Santoshi Mata

Santoshi Mata (Hindi: संतोषी माता) or Santoshi Maa (संतोषी माँ) is a Hindu goddess, who is venerated as "the Mother of Satisfaction", the meaning of her name. Santoshi Mata is particularly worshipped by women of North India and Nepal. A vrata (ritual fast) called the Santoshi Maa vrata is performed by women on 16 consecutive Fridays to win the goddess' favour.

Santoshi Maa's prayers 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 ("Victory to Santoshi Maa")—narrating the story of the goddess and her ardent devotee Satyavati—which propelled this then little-known goddess to the heights of devotional fervour among Indian Hindus. 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. She maybe considered a deity and Kuladevi of some people in Rajasthan according to certain people on media platforms.

The 1975 film Jai Santoshi Maa elevated Santoshi Mata, a little-known goddess to the pan-Indian Hindu pantheon. The screenings of the film were accompanied by religious rituals by the audience. Some of the audience entered the theatre barefoot, as in a Hindu temple, and small shrines and temples dedicated to the goddess, started gaining popularity all over North India. The film attained cult status and years after its release, special matinee Friday screenings were organized for women, who observed the goddess' Friday vrata (ritual fast) and engaged in her worship. The success of this low-budget film and media reports of the "sudden emergence of a celluloid goddess resulted in scholarly interest in Santoshi Mata.

Santoshi Mata emerged more popularly in the early 1960s with five widely spread temples in North India. Her iconography also became more defined in this period and it slowly spread through poster art. Her worship spread among women through word of mouth, pamphlet literature, and poster art. It was the wife of Vijay Sharma, the director of Jai Santoshi Maa, who urged her husband to "spread the goddess's message".

As her film brought her to limelight, Santoshi Ma became one of the important and widely worshiped goddesses in India, taking her place in poster-art form in the altar rooms of millions of Hindu homes. [...] Yet it is hard to conceive that Santoshi Ma could have granted such instant satisfaction to so many people had she not been part of a larger and already well-integrated culture of the Goddess. Her new devotees could immediately recognize many of her characteristic moods and attributes, and feel them deeply, because she shared them with other goddesses long since familiar to them. Santoshi Mata's iconography is a familiar form of the Hindu goddesses. Santoshi Mata's characteristic posture standing or sitting on a lotus mirrored that of the goddess Lakshmi (Shri). The weapons she held—the sword and the trident—are also attributes of the goddess Durga. The story of Santoshi Mata and Satyavati from Jai Santoshi Maa is similar to other Hindu legends like those of sati Anusuya, who humbled the pride of the jealous goddess triad and of an ardent devotee—of the goddess Manasa—who has to face opposition from her family and other goddesses to worship her patron Manasa.

A temple dedicated to Santoshi Mata existed in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, before the release of the film Jai Santoshi Maa, but it was also dedicated to the goddess known as Lal Sagar ki Mata—The Mother of the Lal Sagar Lake (Santoshi) , on whose banks the temple is situated. However, Lal Sagar ki Mata unlike the vegetarian Santoshi Mata, was offered animal sacrifices. With rising popularity of the film, Santoshi Mata images and shrine were more and more incorporated in Hindu temples.

The Santoshi Maa vrata was gaining popularity among women in North India before the release of the film Jai Santoshi Maa. The fact that Santoshi Mata expected the inexpensive raw sugar and roasted chickpeas—associated with the "non-elite"—as offerings in her vrata and her benevolent nature made her popular with the masses. The film was instrumental in spreading the Santoshi Mata worship to the illiterate, who until then could not have known the written vrata katha (legend related to the vrata).

The Santoshi Mata vrata or devotional fast is to be observed on 16 successive Fridays or until one's wish is fulfilled. The devotee should perform a puja (worship) of Santoshi Mata and offer her flowers, incense and a bowl of raw sugar and roasted chickpeas (gur-chana). The devotee wakes up early morning, remembering the Goddess. Only one meal is taken during the fast day, and devotees avoid eating bitter or sour food and serving these to others, as sour or bitter food is somewhat addictive and hinders satisfaction. When the wish is granted, a devotee must then organize an udyapan ("bringing to conclusion") ceremony, where eight boys are to be served a festive meal.