Narrative of the sixth goddess

This Shashti Puja is one of the festivals of Hindu society. According to the Skanda Purana, Devi Sasthi is Kartika's wife. She is Brahma's Manas daughter, named Devasena. Pradhana among matrika, one sixth of nature is silver. On the other hand, Goddess Sasthi is a different form of Durga, that is, Kartika's mother or Katyayani. Apart from this, in Mahabharata, it is known in the account of Jarasandha, the son of Magadha king Brihadratha, that the name of the demon Jara was created by Brahma Katrik. Brahma named her 'Grihadevi' as she used to go from house to house.

The Adiparva of the Mahabharata mentions "One who keeps the idol of a youthful son in his house, his house is always full of wealth, sons and daughters." She is the sixth goddess. According to the Brahmavaivarta Purana there was a king named Priyavrata, the son of Swayambhuva Manu. After being childless for many years, on the order of Brahma, Kasyapa performed Putrashti Yajna with the help of Rishi.

But the buffalo gave birth to a stillborn son. When the king brought him to the cremation ground, Shashti Devi appeared and attempted to revive the dead son by penance and take her with her. The king then praised the goddess and appeased her. Devi said that she would return her son if the king performed his puja himself and spread this puja throughout the kingdom.

Accepting the words of the goddess, the king performed the Shashti Puja and ordered the worship of the Goddess on the sixth tithi of the Shukla side of every month throughout the kingdom.

This is how the vow of the sixth goddess is being observed in the folk society. Shasthi Devi is regarded as a part of Adi Matri Puja worshiped everywhere as a worldly goddess. According to the researchers, the possible compilation-time of the Manav Grhyasutra is earlier than the 4th or 5th century BC. In other words, the Vedic or Shrauta method of worshiping Goddess Sasthi is about two and a half thousand years old in this country.

In the course of time, there have been many changes in the rituals of this puja, and today the Sasthi-Upasana Vidhi prevalent in the women's society of Bengal is an imitation of such an ancient Vedic culture, it is by no means a trivial or mundane practice. What was 'Sashthikalpa' in Vedic literature, has become 'Sashthibrata' in the women's society of Bengal.