ORIENTAL SERIES.

176
LAKSHML
him and conveyed him bodily to heaven. 2. A son of Dur-
yodhana, killed by Abhimanyu.
LAKSHMl The word occurs in the jf&g-veda with the
sense of good fortune, and in the Atharva-veda the idea has
become personified in females both of a lucky and unlucky char-
acter. The Taittiiiya Sanhita, as explained by the commenta-
tor, makes Lakshml and Sri to be two wives of Aditya, and the
Satapatha Briihmawa describes Sn as issuing
forth from Pra-
japati.
Lakshml or Sri in later times is the goddess of fortune, wife
of Vislmu, and mother of Kama. The origin ascribed to her by
the Ramaya^a is the one commonly received. According to this
legend she sprang, like Aphrodite, from the froth of the ocean, in
full beauty with a lotus in her hand, when it was churned by the
gods and the Asuras. Another legend represents her as floating
on the flower of a lotus at the creation. With reference to this
origin, one of her names is Kshlrabdhi-tanaya, daughter of the
sea of milk/ Erom her connection with the lotus she is called
Padma. According to the Puranas, she was the daughter of
Bhrigu and Khyati. The Vishvm Purima
"
says, Her first
birth was the daughter of Bhngu by Khyati. It was at a sub-
sequent period that she was produced from the sea at the churn-
ing of the ocean. . . . When Hari was born as a dwarf, Lakshml
appeared from a lotus (as Padma or Kamala). When he
was born as Rama of the race of Blmgu (or Parasu-rama), she
was Dharam. When he was Raghava (Rama-chandra), she was
Slta. And when he was Krishna she became Rukmim. In
the other descents of Yishnu she is his associate." One version
of the Ramayafta also affirms that " Lakshml,
the mistress of
the worlds, was born by her own will, in a beautiful field
and received from Janaka the name
opened up by the plough,"
of Slta.
Lakshml is said to have four arms, but she is the type of
beauty, and is generally depicted as having only two. In one
"
hand she holds a lotus. She has no temples, but being god-
dess of abundance and fortune, she continues to be assiduously
courted, and is not likely to fall into neglect." Other names of
Lakshml are Hira, Indira, Jalaclhi-ja,
*
ocean born j* Chanchala
*
or Lola, the fickle,' as goddess of fortune ;
t
Loka-mata, mother
of the world.'