Santoshi
| Santoshi Mata | |
|---|---|
| Goddess of Happiness | |
 |
|
| Devanagari | संतोषी माता |
| Affiliation | Devi |
| Abode | Ganeshaloka |
| Mantra | Om Shri Santoshi Mahamaye Gajanandam Dayini Shukravar Priye Devi Narayani Namostute |
| Weapon | Sword, golden pot of rice and Trishula (trident) |
| Mount | Cow or Lion or lotus |
Santoshi Mata (Hindi: संतोषी माता) or Santoshi Maa (संतोषी माँ) is a goddess in the Hindu pantheon of whose veneration throughout Hindudom had only relatively recently commenced. She is venerated as "the Mother of Happiness", the meaning of her name. Santoshi Mata is particularly worshipped by women of India and Nepal. A vrata (ritual fast) called the Santoshi Maa vrata performed by women on 16 consecutive Fridays wins the goddess' favour.
Santoshi Mata started to be worshipped as a goddess in the early 1960s. Her prayer 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 ("All Hail Mother Santoshi")—narrating the story of the goddess and her ardent devotee Satyavati Vyas—which propelled this then little-known "new" goddess to the heights of devotional fervour. 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 Lord Ganesha and related her to the Raksha Bandhan festival.
The 1975 film Jai Santoshi Maa glorified Santoshi Mata. 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 springing up 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 modern celluloid goddess" resulted in scholarly interest in Santoshi Mata.
Art historian Michael Brand suggested worship of Santoshi Mata increased with the establishment of five widely spread temples in North India. Her iconography also was crystallized in this period and slowly spread through poster art. Her cult spread among women through word of mouth, pamphlet literature, and poster art. According to Brand and Professor John Stratton Hawley of the Barnard College (Department of Religion), it was the wife of Vijay Sharma, the director of Jai Santoshi Maa, who urged her husband to "spread the goddess's message".
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