Dakshiṇā Devī
Dakshiṇā Devī, “the Devī of the sacrificial gift”
Dakshiṇā Devī is the śakti (power) of ritual giving. She is the devī of every dakshiṇā (the fee or gift given to the priests) offered in yajñas and sacred works. The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, in its Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, tells how she came to be.
She was once Suśīlā, a beloved gopī and close companion of Rādhā in Goloka. Rādhā laid a śāpa (curse) on her, and she left Goloka. After long tapas (austerity) she merged into the form of Mahālakshmī. Later Śrī Nārāyaṇa drew her out and gave her to Yajña, the deva of the yajña (fire ritual), as his wife. In this way every yajña is completed with its power to give fruit. The Vāmana Purāṇa tells that when Bhagavān Śiva destroyed Daksha‘s yajña, Dakshiṇā fled into the sky with the Yajña, who had taken the form of a divine deer.
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa gives her birth in another way. There Dakshiṇā is born of an aṃśa (portion) of Devī Lakshmī, who never leaves Bhagavān Vishṇu, as the daughter of Ruci Prajāpati and Ākūti, the daughter of Svāyambhuva Manu. Her brother Yajña, born with her, is Bhagavān Vishṇu himself, come as an avatāra in the form of the yajña. Dakshiṇā loved him and they were married, and their twelve sons became the Tushita devas of the Svāyambhuva manvantara. Brahmā, telling Nārada of the avatāras of Śrī Hari, names her husband Suyajña and her sons the Suyamas.
Who she is
Dakshiṇā Devī is the energy that completes and fulfils every sacred act. Without her even the greatest yajña bears no fruit, like a tree without fruit. She is a part (aṃśa) of Mahālakshmī, born from her left side, and so she shares the nature of Śrī: the power to give the fruit of right action. She is the wife of Yajña-devatā (the spirit of the yajña) and the mother of a son who gives the reward of finished karma.
The Prakṛti Khaṇḍa says that the Kāṇva-śākhā of the Vedic tradition keeps her dhyāna (meditation verse), stotra (hymn of praise) and pūjā. This shows that her ārādhanā was part of the Vedic yajña tradition. Her mūla mantra (root mantra) is:
Oṃ Śrīṃ Klīṃ Kraiṃ Dakshiṇāyai Svāhā
She is honoured in a śālagrāma or a kalaśa (water pot), with the shoḍaśopacāra pūjā (pūjā with sixteen offerings).
Origin: Suśīlā in Goloka
In the eternal Bṛndāvana of Goloka lived a gopī named Suśīlā. She was beautiful and graceful, skilled in the art of love and rasa, and one of Rādhā‘s closest friends. She was devoted to Śrī Kṛshṇa, and he favoured her. One day Kṛshṇa was found in Suśīlā’s company. When Rādhā came, Śrī Kṛshṇa withdrew from sight. Rādhā then turned to Suśīlā.
Rādhā laid a śāpa on Suśīlā: if she stayed in Goloka from that moment, she would be burned to ashes. Suśīlā was struck with grief and left Goloka at once. For a long time she did hard tapas aimed at Śrī Kṛshṇa. By the power of that tapas she at last merged into the body of Mahālakshmī herself.
Coming out as Dakshiṇā
After Suśīlā merged into Mahālakshmī, the devas found that their yajñas no longer bore fruit. The power that completes ritual action had left the world. In distress the devas went to Brahmā, who sent them to Śrī Nārāyaṇa. Nārāyaṇa reached into the body of Mahālakshmī and drew out the form of Suśīlā. She was now called Bhū-Lakshmī, or Dakshiṇā. He presented her to Brahmā. Brahmā in turn gave her to Yajña-devatā, the ruler of the yajña, so that she might bring every righteous act to its purpose.
Yajña-devatā saw Dakshiṇā’s shining beauty. She had a golden colour and wide lotus eyes, and she glowed like a billion moons. She was decorated with jewels and held a garland. He was filled with love and at once made a stotra in her praise. Brahmā performed their vivāha (marriage). For a hundred divine years they lived together in a forest grove. Dakshiṇā carried their child in her womb for twelve divine years. The son born from this union became the deva who gives the fruit of all good works (satkarmans) to those who do them.
Yajña-devatā’s stotra to Dakshiṇā
When Yajña-devatā first saw Dakshiṇā, he praised her. He said that she was once Suśīlā, Rādhā‘s dear friend and chief among the gopīs. He said she arose from the right side (dakshiṇa-aṃśa) of Kṛshṇa on Kārtika Pūrṇimā in Goloka, and that this is why her name is Dakshiṇā. He said that she gives the fruit of all good works, and that without her even Brahmā, Vishṇu, Śaṅkara and the Parabrahman Śrī Kṛshṇa himself cannot give the fruit of ritual action. He called her Kāntā and said she is his śakti in every birth and in every act.
