dakshiṇā is useless. It has no purpose, however exactly every other part was done.

Dakshiṇā is present in every act of dāna given to a worthy receiver in a sacred act. Devas, pitṛs, brāhmaṇas, ṛshis and Manus all praise her as the śakti who completes the circle of ritual giving.

The three together

The Devī Bhāgavata presents Svāhā, Svadhā and Dakshiṇā as one group of three. Each rules a different area of ritual.

All three are aṃśas of the one Parāśakti. They came forth so that the three duties of dharma, deva-pūjā (worship of the devas), pitṛ-tarpaṇa and guru-dakshiṇā (the gift to the teacher), would truly take effect and not be only a form.

Sources

• Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 9, Chapter 43 (Svāhā)
• Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 9, Chapter 44 (Svadhā)
• Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 9, Chapter 45 (Dakshiṇā)
• Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 9, Chapters 43–45 (the three together)