Lakshmi, as we have just noticed, is the sakti or consort of Vishnu, the preservative power of the deity. The extensive sect of Vaishnava, or worshippers of Vishnu, esteem Lakshmi as mother of the world, and then call her Ada Maya; and such Vaishnavas as are saktas, that is, adorers of the supremacy of the female energy, worship her extensively as the type of the Eternal Being, and endow her with suitable attributes. She is represented by the poets and painters as of perfect beauty. Hindoo females are commonly named after her: and there are few in the long catalogue of their deities whose various names and functions are so frequently alluded to in conversation and writing, either on theogony, mythology, poetry or philosophy. Her terrestrial manifestations have been frequent, and her origin various. As Rhemba, the sea born goddess, she arose out of the fourteen gems from the ocean when churned by the good and evil beings for the amrita or beverage of immortality. She then assumes the character of Venus Marina, or Aphrodites of the Greeks, who, as Hesiod and Homer sing, arose from the sea, ascended to Olympus, and captivated all the gods. The production of Rhemba, Sri, or Lakshmi is thus described in the thirty-sixth section of the first book of Ramayana. "The gods, the asuras and the gandharvas, again agitating the sea, after a long time appeared the great goddess, inhabiting the lotus; clothed with superlative beauty, in the first bloom of youth, covered with ornaments, and bearing every auspicious sign; adorned with a crown, with bracelets on her arms, her jetty locks flowing in ringlets, and her body--which resembled burnished gold--adorned with ornaments of pearl. Thus was produced the goddess Padma or Sri, adored by the whole universe, Padma by name. She took up her abode in the bosom of Padma-nabha, even of Heri," that is, of Vishnu, of whom these are names. Sri, as this deity is often called, distinguished her more particularly as the goddess of fortune, the word meaning _prosperity_; but it is not given exclusively to Lakshmi. Other of her names are derived from the lotus, which is the emblem of female beauty, and especially applicable to this goddess. In images and pictures of her, which are very common in India, Lakshmi is generally represented as a mere woman; sometimes, however, four-armed; often holding a kamal or lotus, in an easy and elegant attitude, and always very handsome. With her lord, Vishnu, she is frequently seen on the serpent Sesha; he reposing, she in respectful attendance, while a lotus springing from Vishnu's navel to the surface of the sea (for this scene is subaqueous) bears in its expanded calyx, Brahma, the creator of the world, about to perform the work of renovation. Sometimes she is seated with her lord on Garuda, or Superva, clearing the air, of which Vishnu is a personification. In Vishnu's most splendid avatara, or incarnation of Krishna, she became manifested as