Annapūrṇā is Pārvatī in the form that holds a ladle and a bowl. The name is anna, food, and pūrṇā, full — she who is full of food, and by extension she from whom sustenance comes. Her seat is Kāśī. This page describes how the sources present her and lists what AdiVeda publishes for her.
The story, and what it argues
The episode most often told has Śiva maintaining that the material world, food included, is māyā — appearance rather than substance. Pārvatī withdraws, and with her the world’s ability to nourish; nothing ripens, nothing satisfies. She then appears at Kāśī as Annapūrṇā, and Śiva comes to her with a begging bowl. The point of the story is not that Śiva is defeated. It is that the ascetic reading and the nourishing reading of the world are both true, and that the second cannot simply be argued away. It is told in full in The Goddess Who Feeds the World.
Why she is at Kashi
Kāśī is Śiva’s city, and placing the goddess of food at its centre is deliberate: the city of renunciation is also the city where no one is to go hungry. The tradition of feeding pilgrims there is attached to her directly, and the annakṣetra — the free kitchen — is understood as her worship rather than as charity performed near her temple.
What to recite
- Annapurna Stotram — traditionally attributed to Ādi Śaṅkarācārya
- Annapurna Chalisa
- Bārambār Praṇām — Annapūrṇā Aarti
Related on AdiVeda
- Parvati — the goddess of whom this is a form
- Books: Devi and Shakti
Sources
Annapūrṇā’s association with Kāśī is developed in the Kāśī Khaṇḍa of the Skanda Purāṇa. The Annapūrṇā Stotram is traditionally attributed to Ādi Śaṅkarācārya; as with much of the stotra literature, the attribution is traditional rather than documented.