In modern

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Shaiva Shaivism (, , ) is one of the major Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the supreme being. It is the second-largest Hindu sect after Vaishnavism, constituting about 385 million Hindus, found widely across South Asia (predominantly in ...

tradition, Jyoti is sometimes considered to be the personification of the female principle, an embodied representation of the

vel Vel () is a divine spear associated with Murugan, the Tamil Hindu god of war. Significance According to Shaiva tradition, the goddess Parvati presented the Vel to her son Kartikeya(also known as Murugan), as an embodiment of her shakti, in ...

Murugan Kartikeya (/ kɑɾt̪ɪkejə/; ), also known as Skanda ( /skən̪d̪ə/), Subrahmanya (/ sʊbɾəɦməɲjə/, /ɕʊ-/), Shanmukha ( /ɕɑnmʊkʰə/) and Murugan (/ mʊɾʊgən/), is the Hindu god of war. He is generally described as the ...

Legends

The goddess has two different myths based on her birth. In the first myth, she emerges from

Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...

's halo, and is a physical manifestation of her father's grace. In the second myth, she is born from a spark from goddess

Parvati Parvati (, , IPA: /Sanskrit phonology, pɑɾʋət̪iː/), also known as Uma (, , IPA: Sanskrit phonology, /ʊmɑː/) and Gauri (, , IPA: /Sanskrit phonology, gə͡ʊɾiː/), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the Devi, ...

's forehead, similar to how

Muruga Kartikeya (/ kɑɾt̪ɪkejə/; ), also known as Skanda ( /skən̪d̪ə/), Subrahmanya (/ sʊbɾəɦməɲjə/, /ɕʊ-/), Shanmukha ( /ɕɑnmʊkʰə/) and Murugan (/ mʊɾʊgən/), is the Hindu god of war. He is generally described as the ...

is born from six sparks from

's forehead. From her, the

devi ''Devī'' (; ) is the Sanskrit word for 'goddess'; the masculine form is Deva (Hinduism), ''deva''. ''Devi'' and ''deva'' mean 'heavenly, divine, anything of excellence', and are also gender-specific terms for a deity in Hinduism. The concept ...

fashions a weapon that she presents to her son as a

. With this weapon,

destroys the asura Surapadman. It is believed that she is in a formless or ''arupa'' state in all of her brother Muruga's temples. She is also thought to be the flame that her father

Nataraja Nataraja (/ n̪əʈəɾɑd͡ʒᵊ/ ,, ; , ''Naṭarājar'' Telugu: నటరాజు,''Naṭarāju''), also known as Adalvallan (), is a depiction of Shiva, one of the main deities in Hinduism, as the divine cosmic dancer. His dance is ca ...

(a form of Shiva) holds.

Worship

In Shodasam, a major devotional composition by the sage

Agastya Agastya was a revered Indian sage of Hinduism. In the Indian tradition, he is a noted recluse and an influential scholar in diverse languages of the Indian subcontinent. He is regarded in some traditions to be a Chiranjivi. He and his wife ...

, the sage discovers and describes the role of the mother Manonmani, her husband (

in the form Sadisiva) and their daughter Jyoti who are present in the Ajna cakra upon the forehead for each day of the waxing and waning of moon. The sage also recounts that how Jyoti was born of the Pranava pillar of ‘Om'. The goddess is called Saravanabhavai due to her association with her brother, and is worshipped in her Vel form in many

temples. In some parts of India, she is identified with the goddess Rayaki, who is associated with the Vedic Raka. In North India, she is identified as the goddess Jwalaimukhi.

References

Hindu goddesses Weapons in Hindu mythology {{India-reli-bio-stub