Devi Shri, the Lakshmi from South East Asia

Whereas Lakshmi came out of the ocean as a result of the Churning of ocean, Dewi Sri was born from the teardrop of Anta Boga, the serpent god. Do you think Anta Boga is another name of Ananta Nag? Not exactly, yet Anta Boga is the Naga god. However Anta Boga had neither legs nor arms. So when Batara Guru, the God of the gods directed that every god and goddess must contribute in building a new palace for him, Anta Boga went nervous. How would a serpent help in building a palace? Even Batara Narada, the younger brother of Batara Guru could not solve his issue. Three drops of tears from helpless Anta Boga's eyes fell on the ground. And the moment they touched the ground, they became three eggs shining like pearl. Batara Narada suggested him to present those eggs to Batara Guru who might accept those as his contribution to the palace.

On his way to meet Batara Guru, the serpent God met his friend eagle who asked him, “How are you Anta?” Having three eggs in his mouth, he could not reply which the Eagle considered to be his arrogance. He attacked the serpent God. Two of the eggs feel down before Anta could run away; only one reached to Batara Guru. From the egg was born a beautiful girl who was to be called Sanghyang Asri.   

In course of time, the girl grew so beautiful that not only some gods, even her foster father Batara Gutu were attracted to her. He decided to marry her. All the Gods wanted to keep the paradise free from this disgrace. They gave poison to the exquisitely beautiful girl. The innocent girl died instantly and she was buried deep under the earth.

As soon as she went under the earth, flora and fauna sprouted from her body. From her head grew cocoanut. Numerous verities of Spices and vegetable came from her nose, lips and ears. Fruit plants came up from her chest; grass and flowering plants from her hair. Her arms gave birth to woods and the thighs, bamboo. Her genitals became the field for sugar palm and the legs for tuber plants. Finally, from her belly button rose the staple for the human, Rice! The body of the beautiful Nyai Pohaci became the benevolent mother Goddess Dewi Sri after her death.

 

Dewi Sri from Wikimedia commons

Well this was the story from West Java. The other parts of Java have other stories about her. Another version says that God Kanekaputra owned a unique jewel, the Retna dumilah. Guru Batara wanted to see it.  Kanekaputra disrespectfully threw it to Guru and the later could not catch it. Antaboga the serpent god who was mediating in the ocean, swallowed the falling jewel. What’s more, he refused to hand it over to the gods when they came to him looking for it. However gods forced him meet Guru. Antaboga handed the jewel to Guru in a box that none could open. Guru threw it down and a beautiful maiden showed up in its place. The exquisitely beautiful girl was named Tisnawati. Guru fell so much in love with her that he wanted to marry her. But Tisnawati agreed on a condition. She wanted Guru to present her some kind of food that once eaten, would satisfy forever. once that food is found, she would marry him. Guru ordered one of the gods, Batara Kalagumarang to fulfill Tisnawati’s wishes.

Kalagumarang came to the earth in search of that wonder food.  Suddenly he saw the goddess Dewi Sri, the wife of the god Vishnu, bathing in the garden Banjaran sari. Obsessed Kalagumarang pursued her. When she denied his proposal, he demanded that Vishnu should surrender his wife to him. Vishnu and Sri disappeared from there and incarnated as the king and queen of the land of Mendangkamulan, while Kalagumarang turned into a pig. All these incidents delayed the search of the food Tisnawati wanted. She died in hunger waiting for the food which Kalagumarang should have brought. (Another version tales that the impatient Guru had violated Tisnawati before Kalagumarang returned and she died as a result of that). However, remorseful Guru called Kalagumarang the pig back from the earth and arranged the burial of Tisnawati in a forest in the kingdom of Mendangkamulan. As soon as she was buried, a coconut palm grew from her head. Rice plants grew from her genitals. Her hands bore bananas, legs bamboo, and other parts of body gave birth to maize, palms and many other kinds of plants. The pig Kalagumarang and his offspring turned into pests who still threaten the harvest of rice and other crops.

There are numerous stories of Dewi Sri telling tales of her brothers, their unions and separations in different births, how she taught humans to cultivate paddy which was once food for gods in heaven, how she sends rain in the monsoon to help cultivation, how she dispels hunger, her benevolence towards people, in Java, Bali and Indonesia. There are also stories of Sri and her consort Wishnu, their stories in the earth when reborn and Sinta and Rama or Rukmini and Kreshna or Subhadra and Arjuna. Note! Here Arjuna, the son of Pandu is an incarnation of Wishnu.    

Notable is, Dewi Sri does not have a mount like Indian Lakshmi' owl though snakes are closely related to her. In some stories, she herself is born as a snake. In fact both the Mother Goddess Dewi Sri, and snakes are the symbol of growth and fertility, both assure the growth of human population and their food, the rice. She is worshipped as Rice mother and Rice bride in entire Java. In Bali, palm leaf figurines of Nyai Pohaci the Cili goddess or Dewi Sri in an hourglass shape are placed in the fields to protect and promote fertility of wet rice. Same like that of Indian Lakshmi, the icon of Dewi Sri holds a pot in one hand and a bunch of rice crops in the other. In some sculptures she is seen with a hand gesture showing benevolence, peace and protection.