The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c20.s5.16

v1.c20.s5.16

Another deity which is of importance in the popular thought, but which is very late in appearing in the literature, is the goddess Çrī, first definitely recorded in literature in the Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa.³ She was, however, as we know from representations of her which are found among the early records of Buddhist art,⁴ really a concrete goddess in the eyes of her votaries, though there is no reason to doubt her abstract origin. It is very possible, however, that she was assimilated to the goddess of the earth, which as Bhūmi is not rarely mentioned in the Sūtra literature. Çrī appears in the Sūtra literature, where we find at the offering to the All-gods that it is prescribed to make offerings at the end of the bed to Çrī, at the foot to Bhadrakālī, and in the privy to Sarvānnabhūti.⁵ Bhadrakālī suggests of course the name of Çiva’s fierce wife Kālī, and carries us to the very end of Vedic ideas, since Kālī does not occur in any Vedic text: the other two though localized cannot be regarded as in origin other than abstract deities, Sondergötter,⁶ having regard to the somewhat unimportant and artificial character of the place allotted to Çrī, and to the consideration that the names occur only in a list of oblations to the All-gods, and not in a separate list. In post-Vedic mythology Çrī or Lakṣmī is the wife of Viṣṇu, but of these conceptions the Veda save at the close is ignorant.⁷