About
Gati — Daughter of Kardama and Devahuti, Wife of the Sage Pulaha
Gati · Kardama-putri · Devahuti-putri · Pulaha-patni
Gati is one of the nine daughters of the Prajapati Kardama and his wife Devahuti, named in the Bhagavata Purana's third skandha among the daughters given in marriage to nine great sages of the primordial tradition. She is given in marriage to the sage Pulaha — one of the ten mind-born sons of Brahma and a Prajapati of the first creation. The Puranic sources name children born of Pulaha, and in some lists these children are associated with Gati as their mother. Her individual characterisation in the primary sources is confined to her naming as Pulaha's wife and to her position as one of the nine daughters of Kardama. She receives no individual narrative episode in any primary text consulted.
✦ The Name
The name Gati is Sanskrit, derived from the root gam, meaning to go, to move, or to proceed. Gati means movement, going, path, or course — and in the philosophical and soteriological vocabulary of the tradition it carries the extended meaning of the course or destiny of a being after death, the path taken by the soul, or the state attained through one's karma and spiritual practice. In this deeper sense, gati refers to the trajectory of a being through the cycles of existence — a high gati being liberation or a celestial birth, a low gati being a subhuman birth. The name for a daughter of a Prajapati thus carries both the literal sense of movement and the soteriological sense of an auspicious course or elevated destiny — appropriate for a being born of Kardama's ascetic lineage and destined for marriage with one of the primordial sages.
✦ Lineage
- Father: Kardama, Prajapati and mind-born son of Brahma, who performed long austerities at Bindu-sarovara on the Sarasvati river, received Vishnu's promise of the avatara birth, married Devahuti, fathered nine daughters and the sage Kapila, and thereafter renounced household life.
- Mother: Devahuti, daughter of Manu Svayambhuva and Shatarupa, who after Kardama's renunciation received the Samkhya philosophical teaching from her son Kapila and attained liberation.
- Brother: Kapila, the sage and Vishnu avatara, teacher of Samkhya, whose burning gaze destroyed the sixty thousand sons of King Sagara in the netherworld and initiated the chain of events that brought the Ganga to earth.
- Sisters: Eight other daughters of Kardama and Devahuti — Kala, Anasuya, Shraddha, Havirbhu, Kriya, Khyati, Arundhati, and Shanti — given in marriage respectively to the sages Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Kratu, Bhrigu, Vasishtha, and Atharvan.
- Husband: Pulaha, one of the ten mind-born sons of Brahma and one of the seven great rishis of the primordial creation, a Prajapati whose descendants include various categories of beings named in different Puranic lists.
- Children: The Bhagavata Purana and Vishnu Purana name children of Pulaha in their genealogical sections, including figures such as Kardama, Kanakapitha, and Urvarivat in some recensions, though the lists vary and the specific attribution of these children to Gati as their mother rather than to another wife of Pulaha is not uniformly established across all sources.
✦ References
Primary Sources
- Bhagavata Purana, Skandha 3, Chapters 24 and 33: Names Gati as one of the nine daughters of Kardama and Devahuti and identifies Pulaha as her husband; the primary source for her naming and marital placement.
- Vishnu Purana, Book 1, sections on the primordial sages and their wives: Names the daughters of Kardama and their sage-husbands including Gati and Pulaha; provides the genealogical context for Pulaha's lineage and descendants.
- Matsya Purana, sections on the Prajapatis and their descendants: Includes the marriages of Kardama's daughters among its genealogical registers.
Modern Reference Works
- Vettam Mani, Puranic Encyclopaedia (Motilal Banarsidass, 1975), entries on Gati and Pulaha: Notes Gati's identification as the daughter of Kardama and wife of Pulaha and summarises the Puranic information about Pulaha's descendants.