Parnashavari (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...

: Parṇaśabarī, Tibetan: ''Lomagyuma'' ), also spelt as Paranasavari (Paranasabari), is a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

deity adopted as

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

deity of diseases, worship of which is believed to offer effective protection against out-breaks of epidemics. Parnasabari is also depicted in some images of the Pala period found in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

, as a main goddess and escorted by Hindu deities

Jvarasura Jvara (), also called Jvarasura, is the personification of fever in Hindu tradition. He is the servant, and sometimes the attendant, of the pox-goddess, Shitala. Hinduism When Shiva was not invited to Daksha's yajna, his wife, Sati, was swept ...

and

Shitala Shitala (, International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) , also spelled as Sheetala, śītalā and Seetla, is a Hindu goddess venerated primarily in North India. She is regarded to be an incarnation of the goddess Parvati. She is b ...

. Both of these escorts are disease related Hindu deities. In India, the

Kurkihar hoard The Kurkihar hoard is a set of 226 bronzes, mostly Buddhist, dating to between the 9th and 12th centuries CE, which were found in Kurkihar near Gaya, India, Gaya in the Indian state of Bihar. The village of Kurkihar is situated about 5 km. ...

contains seven bronze images of Parnasabari belonging to 10th–12th century AD. In Buddhism, Parnasabari is depicted as an attendant of the Mother Goddess Tara. Some say that the term Parnasabari is an attempt to connect the deity with Vindya region, as Sabaras held a stronghold over the region.

References

{{Authority control Buddhist goddesses Tibetan Buddhist deities Hindu goddesses Forms of Parvati Avalokiteśvara Health goddesses Plague gods