[11] Parvati is often equated with the other goddesses such as Sati, Uma, Kali and Durga and due to this close connection, they are often treated as one and the same, with their stories frequently overlapping.

In Hindu mythology, the birth of Parvati is primarily understood as a cosmic event meant to lure Shiva out of his ascetic withdrawal and into the realm of marriage and household life.

Parvati's role as wife and mother is central to her mythological persona, where she embodies the ideal of the devoted spouse who both supports and expands her husband's realm of influence.

[6][13][14] Philosophically, Parvati is regarded as Shiva’s shakti (divine energy or power), the personification of the creative force that sustains the cosmos.

Aparneshara Temple of Yama, Udhampur in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is considered as the birthplace of Parvati and site of Shiva-Parvati Vivaha.

In the Harivamsa, Parvati is referred to as Aparna ('One who took no sustenance') and then addressed as Uma, who was dissuaded by her mother from severe austerity by saying u mā ('oh, don't').

[27] She is also the ferocious Mahakali that wields a sword, wears a garland of severed heads, and protects her devotees and destroys all evil that plagues the world and its beings.

The verse 3.12 of the Kena Upanishad dated to mid-1st millennium BCE contains a goddess called Uma-Haimavati, a very common alternate name for Parvati.

Her primary role is as a mediator who reveals the knowledge of Brahman to the Vedic Trideva of Agni, Vayu, and Varuna, who were boasting about their recent defeat of a group of demons.

[34] While the word Uma appears in earlier Upanisads, Hopkins notes that the earliest known explicit use of the name Pārvatī occurs in late Hamsa Upanishad.

In ancient literature, yoni means womb and place of gestation, the yoni-linga metaphor represents origin, source or regenerative power.

[46] In some manifestations, particularly as angry, ferocious aspects of Shakti such as Kali, she has eight or ten arms, and is astride on a tiger or lion, wearing a garland of severed heads and skirt of disembodied hands.

In benevolent manifestations such as Kamakshi or Meenakshi, a parrot sits near her right shoulder symbolizing cheerful love talk, seeds, and fertility.

A parrot is found with Parvati's form as Kamakshi – the goddess of love, as well as Kama – the cupid god of desire who shoots arrows to trigger infatuation.

To them are born Kartikeya (also known as Skanda and Murugan) – the leader of celestial armies, and Ganesha – the god of wisdom that prevents problems and removes obstacles.

[64] Kalidasa's epic Kumarasambhavam ("Birth of Kumara") describes the story of the maiden Parvati who has made up her mind to marry Shiva and get him out of his recluse, intellectual, austere world of aloofness.

[23] Just as Shiva is at once the presiding deity of destruction and regeneration, the couple jointly symbolize at once both the power of renunciation and asceticism and the blessings of marital felicity.

Parvati thus symbolizes many different virtues esteemed by Hindu tradition: fertility, marital felicity, devotion to the spouse, asceticism, and power.

[60] Numerous chapters, stories, and legends revolve around their mutual devotion as well as disagreements, their debates on Hindu philosophy as well as the proper life.

These images that combine the masculine and feminine energies, Shiva and Parvati,[66] yield a vision of reconciliation, interdependence, and harmony between the way of the ascetic and that of a householder.

David Kinsley states, The fact that [Parvati] can physically restrain Shiva dramatically makes the point that she is superior in power.

[76] Rita Gross states,[42] that the view of Parvati only as ideal wife and mother is incomplete symbolism of the power of the feminine in the mythology of India.

Parvati's numerous aspects state Gross,[42] reflects the Hindu belief that the feminine has a universal range of activities, and her gender is not a limiting condition.

[86] On this day Hindu women perform the Thiruvathirakali accompanied by Thiruvathira paattu (folk songs about Parvati and her longing and penance for Lord Shiva's affection).

[88] The Gauri-Shankar bead is a part of religious adornment rooted in the belief of Parvati and Shiva as the ideal equal complementing halves of the other.

[89] Ancient coins from Bactria (Central Asia) of Kushan Empire era, and those of king Harsha (North India) feature Uma.

[95] Many ancient and medieval era Cambodian temples, rock arts and river bed carvings such as the Kbal Spean are dedicated to Parvati and Shiva.

In tantric sects of Buddhism, as well as Hinduism, intricate symmetrical art forms of yantra or mandala are dedicated to different aspects of Tara and Parvati.

[112][113] Parvati is closely related in symbolism and powers to Cybele of Greek and Roman mythology and as Vesta the guardian goddess of children.

[116] Carl Jung, in Mysterium Coniunctionis, states that aspects of Parvati belong to the same category of goddesses like Artemis, Isis and Mary.