Svāhā Devī

Svāhā Devī is a devī, a principal part (aṃśa) of Mūla Prakṛti, the root nature. She is the wife of Agni, the deva of fire. She is the presiding devī of the sacred word svāhā, which is spoken at every offering (haviḥ) made in a yajña (fire ritual).

Without Svāhā, the devas cannot accept any haviḥ offered to them in the yajña. She is the divine śakti (power) that turns the offering placed in the fire into food for the devas.

Nature and identity

The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 1, names Svāhā among the main aṃśa-forms of Prakṛti. It lists her as the wife of Agni. Her work is basic to every yajña. She is the presiding devī of the call svāhā, which is spoken at the closing moment of each offering into the fire. Even if the fire burns and the mantras are chanted, the devas cannot receive the haviḥ without her.

The Prakṛti Khaṇḍa states this plainly:

yajñeṣu svāhā vinā devatāḥ haviḥ svīkartum aśaktāḥ

In yajñas, without Svāhā, the devas are unable to accept the haviḥ.

The word svāhā

The word svāhā is not only a ritual syllable. It is the name of a devī who is present at every moment of a fire yajña. The hotā (the priest who pours the offering) says “svāhā” as he pours. In doing so he calls on Svāhā Devī to accept the offering and carry it to the deva for whom it is meant. She is the divine link between the offering of a mortal and its acceptance by the immortals.

The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa lists Svāhā among the main Prakṛti-aṃśas. She is a basic divine śakti who upholds the whole yajña tradition, which in turn upholds dharma and the order of the cosmos.

Her bond with Agni

As the wife of Agni, Svāhā is closely tied to the power of fire to change what is given into it. Agni carries the offerings to the devas. Svāhā is the śakti that makes this carrying work. Together they are the central pair of the Vedic yajña. Agni is the carrier of the offering (havya-vāhana). Svāhā is the divine word and śakti that wakes the offering into effect.

The Prakṛti Khaṇḍa also names two other devīs and sets Svāhā apart from them. Dakṣiṇā is the wife of yajña and the devī of the ritual gift. Svadhā is the wife of the pitṛs (the ancestors). Each of the three rules one kind of offering:

  • Svāhā: the haviḥ given to the devas.
  • Dakṣiṇā: the gift (dāna) given to the priests.
  • Svadhā: the piṇḍa and tarpaṇa offered to the pitṛs.

Her place among the aṃśas of Prakṛti

The Prakṛti Khaṇḍa lists Svāhā with these other devīs:

  • Dakṣiṇā
  • Svadhā
  • Svasti, wife of Vāyu
  • Puṣṭī, wife of Gaṇapati
  • Tuṣṭī, wife of Ananta
  • Sampatti, wife of Īśvara
  • Dhṛti, wife of Kapila
  • Kṣamā, wife of Yama
  • Rati, wife of Manmatha
  • many others

All of them are described as aṃśa-forms of Prakṛti. Together they show the many ways in which divine Śakti works in the different parts of cosmic and social life.

The Mahābhārata account: Svāhā’s love and the birth of Skanda

The Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 224–231, gives Svāhā a central part in the birth of Kārttikeya, also called Skanda.

Svāhā was the daughter of Dakṣa. She had loved Agni for a long time but had found no chance to come near him. Then the great ṛṣis gathered in the forest for their yajñas, and she saw her chance. She came to Agni in the form of Śivā, the wife of the ṛṣi Aṅgiras, and then told him who she was. Agni was moved by her beauty and her willingness, and he united with her. Afterwards Svāhā gathered Agni’s divine vīrya (seed) in a golden vessel and carried it to the white Śveta mountain.

She did this six times. Each time she took the form of one of the six wives of the Kṛttikā ṛṣis. She could not take the form of Arundhatī, the wife of Vasiṣṭha. Arundhatī’s virtue was so complete that even a devī could not copy it. After the sixth gathering, the vessel on the Śveta mountain held the seed from which Skanda was born on the pratipad tithi (the first lunar day). He had six faces, twelve eyes and twelve arms.

The six ṛṣi-wives were wrongly blamed for these events. The forest-dwellers saw Svāhā come out in their forms and thought the women had been with a man other than their husbands. Svāhā came forward and told the truth: she alone had been with Agni. In spite of her words, the six ṛṣis left their wives.

Svāhā’s request to be united with Agni forever

After Skanda’s birth and his appointment, Svāhā came to Skanda with one request. She wished to be united with Agni for ever. Skanda gave her this vara (boon). From that day, every haviḥ offered in every yajña in the three worlds would be joined with the call:

Agnaye svāhā

“To Agni, svāhā.” Through this call Svāhā is present at every moment of every fire yajña, always united with Agni in the closest way possible: the word of offering itself.

This is how the call svāhā came to be spoken at the closing moment of an offering into the sacred fire. Without Svāhā, who is invoked by her own name, the haviḥ cannot reach the devas.

Sources

  • Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 1
  • Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 224–231