page_title: Santoshi Mata
section_title: Jai Santoshi Maa
hierarchical_section_title: Santoshi Mata / Legends / Jai Santoshi Maa
caption_attribution_description: English: Ganapati with Riddhi and Siddhi. Printed at Ravi Varma Press, Malavli near Lonavala, Maharashtra. മലയാളം: ഗണപതി രിദ്ധിയോടും സിദ്ധിയോടുമൊപ്പം. രവിവർമ്മ പ്രസിൽ അച്ചടിച്ച ചിത്രം.
context_page_description: Santoshi Mata or Santoshi Maa is a goddess in the Hindu folklore. She is venerated as "the Mother of Satisfaction", the meaning of her name. Santoshi Mata is particularly worshipped by women of North India. A vrata called the Santoshi Maa vrata performed by women on 16 consecutive Fridays wins the goddess' favour.
  Santoshi Mata emerged as a goddess in the early 1960s. Her prayer initially spread through word of mouth, vrata-pamphlet literature, and poster art. Her vrata was gaining popularity with North Indian women. However, it was the 1975 Bollywood film Jai Santoshi Maa —narrating the story of the goddess and her ardent devotee Satyavati—which propelled this then little-known "new" goddess to the heights of devotional fervour. With the rising popularity of the film, Santoshi Mata entered the pan-Indian Hindu pantheon and her images and shrines were incorporated in Hindu temples. The film portrayed the goddess to be the daughter of the popular Hindu god Ganesha and related her to the Raksha Bandhan festival, however, it had no basis in Hindu scriptures.
context_section_description: The film Jai Santoshi Maa links the birth of Santoshi Mata to the festival of Raksha Bandhan, where a sister ties a rakhi string bracelet on her brother's wrist and the brother gifts his sister sweets, gifts and a promise of protection. When Ganesha's sister Manasa celebrates the festival with him, his sons ask Ganesha to grant them a sister. Although Ganesha initially refuses, upon the repeated pleas of his two wives Riddhi and Siddhi, sons, sister and the divine sage Narada, Ganesha creates Santoshi Mata through two flames rising from his wives' breasts. Narada decreed that this mind-born daughter of Ganesha will always fulfil everyone’s desires and thus, would be called Santoshi Maa, the Mother of Satisfaction.
  The film then shifts from the heavenly abode of Ganesha to the earth, where the story of the goddess's devotee Satyavati is told. Satyavati, prays to the goddess, to get her married to Birju and after her wish is granted, she undertakes a pilgrimage of the temples of Santoshi Mata with her husband. The mischievous Narada incites the jealousy of the goddesses Brahmani, Lakshmi and Parvati (Ganesha's mother, thus Santoshi Mata's grandmother)—wives of the Hindu Trinity of gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva respectively—towards the "new" goddess Santoshi Mata. The goddess triad unleash their wrath on Satyavati. Like the vrata katha, Birju leaves to make a fortune. The goddess triad spread the rumour that Birju is dead and the lone "widow" Satyavati is tormented by her sisters-in-law. Birju forgets about Satyavati, but on the fulfilment of the Friday vrata by Satyavati, Santoshi Mata appears in Birju's dream and reminds him of his wife. Birju returns home a rich man and establishes a separate household with Satyavati. At the udayan ceremony, Satyavati's sisters-in-law mix sour food in the ritual meal, to be served to eight boys. Santoshi Mata punishes the sisters-in-law by crippling them and their sons who have the ritual meal, fall dead. Satyavati is blamed for this misfortune. But, finally when Satyavati prays to the goddess, the goddess appears before Satyavati and restores the boys and their mothers. Satyvati's kin then ask for the goddess' forgiveness. Ultimately, the goddess triad also repent and say that they were just testing Satyavati's devotion. Narada finally asks the goddess triad, their husbands and Ganesha to bless Santoshi Mata, which Lutgendorf interprets as an explicit confirmation to the new goddess's incorporation in the Hindu pantheon.
caption: Ganesha with consorts Riddhi and Siddhi, who are portrayed as Santoshi Mata's parents in the film Jai Santoshi Maa. However, this claim has no basis in the ancient Hindu scriptures.[1]
exif: {"Image Make": "HP", "Image Model": "HP pst2600", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image PageName": "5?633007715553593750?37559?0?1?0:149:211?C:\\Documents and Settings\\HP_Owner\\My Documents\\NETRESULT\\Cymroza\\Rare\\gayatria.jpg", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "396", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:12:03 18:27:33", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "461", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "640", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF DeviceSettingDescription": "[0, 1, 0, 7, 32, 32, 32, 48, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 55, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 56, ... ]"}