Hariti — the mother-goddess of children and childbirth — is one of the most striking figures of Buddhist legend: a fearsome child-devouring demoness who was converted by the Buddha into a loving protector of children and a goddess of motherhood, fertility, and easy childbirth. Her transformation is one of the great parables of compassion and the power of the dharma to redeem even the most terrible of beings.
The Child-Eating Demoness
In her original nature, Hariti was a yakshini — a fierce ogress or demoness — who had hundreds of children of her own (five hundred, by tradition) whom she loved devotedly. But to feed her own vast brood, she preyed upon the human children of the city, stealing and devouring them, so that the people lived in terror and grief, their children vanishing to feed the demoness’s hunger. The bereaved parents, helpless against her, at last appealed to the Buddha for deliverance.
The Lesson of the Buddha
The Buddha resolved to teach Hariti compassion by letting her feel the suffering she caused. He hid her youngest and most beloved child, Priyankara, beneath his begging-bowl. Frantic, Hariti searched the whole world for her lost child and could not find him, and came at last in despair to the Buddha. He asked her: if she suffered so at the loss of one of five hundred children, how much greater must be the grief of the human parents from whom she had stolen their only or few children? Stricken with understanding and remorse, Hariti repented. The Buddha restored her child and converted her to the dharma, and she vowed to protect children forever after instead of devouring them — the Buddha promising that she and her children would be fed by the offerings of his monasteries.
The Protector of Children
Transformed, Hariti became a beloved goddess — the protector of children, the patroness of childbirth, fertility, and the welfare of families, invoked by parents for the health and safety of their children and by women for easy delivery and the blessing of offspring. She is depicted as a beautiful, benevolent mother surrounded by children, sometimes holding an infant and a pomegranate (a symbol of fertility). Honoured across the Buddhist world (as Kishimojin in Japan), she is the embodiment of redeemed motherhood. In Hariti, Buddhism gave form to the redemption of the terrible into the tender — the child-devouring demoness who, taught compassion by the Buddha, became the loving mother-goddess and protector of all children.