Dhana Lakṣmī (धन लक्ष्मी) is the aspect of the goddess Lakṣmī that presides over dhana, wealth in its most literal sense: money, gold, treasure. Within the Aṣṭalakṣmī, the eightfold litany of the goddess popular especially in South India, she is the form most immediately recognisable as the Lakṣmī of common devotion, the goddess petitioned at shopfronts and household shrines for solvency and plenty.
Iconography
She is depicted in red garments, often six-armed, bearing the discus, conch, water-pot, bow and arrow and lotus, with one hand pouring an unending stream of gold coins, the image that has become shorthand for the goddess herself. The overflowing pot, the pūrṇa-kumbha, stands behind much of this imagery: abundance that fills and spills over rather than hoards.
The story
South Indian tradition attaches to her the tale of Viṣṇu's debt: as Veṅkaṭeśvara at Tirupati, the god is said to have borrowed from Kubera, treasurer of the gods, to meet the expenses of his wedding, and devotees' offerings help him repay the loan until the end of the age. Dhana Lakṣmī, tradition holds, was released by her grace to make the repayment possible, a story that quietly subordinates even divine wealth to the goddess who is wealth. In worship she is invoked with the rest of the eight, and with particular warmth at Dīpāvalī and Varalakṣmī Vratam, the festivals of the fortune-bringing goddess.
Further reading
- Bhattacharyya, N. N. History of the Sakta Religion. Munshiram Manoharlal, 1996
- Coburn, Thomas B. Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devi-Mahatmya. State University of New York Press, 1991
- Kinsley, David. Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine. University of California Press, 1986
- Kinsley, David. Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas. University of California Press, 1997
- Sircar, D. C. The Sakta Pithas. Motilal Banarsidass, 1973
See also
This entry was last revised on 31 July 2026.