Svaha

Burnt Offerings, Oblation & Sacrifices

As the goddess of burnt offerings, oblations, rituals and especially fire sacrifices, her name means good to call because invoking her name is a necessity in all fire rituals. After all, Svaha is the wife of the god of fire, Agni. While sacrifices are offered to Agni, it is her name which is invoked in hymns, chants and sutras which ask her to make sure their requests are accepted. Svaha also presides over the burnt offerings themselves and the act of surrending to the divine. As Agni's shakti, Svaha is the only being he cannot burn and it is even believed that Agni cannot sustain his fire, that he cannot continue to burn without her! And in To Rong Lua, Sanatanis see her as the goddess of fire all on her own. Svaha's own father is Daksha, father to countless goddesses such as Aditi and the Nakshastras. Svaha had fallen in love with Agni right away but he did not notice her. Instead, he was infatuated with six wives of the Saptarishis, ravishing women who he caught staring at him from time to time. But he also felt immense guilt for desiring married women and went to the forest to perform penance. Understanding his desire, Svaha approached him six times and took on the form of each of the wives to seduce him! She went on to become his wife, bearing three sons and one daughter, these being Pavamana, Pavaka, Suci and Agneya.

Depiction Svaha is depicted by bronze sculptures or painted in mandalas alongside Agni. She has six limbs which are considered to be the six Angas and as many as three heads, one yellow and two red. She is graceful, holding rosaries, gems, a stem of grains and a pot of gold. Sometimes she raises a sruk, a ladle used in ritual offerings, at a fire altar.