Ashokasundariअशोकसुंदरी

Ashokasundari is a daughter of Shiva and Parvati known chiefly from the Padma Purāṇa, a figure of the literary tradition rather than of temple worship. Her name is read as the beautiful one who removes sorrow, for she was brought into being to dispel her mother's loneliness.

The story

The Padma Purāṇa tells that Parvati, shown the wish-fulfilling kalpavṛkṣa tree, asked of it a daughter to ease her solitude, and Ashokasundari was born of that wish. The narrative then follows the pattern of austerity rewarded: destined to marry Nahuṣa of the lunar dynasty, the king who would briefly occupy Indra's throne, she endures separation and trial, including an encounter with the demon Hunda, before the union is accomplished. Tradition thus places her within the dynastic mythology of the Purāṇas rather than in the divine household scenes of art.

Standing in the tradition

Unlike her brothers Ganesha and Kartikeya, Ashokasundari has left little mark on iconography or cult, and she is absent from most tellings of the Shiva family cycle. She has become far better known in recent decades through television retellings of the Purāṇic stories, which have given this once-obscure daughter of the divine household a new audience.