Tapati is a goddess found in Hinduism. She is known also as the goddess of the river Tapati and mother-goddess of the South where she brings heat to the earth. According to certain Hindu texts, Tapati was a daughter of Surya by Chhaya, one of the wives of Surya. Tapati's name literally means the "warming", "the hot one", "burning one". It had been said that no one in three worlds could match her in beauty, having perfect features, and severe religious self-discipline. This name is possibly connected to that of the queen of the Scythian gods, Tabiti, and it is possible that there was originally a dominant fire goddess in ancientProto-Indo-Iranian religion.
History
Tapati is originally mentioned in the Mahabharata two dozen times, as a wife of Samvarana having a son named Kuru. The story of both characters has also been found in other Hindu texts such as Srimad-Bhagavatam & Purāṇam. According to these texts Tapati's home was situated on the banks of river Tapati. In Mahabharata, Arjun asked Gandharva about the origin of the name Tapatya, so the Gandharva said that the sun had a beautiful daughter named Tapati, whom he was concerned to marry off. An early Kaurava king Samvarana worships the sun and was elected as her husband. One day out for hunting the king saw her and fell in love and proposed a marriage but she referred him to her father for his approval. After that the king started to worship the sun and took the help of sage Vasistha and sent him before the sun, Vasistha then requested sun to approve the marriage of Samvarana and Tapati and the sun agreed to it.
Significance
According to the Hindu texts Tapati was famous for her devotion and neither goddess, nor demon, nor Apsara nor Gandharva was her equal in beauty, disposition or knowledge of the vedas.
Since the river Tapati was probably named after Tapati, people worship her both in the form of a goddess and in that of an important river having many admirable qualities, enumerated in Hindu texts.
Relatives
According to the Hindu texts which mention her, Tapati has the following relatives : Surya as her father and Chhaya as her mother, she was a wife of Samvarana and the mother of Kuru, she was a younger sister of Yami and Bhadra and had two brothers Shani and Yama
Representation in art
There seems to be multiple plays performed on both the legend characters story Kaurava king Samvarana and Tapati such as Tapatisamvarana play, Kuttiyattam drama tradition in Kerala.
