Buddhist goddess protecting children and childbirth
Hariti
Hariti is a Buddhist protector of children and childbirth, whose origins lie in a cannibal ogress of Iranian and Bactrian myth. Her story travelled from Central Asia to India and on to East Asia, and it is one of the clearest examples of how Buddhism absorbed figures from other traditions.
The myth
According to Iranian and Bactrian traditions, Hariti was a cannibal ogress who loved her hundreds of children and fed them by kidnapping and killing the children of other families. Her Avestan name, Harauhuti, shares a root with the Indian goddess Saraswati, although in Iran she appears as a demon. She is also considered the mother of the Indo-Iranian goddess Hurvatat.
With the arrival of Buddhism in Gandhara, the story changed. The mothers of her victims asked the Buddha for help, and he hid the youngest of Hariti's children, Aiji (called Pingala in Sanskrit accounts), under his alms bowl. She searched desperately through the whole universe and, unable to find him, appealed to the Buddha. He asked whether she could imagine the grief of the parents whose children she had devoured. Hariti admitted that their suffering must be far greater, vowed to protect all children, and from then on ate only pomegranates. The Buddha then revealed the boy hiding beneath his bowl.
Worship and religion
In China she is known as Guizimu and is one of the protective deities invited to the Shuilu Fahui, a multi-day rite of universal salvation. In Japan, as Kishimojin or Koyasu Kishibojin, she is venerated as a goddess of fertility and easy childbirth, and in Shingon and Nichiren Buddhism as a protector of children. Her veneration continues today.
Legacy
In China her story inspired zaju opera in the Song and Yuan dynasties, and the scene of the alms bowl, known as Jiebo, became a popular artistic motif.
Ancient sources: The Lotus Sutra, where she vows to protect its practitioners, and the Candragarbhasūtra, which names her as a protector. The Avesta records her ancient name, Harauhuti.
In art
Literature and theatre
- Lotus Sutra