Sheetala

Sheetala is the goddess who cools fevers and cures disease, especially smallpox, and is the protector of children and families in the folk and Shakta traditions. She is shown as a young woman riding a donkey, holding a broom, a winnowing fan and a pot of cool water. She is worshipped across northern and eastern India, including Odisha, in village shrines. The main observance is Sheetala Ashtami, in the dark half of Chaitra, when cold food cooked a day before is eaten.

Sheetala is praised in the Sheetalashtaka, a hymn that tradition places in the Skanda Purana. It describes her as seated on a donkey, carrying a broom and a pot of water, and says that her cool waters clear fever and the pox. Her name means the cool one. Her symbols are healing tools: the broom to...