About
Kshama — Daughter of Daksha, Wife of the Sage Pulaha
Kshama · Daksha-putri · Dakshayani · Pulaha-patni
Kshama is a daughter of Daksha — the great Prajapati and progenitor — named in certain Puranic genealogical lists as one of Daksha's daughters given in marriage to the sage Pulaha, one of the ten mind-born sons of Brahma and a Prajapati of the first creation. As a daughter of Daksha she bears the patronymic Dakshayani shared by all daughters of that Prajapati. Her marriage to Pulaha makes her a co-wife of Gati — the daughter of Kardama and Devahuti who is also given to Pulaha in the Bhagavata Purana's account of the nine daughters of Kardama — following the pattern seen elsewhere in the primordial genealogical tradition in which the great sages receive wives from both the lineage of Daksha and the lineage of the other Prajapatis. Kshama's individual treatment in the primary sources is limited, and her attestation, while real, is less uniform across the major Puranas than that of her more prominent sisters Svaha and Svadha. The name Kshama appears in other Puranic contexts as a virtue-name borne by different figures, and care must be taken to maintain the distinction between this Kshama and those other figures.
✦ The Name
The name Kshama is Sanskrit, derived from the root ksham, meaning to be patient, to endure, to forgive, or to be forbearing. Kshama means patience, forbearance, forgiveness, tolerance, or the capacity to endure difficulty without disturbance of mind — it is one of the cardinal virtues of the Hindu ethical tradition, frequently listed among the qualities of a dharmic person in the Dharmashastra and Puranic ethical literature. In the Bhagavad Gita and other philosophical texts, kshama is named as an essential quality of the wise and the devoted. As a virtue-name it is particularly common in Puranic nomenclature for divine and semi-divine women, which is why multiple figures bear this name across different genealogical contexts and why care is required in distinguishing them. For a daughter of Daksha given in marriage to a primordial sage, the name encodes the quality of patient endurance and gracious forbearance — virtues appropriate to a figure whose role in the creation is to sustain and support rather than to act in dramatic episodes.
✦ Lineage
- Father: Daksha, one of the foremost Prajapatis of the Puranic tradition, a mind-born son of Brahma and the great progenitor whose daughters populate the world with gods, demons, and countless other categories of being.
- 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. Pulaha is also the husband of Gati — the fifth daughter of Kardama and Devahuti — making Kshama and Gati co-wives in the household of this primordial sage, following the pattern established elsewhere in the tradition by Angiras who has both Smriti of Daksha's lineage and Shraddha of Kardama's lineage as his wives.
- Co-wife: Gati, the fifth daughter of the Prajapati Kardama and his wife Devahuti, also given to Pulaha as his wife in the Bhagavata Purana's account of the marriages of Kardama's nine daughters.
- Children: The Puranic sources name children of Pulaha in their genealogical sections, but the attribution of specific children to Kshama as their mother rather than to Gati or to another wife of Pulaha is not uniformly established across the primary texts. Certain Puranic lists name figures such as Kardama, Kanakapitha, and Urvarivat as descendants of Pulaha, but the specific maternal line through which they descend is not consistently identified. This uncertainty is recorded honestly and no children are assigned to Kshama without clear primary source attestation.
✦ Textual Variants and the Problem of Identification
As noted in the opening of this profile, the name Kshama appears in multiple Puranic contexts as a virtue-name borne by different figures. Among the daughters of Daksha named across the Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, Vayu Purana, and Matsya Purana, the specific inclusion of Kshama and her assignment to Pulaha is present in certain lists but not in all of them with equal clarity. The Vishnu Purana's list of Daksha's daughters given to sages is the principal source for this identification. The Bhagavata Purana's sixth skandha list of Daksha's daughters does not always produce the same set of names as the Vishnu Purana, and the assignment of Kshama specifically to Pulaha is not confirmed with the same unanimity across all major sources that the assignments of Svaha to Agni and Svadha to the Pitris enjoy. This profile is therefore included on the basis of a genuinely attested primary source placement while being transparent about the relative thinness of that attestation compared to the more prominent daughters of Daksha.
✦ References
Primary Sources
- Vishnu Purana, Book 1, sections on Daksha's daughters and their husbands: The principal source naming Kshama as a daughter of Daksha given to Pulaha; provides the genealogical placement that is the basis of this profile.
- Bhagavata Purana, Skandha 6, sections on Daksha's progeny: Consulted for the comparative placement of Kshama within the list of Daksha's daughters; the Bhagavata list varies from the Vishnu Purana list in this portion.
- Bhagavata Purana, Skandha 3, Chapter 33: Names Gati as the daughter of Kardama given to Pulaha, establishing the co-wife relationship relevant to Kshama's profile.
- Vayu Purana, sections on Daksha's lineage: An independent Puranic register consulted for comparative identification of Kshama's placement.
Modern Reference Works
- Vettam Mani, Puranic Encyclopaedia (Motilal Banarsidass, 1975), entries on Kshama and Pulaha: Notes Kshama's identification as a daughter of Daksha and wife of Pulaha and addresses the children of Pulaha and the question of their maternal attribution.
- F. E. Pargiter, Ancient Indian Historical Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1922): Analyses the Puranic genealogical lists for Daksha's daughters comparatively and addresses the significant variation in these lists across the major Puranas.