Santana Lakshmi is the fifth of the Ashta Lakshmi. Santana means offspring, a line of descent, a continuation, and the form is the Lakshmi of children and of the family going on. In a tradition that gives great weight to the household, the birth of a child is among the most welcome kinds of fortune, and this form speaks to that.
The subject needs gentleness, because many readers come to a page like this in hope or in sorrow about having children. Nothing here is a promise or a treatment. Medical questions about conceiving or carrying a child belong with a doctor, and the tradition itself has never claimed otherwise. We describe the goddess as devotees describe her.
Her place in the list
Santana Lakshmi is fifth in most hymns, after Gaja Lakshmi and before Veera Lakshmi. She is found in the commonest lists of the eight. The name is also written Santhana Lakshmi in southern spelling, and in a few lists the fifth place is taken by another form, such as Saubhagya Lakshmi.
Form and iconography
She is usually shown with six arms. The objects commonly listed are two pots (kalasha), a sword and a shield, a hand that gives a boon, and a hand that is raised in fearlessness. On her lap, or beside her, a child is shown, sometimes holding a lotus, and sometimes two children. She is seated on a lotus, with a crown and a sari that is usually yellow or orange.
The mix of the sword and shield with the child is a point devotional writers often make: the tradition imagines a mother who protects her child. In some images the child holds a lotus. Details differ from temple to temple, and a shrine with a different set of objects is following its own line.
What the tradition says
There is no single Purana story that belongs to Santana Lakshmi alone, and we do not make one up. She draws on several older ideas.
The first is the central place that Lakshmi has as the mother of the household. In the Shri Suktam (see the Shri Suktam page) she is asked to settle in the home, and the old texts take it for granted that a house needs her to be a house. The second is the Sanskrit tradition of the santana, the line of descent that carries a family name, its offerings to the ancestors and its duties. Prayer for a child in the old tradition is often a prayer for the continuity of the family and of rites such as the shraddha; the section on Pitru Paksha shows how the living and the dead are tied together in this view.
The third is the tradition of Santana Gopala, the child Krishna worshipped as a form of Vishnu by couples who wish for a child. The Santana Gopala mantra and puja are well known in the south and in Maharashtra. It is a separate practice, with its own texts, and we mention it only so that readers know the two are related in purpose and are not the same.
What the form means
In the tradition, this form is often taken to mean that children are the greatest of a family’s possessions. A gentler and wider reading is that Santana Lakshmi stands for continuity: of a name, of a craft, of a home, of the habits that a family hands on. Some readers find it a comfort that the tradition places children, whom money cannot buy, inside the family of the goddess’s gifts.
It is also worth saying plainly that families come in many shapes, and that a family without children has no less standing in the tradition. Adoption has an honoured place in the old texts, and a household can be full in many ways.
Where she is worshipped
Santana Lakshmi has a shrine in every Ashtalakshmi temple, including the Ashtalakshmi Kovil at Besant Nagar in Chennai, and the temple of that name in Hyderabad. She is also worshipped at home. In many parts of India, women pray to Lakshmi at the time of a baby’s birth and on special days in the life of a child, and the goddess is remembered in the naming ceremony. We do not give opening hours or rules; check each temple’s own site.
Festivals and customs
Friday is the weekday most associated with Lakshmi, and many women keep a lamp lit and a simple offering on that day. In the south, Varalakshmi Vratam, kept on the Friday before the full moon of Shravana, is a vow made by married women for the well-being of the family, and it is often described as including the wish for children. Its details are regional, and families follow their own custom.
At Diwali the Lakshmi puja is a family occasion, and children often take part; see the Diwali Lakshmi puja page. The Ahoi Ashtami fast, kept by mothers in the north for the well-being of their children on the eighth day of the dark half of Kartika, is not a Lakshmi observance, but it grows from the same concern; see the Ahoi Ashtami page. Hymns used in Lakshmi worship include the Mahalakshmi Ashtakam and the Lakshmi aarti.
For readers curious about the chart view of children, the fifth house is the house of children in Vedic astrology, and it is a matter of tendency and not of promise. If you are hoping for a child, please speak to a doctor.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Who is Santana Lakshmi?
Santana Lakshmi is the form of Lakshmi who stands for children and the continuity of the family. She is the fifth of the eight forms in most lists.
↳ What does Santana Lakshmi look like?
She is usually shown with six arms, holding two pots, a sword and a shield, with a child on her lap and hands that give a boon and fearlessness. Images differ from temple to temple.
↳ Is Santana Lakshmi the same as Santana Gopala?
No. Santana Gopala is the child Krishna, worshipped by couples hoping for a child, while Santana Lakshmi is a form of the goddess. The two practices share a purpose but have different texts.
↳ Does worshipping Santana Lakshmi help in having a child?
The tradition offers devotion and comfort and does not claim a medical result. Anyone hoping to conceive should speak to a doctor.
↳ When is Santana Lakshmi worshipped?
There is no single day. Fridays, Diwali and Varalakshmi Vratam in the south are the usual times of Lakshmi worship, and families follow their own customs.