The Development of Hindu Iconography c16.67.2

c16.67.2

for example, the passage śriyase kam bhānubhiḥ sam mimiskire (R.V., I. 87, 6) means ‘(the Maruts) wish to sprinkle rainwater with shining rays of the sun’. It must be observed, however, that in the early Saṃhitā texts, we find the names of other goddesses, more or less of an abstract character, which are reminiscent of the goddess Śrī-Lakṣmī of later texts. The name Purandhi (regarded by many as the Vedic form of Avestan Parendi) occurs about nine times in the Ṛgveda in the sense of the goddess of plenty; Rākā (probably from the root rā to give) is mentioned there only twice as a rich and beautiful goddess. Sinivālī, another very interesting goddess (she is called Viṣṇu's wife in the Atharvaveda, VIII. 46, 3) is also mentioned twice in the Ṛgveda. In Atharvaveda, II. 32, 6 and 7, she is described as the sister of the gods, fair-armed, fair-fingered, prolific and mistress of the family (viśpatnī), and is invoked for granting offspring; in X. 184, she and Sarasvatī are asked to bear progeny. In the later Vedic texts, however, Rākā and Sinivālī are connected with different phases of the moon, the former being the presiding deity of the full moon night (pūrṇimā), and the latter, the same of the new moon night (amāvasyā). After a careful comparison of Śrī-Lakṣmī with these Vedic goddesses, it cannot be clearly established that any one of the latter could have served as the sole prototype of the former.