The phala-śruti (the verse on the fruit of reciting) of the stotra says that one who recites it at the start of any yajña will finish the ritual without obstacles. It especially ensures that the great yajñas (Rājasūya, Vājapeya, Gomedha and Aśvamedha) are finished without a break.
The duty to give dakshiṇā
The Prakṛti Khaṇḍa speaks at length about the duty to give dakshiṇā promptly after any good work. If the performer of a yajña does not give the fee when the work is finished, the amount grows:
- After a muhūrta (a short moment): it doubles.
- After one night: it grows sixfold.
- After three nights: tenfold.
- After one week: twentyfold.
- After one month: a lakh-fold (one hundred thousand times).
- After one year: thirty million times. Even so, the work itself becomes nirarthaka (without fruit).
A man who holds back dakshiṇā for a full year is counted as one who has stolen a brāhmaṇa’s property. He becomes unfit for further good works. Lakshmī leaves his house. The pitṛs (ancestors) refuse his śrāddha, and the devas refuse his offerings of pūjā. He falls into the Kumbhīpāka naraka (hell) for a lakh of years. When he is born again, he suffers disease and poverty, and he drags seven generations of his ancestors into suffering.
The giver who holds back dakshiṇā and the receiver who refuses it fall together, like a rope and a bucket falling into a well when the rope breaks.
The fruit of sacred works done without dakshiṇā does not go to the doer. It goes to Bali Cakravartī, as Bhagavān Vāmana ordained. The same is true of the fruit of śrāddhas held for those who do not know the Veda (aśrotriya), of casual gifts, of offerings made without ṛtvikas (officiating priests), and of works done without śraddhā (faith).
At Daksha’s yajña
The Vāmana Purāṇa, told by Pulastya Maharshi to Nārada, shows Dakshiṇā at the side of Yajña when Daksha‘s yajña was destroyed. Bhagavān Śiva came to the yajña hall, and by the fire blazing in his three eyes everything there was burned to ash in a moment. As soon as the yajña fires went out, the devatā of the Yajña took a divine deer form and flew up into the path of the sky, together with Dakshiṇā. Seeing the Yajña run, Maheśvara, in the form of Kāla (Time), fixed the Pāśupatāstra on his bow and went after it. He struck the yajña-deer with his arrows, and by their force the deer, freed from all its pains, remained in the sky together with the stars (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 5).
Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa
Born of Lakshmī as the daughter of Ruci
Maitreya Maharshi tells Vidura that Svāyambhuva Manu and Śatarūpā Devī had three daughters, Ākūti, Devahūti and Prasūti. With Śatarūpā’s consent Manu gave Ākūti in marriage to Ruci Prajāpati, on the condition of the putrikā-dharma, that her first son would be given to her father. To the revered Ruci, who had the radiance of brahman through meditation on Parameśvara, Ākūti bore a boy and a girl.
The boy was Śrī Mahāvishṇu himself, who took avatāra as the child named Yajña, who stands for the yajña taught in the Veda. Devī Lakshmī never leaves Bhagavān Vishṇu, and so by an aṃśa of herself she was born as the girl named Dakshiṇā. The girl stands for the wealth that the yajamāna gives to the ṛtvijas in a yajña.
Svāyambhuva Manu, greatly pleased, took the boy Yajña, the son of his daughter, to his own house, and Ruci Prajāpati raised Dakshiṇā with himself.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 1
Wife of Yajña and mother of the Tushitas
Bhagavān Vishṇu, master of mantras and yajñas, was in the form of Yajña. Dakshiṇā, the avatāra of Lakshmī, loved him, and he married her; both were glad. Twelve sons were born to them. Their names, with the meaning of each:
- Tosha: the joy of the yajamāna when he resolves to perform a yajña.
- Pratosha: his joy while the yajña goes on without obstacle.
- Santosha: his full joy when he completes the yajña and gives the dakshiṇās.
- Bhadra: the performance of the Vedic rites is auspicious.
- Śānta: the peace of mind when the yajña is completed in due order.
- Iḍaspati: the king who rules the earth.
- Idhma: the bundle of samidhs used in the yajña.
- Kavi: the knowledge of yajña.
- Vibhu: the capacity to perform the yajña.
- Svahna: the days on which the yajña runs are good days.
- Sudeva: the yajamāna is himself a form of Īśvara.
- Rocana: the great radiance that comes to the yajamāna from the yajña.
In the Svāyambhuva manvantara these twelve were the devas called the Tushitas, “those who have joy”; Marīci and the others were the seven maharshis; and Yajña himself was Indra, the master of the deva-gaṇas.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 1
Wife of Suyajña
Brahmā, telling Nārada of the līlā-avatāras of Śrī Hari, says that Parameśvara was born as the son of Ruci Prajāpati in Ākūti and became famous as Suyajña. He married Dakshiṇā and begot in her the devatās called the Suyamas. He himself became their lord and removed the troubles of the three worlds, and for that reason Svāyambhuva Manu gave him the name Hari, “he who takes away troubles”.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 7
Sources
- Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 42
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 5
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 7; Skandha 4, Chapter 1