Lakshmi, goddess of fortune, began life as a Vedic word for auspiciousness
One of Hinduism's most widely worshipped goddesses barely appears in the oldest hymns. The Rigveda uses her name once, meaning a lucky mark. Her other name, Shri, crops up around 130 times. Over centuries that abstract idea of glory and kingly rank became a lotus-throned deity at Vishnu's side.
Lakshmi presides over wealth, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty and abundance, and alongside Parvati and Sarasvati she makes up the Tridevi, a trio of great goddesses. Her roots reach into pre-Buddhist times, roughly 1500 to 500 BCE, yet her rise was gradual. Later Vedic texts, above all the Shri Suktam, personified the concept of shri, and by the late epic period around 400 CE she had become firmly linked with Vishnu as his consort.
That partnership travels with him. Whenever Vishnu takes an avatar on earth, Lakshmi comes too: as Sita beside Rama, and as Radha or Rukmini beside Krishna. In Vaishnavism she is more than a wife. She is his shakti, or divine energy, and helps him create, protect and transform the cosmos. The Sri Vaishnavism tradition goes further, treating devotion to her as essential for reaching Vishnu at all, while Shaktism honours her as the prosperity aspect of the supreme goddess.
Her name comes from Sanskrit roots meaning to perceive or understand, and a goal or aim, which gives it a sense of knowing what you are striving for. Some linguists see a shade of difference between her two names: Shri suggests general auspiciousness, Lakshmi more concrete material wealth. In Tamil she becomes Ilakkumi or Tiru. Many of her epithets revolve around the lotus, such as Padma and Kamala.
Artists show her golden and richly dressed, seated or standing on a lotus, with four hands standing for dharma, kama, artha and moksha. Gaja-Lakshmi images add two elephants for fertility and royal power, though Gupta-era coins and sculpture pair her only with lions. Coins and finds suggest she was revered by the first millennium BCE, and her statues turn up in Southeast Asian temples. Deepavali, Sharad Purnima and a Lakshmi Puja during Navaratri are celebrated in her honour.
Source: Lakshmi
