Santāna Lakṣmī (संतान लक्ष्मी) presides over santāna, offspring, within the Aṣṭalakṣmī, the eight aspects of the goddess of fortune. Her inclusion in the litany encodes a very old Indian understanding: that children are wealth, and childlessness a poverty no treasury can remedy. The continuity of the family line, the presence of children in the house, and their health and character all fall within her gift.
Iconography
She is depicted with a child on her lap or at her hip, the infant sometimes reaching for a lotus in her hand, while her other arms hold pots, a shield and sword, or the gesture of protection; some descriptions give her six arms. The mother-and-child image places her in a long line of Indian goddesses of progeny and guardianship, and her worship overlaps naturally with theirs.
Worship
Couples seeking children, and parents seeking the welfare of the children they have, invoke her within the Aṣṭalakṣmī liturgy, in vratas addressed to Lakṣmī, and at the eightfold shrines of South India where all her sisters stand together. Hers is among the most intimate petitions the litany admits, and the form of the goddess to whom it is addressed is accordingly the gentlest of the eight.
Further reading
- Bhattacharyya, N. N. History of the Sakta Religion. Munshiram Manoharlal, 1996
- Cutler, Norman. Songs of Experience: The Poetics of Tamil Devotion. Indiana University Press, 1987
- Hawley, John Stratton. A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement. Harvard University Press, 2015
- 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
See also
This entry was last revised on 31 July 2026.