Bhumi is the Hindu goddess of the earth and is also known as Bhudevi, Dharani, and Vasundhara. She is often depicted as a beautiful woman seated on a lotus, and her vehicle is an owl. She is regarded to be a form of the Goddess Lakshmi.
Bhumi features prominently in the Mahabharata and various Puranas. In Hindu mythology, Bhumi’s narrative is closely linked with the god Vishnu’s third avatar, Varaha, who rescues her from the demon Hiranyaksha. After this rescue, Varaha marries Bhumi, and they have a son named Mangala. Bhumi also bears Narakasura, an asura, due to Hiranyaksha’s influence.
Bhumi is described to be born as Satyabhama, the consort of Krishna, to assist in slaying Narakasura. The Alvar saint Andal is also considered an avatar of Bhudevi. In certain Vaishnava traditions, Bhumi is regarded as Vishnu’s secondary consort alongside Lakshmi, with some sects, such as Sri Vaishnavism, even viewing her as an aspect of Lakshmi.
Varahi is also used as the name of the consort of Varaha, who is identified with Bhumi (the earth goddess). This consort is depicted in a human form. She is especially revered in South India.
Iconography
Bhudevi is depicted as seated on a platform that rests on the back of four elephants, representing the four cardinal directions. She is usually portrayed with four arms, holding a pomegranate, a water vessel, a bowl containing healing herbs, and another bowl containing vegetables, respectively. She is also sometimes depicted with two hands, the right hand holding a blue lotus known as Kumuda or Utpala, the night lotus, while the left hand may indicate the pose of Abhayamudra, the fearlessness or the Lolahasta Mudra, which is an aesthetic pose meant to mimic the tail of a horse. Bhumi is often shown alongside Vishnu and Lakshmi or with Varaha.
Bhumi’s Birth
There are various versions of Bhumi’s birth in Hindu scriptures.
Some of the versions of Bhumi’s birth in the Puranas involved a physical earth that then became a goddess. But Mahabharata mentions Bhumi as the daughter of the creator god Brahma.
In one version of the first kind, during the period of floods, the earth was in a liq¬uid state. Siva cut his thigh and let a drop of blood fall into the water. It coagu¬lated as an egg (anda), which Siva split open. Man (Purusha, the cosmic man) emerged, and from him was made nature (Prakriti). One half of the eggshell became the sky and the other the earth.
In The Devi Bhagavata Purana, in the beginning, Mahavishnu lay on the surface of the waters. A lotus sprang from his navel, and on its blossom sat Brahma. From Vishnu’s earwax was born two demons Madhu and Kaitabha who tried to harm Brahma, so Vishnu killed them. The demons’ fat hardened into the earth.
Varaha Kalpa
Bhumi is the consort of the Varaha avatar of Lord Vishnu. According to the Puranas, during the Satya Yuga, the demon Hiranyaksha kidnapped Bhumi and hid her in the primordial waters. Upon the request of the gods, Vishnu took the avatar (incarnation) of Varaha to rescue her. Varaha slew the demon and retrieved the Earth from the depths of the ocean, lifting it on his tusks. He restored Bhumi to her rightful place in the universe and proceeded to marry her.
Prithu:
One of the most well-recounted legends of Bhumi is her episode with the emperor of the world, Prithu. When Prithu hears that his people are starving because the earth has withdrawn most of her vegetation, he furiously chases her in the form of a cow. She submits, allowing herself to be milked so that living beings can be nourished again.
She appeared in the Narasimha myth to catch Prahlada, the demon devotee of Vishnu, when Prahlada was thrown from a high building by his father Hiranyakasipu.
In the epic Ramayana, she is mentioned as the mother of Sita.
Children:
Narakasura was the firstborn of Bhumi. There are two stories about Narakasura’s birth. In the first one, he was the first son of Bhumi and Varaha. He was born when Bhumi requested Varaha for a son. Narakasura later performed penance to receive a boon that only his mother would be able to kill him. In the second one, Narakasura’s father was Hiranyaksha and was born when Hiranyaksha’s horns touched Bhumi. Narakasura is believed to have been the founder of the legendary Bhauma dynasty among the Boro people.
Mangala, according to Vaishnava tradition, was the son of Varaha and Bhumi.
Satyabhama avatar
The scriptures narrate how Bhumi took the incarnation as a human to slay her son, Narakasura. According to the legend, after receiving his desired boon, Narakasura grew arrogant and drunk with his power. He started capturing women and forcefully made them his wives. He captured nearly 16,000 women. He wrested control of heaven from Indra and no deity was able to defeat him because of his boon. Narakasura even took the earrings of Indra’s mother, Aditi, and gave them to his mother, Bhumi. Bhumi was requested by the devas to slay her son. She manifested herself upon the earth as Satyabhama, the daughter of Satrajit. Satyabhama married Krishna, and the couple waged war on Narakasura. She finally beheaded the demon with her husband’s Sudarshana Chakra, thus fulfilling the prophecy that the asura could only be killed by his mother.
