Shri Lalitha Sahasranamam: Namam 861: Shri Kantardha Vigraha (ōṃ kāntārdhavigrahāyai namaḥ)

The Divine Mother holds left half body of Her spouse Shiva in Ardhanarishvara form.

She takes half of Her spouse Shiva’s body as in Ardhanarishvara. Shiva has female part within Him, as He shares His body with the Divine Mother. Purusha tattva and universal tattva join in this unionization. When a child is born, the mother takes care of the child. Through the mother, the child gets to know its father. Father and mother are primer gods for the child. Mother is kinder than the father to the child. Without the mother, the child does not get good growth in life. For the child to grow well, both mother and father play vital roles. In this the first person to help the child is the mother. The Divine Mother has created all universal beings. Her kindness in supporting them is praised much. She is essentially doing all these due to Her affection to Her spouse Shiva. All these glories come to Her.

In the word Kanta, the letter, ka and its next letter is kha. Kha refers to Akasha, which will give a meaning that the Divine Mother has Akasha, as Her half body; Shiva’s one of the names is Bheema; Bheema is Akasha also. This we saw earlier.

Ardhanarishvara is meant here, one, the Divine Mother, who has taken half the body of the spouse or the one, Shiva, who has taken half of the body of His spouse, here the Divine Mother.

Bhaskararaya takes Kanta as indicating the letter Kha (which comes after the letter Ka,) which means heaven. So, the Divine Mother is one who has heaven as part of Her body is also meant by this Namam.

                        The Divine Mother holds left half body of Her

      spouse Shiva in Ardhanarishvara form..

C N Nachiappan

Singapore, 03 June 2022; updated 19 August 2025.

 References:

1.     The Thousand Names of the Divine Mother published in English by Mata Amritanandamis AparnaSan Ramon, California, USA, with Commentary by T. V Narayana Menon

2.     Shri Lalitha Sahasranama Stostram published in Tamil by N. Ramaswami Iyer charities’ societies, Trichirapalli, India, with Commentary by C. V. Radhakrishna Sastry.

3.     The Lalitha Sahasranamam published in Tamil by Shri Ramakrishna Thapovanam, Thiruipparaithurai, Trichy District, Tamilnadu, India with commentary by Shrimath Swami Sithbavandar