Devalok
How a tradition frames it · 1 telling · Pan-India

The quarrel of Saraswati, Ganga and Lakshmi

Who is in it

  • Saraswati curses Lakshmi and Ganga; cursed to be a river
  • Ganga curses Saraswati; cursed in turn
  • Lakshmi the peacemaker, cursed to be a plant and a river
  • Vishnu the husband who settles their fates

The story, beat by beat

  1. Saraswati, Ganga and Lakshmi live with Hari in Vaikuntha.
  2. Saraswati grows angry at glances between Ganga and Hari and reproaches him; he leaves the room.
  3. Lakshmi holds Saraswati back from Ganga, and Saraswati curses Lakshmi to become a plant and a river.
  4. Ganga curses Saraswati to become a river on earth, and Saraswati curses Ganga likewise.
  5. Hari returns and rules: Lakshmi will be Tulasi and the river Padmavati, Ganga will go to Shiva, Saraswati to Brahma, each a river in part.

quarrel curse river descent

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Devi Bhagavata Purana 9.6

Pan-India Shakta

Narayana tells Narada why Sarasvati is a river in Bharata: a quarrel among Hari's three wives ended in mutual curses, and Hari sent Sarasvati in part to earth as a river and in full to Brahma, Ganga to Shiva and to earth through Bhagiratha, and Lakshmi to be born as Tulasi.

The Srimad Devi Bhagawatam, tr. Swami Vijnanananda (1921-22), Book 9 chapters 6-7 § 9.6.1-67

Sources: The Srimad Devi Bhagawatam, tr. Swami Vijnanananda (1921-22), Book 9 chapters 6-7

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