Fascinating story of Aparna and Uma. How and why did Parvati get these names ? ...Read on

Pitru devata Vairaja was son of Brahma. Vairaja had a daughter Menaka, who married Parvataraja. Parvataraja and Menaka had three daughters.

All the three daughters of Menaka, once decided to leave the house, to a far off mountain, for undertaking Tapas. Menaka worried by the decision of their daughters told them 'You can undertake Tapas, but, do it in a near by place, so that we can check on you regularly'.

The daughters agreed for this and started severe Tapas. They all decided not to eat any food at all. When Menaka checked on their daughters, to her horror, found that all had become skinny, due to their strict Upavasa. Menaka tried very hard to convince them to consume food.

After great deal of persuasion one daughter agreed to take one leaf of Dasavala flower a day and came to be called as Ekaparna. Another daughter agreed to eat one Dasavala flower a day and came to be called as Ekapatala.

But one daughter refused to eat even one leaf & hence came to be called as Aparna. Menaka kept on goading Aparna to not do this kind of penance. She told Aparna in Sanskrit 'U Ma' (Pls don't do)repeatedly and hence Aparna came to be called as 'Uma' too, who later married Shiva!

All of this narration is from the Pravachana 'Pitru Kalpa', of Dr Satyanarayanachar, of Vidyapeetha, Bengaluru.