Jayā and Vijayā, Pārvatī’s Sakhīs

Jayā and Vijayā are the two closest sakhīs (close companions and attendants) of Pārvatī at Kailāsa. In the Kumāra Khaṇḍa of the Śiva Purāṇa, their advice leads to the creation of Gaṇeśa. They tell Pārvatī that she needs a doorguard who is loyal to her alone and who keeps his post whoever comes.

These Jayā and Vijayā are not the same as Jaya and Vijaya, the doorkeepers of Vaikuṇṭha in the Bhāgavatam.

The advice that led to Gaṇeśa

At Kailāsa, Bhagavān Śiva used to enter the private rooms of Pārvatī without warning and without any limit. Pārvatī had her own inner home, her own daily rites and her own circle. Yet no doorguard who was loyal to her alone could hold back Śiva, the lord of Kailāsa.

Jayā and Vijayā, her closest sakhīs, raised this with her. They said plainly that Pārvatī needed a doorguard of her own making. He would be loyal to her, not to Śiva or to the general order of Kailāsa. He would hold his post even when Śiva himself came. They said the answer lay in Pārvatī’s own power to create. She could make such a being from herself.

Their advice led straight to Pārvatī gathering the mardana piṇḍī (the rubbed-off matter) from her own body and creating Gaṇeśa. (Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Kumāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

Later role

The standoff between Gaṇeśa and Śiva grew, and Brahmā came as a go-between. Pārvatī then sent her words to Gaṇeśa through her sakhī. She told him to stand firm. (Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Kumāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 14)

Not the Jaya and Vijaya of Vaikuṇṭha

The names Jaya and Vijaya are also the names of the doorkeepers of Vaikuṇṭha in the Jaya-Vijaya-Śāpa narrative of the Bhāgavatam, Third Skanda. The Sanatkumāras cursed them to take three births as asuras. Those Jaya and Vijaya are male doorkeepers of the abode of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. They are entirely separate from the female companions of Pārvatī at Kailāsa.

Sources

  • Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Kumāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13
  • Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Kumāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 14
  • Bhāgavatam, Third Skanda (the Jaya-Vijaya-Śāpa narrative)