Annapurna

Annapurna is the goddess of food and nourishment, regarded as a form of Parvati. She is shown seated on a throne, holding a ladle and a vessel of rice, with Shiva appearing as a beggar before her. She is especially associated with Kashi. In Odisha, her theme is close to the culture of anna, food offered as a sacred gift, seen in the Mahaprasad of the Jagannath temple at Puri. Annapurna Jayanti falls on the full moon of Margasira, the harvest month.

Annapurna is described in the Puranic and devotional literature as the form of the goddess who feeds the world. One widely told legend holds that Shiva once declared the world, food included, to be an illusion. Parvati withdrew from the world to show him otherwise, and a famine began. Even Shiva...