India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c11.s1.6

c11.s1.6

*POST-VEDIC DEITIES.* The most important of these is goddess Pārvatī four of whose names are mentioned, *viz.* (1) Bhavānī, (2) Śarvāṇī, (3) Rudrāṇī and (4) Mṛiḍānī (IV. 1. 49). This worship was a feature of the Sūtra period. The Vedas refer to their male counterparts such as Bhava, Śarva, Rudra and Mṛiḍa. The *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* mentions Rudra, Śarva, and Bhava as forms of Agni (VI.1.3.18), and makes the important statement that the name Śarva was popular in the Prāchya country, and Bhava in the Vāhīka region (*Śarva iti yathā Prāchyā āchakshate, Bhava iti yathā Vāhīkāḥ*, ŚB., I.7.3.8). It may, therefore, be inferred that the names Śarvāṇī and Bhavānī were local designations of the one and the same Mother Goddess. Similarly Rudrāṇī and Mṛiḍānī may have been other local epithets of the same deity.