Shashthi, Shashti, Soshthi or Chhathi (Sanskrit: षष्ठी, Bengali: ষষ্ঠী, Hindi: छठी, Ṣaṣṭhī, literally "sixth") is a Hindu goddess, venerated in Nepal and India as the benefactor and protector of children.

Barren women desiring to conceive and mothers seeking to ensure the protection of their children will worship Shashthi and request her blessings and aid.

Also known as Chhathi Maiya (छठी मईया), the sixth form of Devi Prakriti and Lord Surya's sister is worshipped during Chhath Puja.

In some early texts where Shashthi appears as an attendant of Skanda, she is said to cause diseases in the mother and child, and thus needed to be propitiated on the sixth day after childbirth.

[7] The folk worship representation of Shashthi is a red-coloured stone about the size of a human head, typically placed beneath a banyan tree such as those usually found on the outskirts of villages.

Shashthi is also commonly represented by planting a banyan tree or a small branch in the soil of a family's home garden.

[8] The general consensus among scholars of Hinduism traces the origins of Shashthi, like Skanda, back to ancient folk traditions.

[8] From her origins as a folk goddess, Shashthi was gradually assimilated into the Brahmanical Hindu pantheon, and ultimately, came to be known in Hinduism as the Primordial Being and Great Mother of all.

An early textual reference dating to 8th–9th century BCE relates Shashthi to the six Krittikas who nurtured and nursed Skanda.

[8][10] In the 7th century text Kadambari, the images of Skanda and Shashthi are also said to have painted together on the wall of a palace lying-in chamber of the queen.

The Mahabharata, finalised around the 4th century CE, describes a relationship between the infant Skanda and the Matrikas ("Mothers"), a group of female deities who embody the perils that afflict children until the age of sixteen.

The Encyclopaedia of Hinduism identifies this textual account as a source of the modern-day practice of mothers worshipping Shashthi until their child reaches the age of sixteen.

The second century BCE composition Manava Grhya Sutra identifies Shashthi with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and beauty.

It also describes the Shashthi-kalpa rite was performed on the sixth lunar day of every fortnight invoking Shashthi to provide sons, cattle, treasures, corn, and the fulfilment of wishes.

Aforementioned folk traditions originating between the 10th and 5th centuries BCE associated the goddess with both positive and negative elements of fertility, birth, motherhood and childhood.

[8] Eventually, Shashthi came to represent all goddesses and forces responsible for causing diseases in children and their mothers, who needed to be propitiated on the sixth day after childbirth to prevent these illnesses.

[8][10][16] A Bengali folk-tale about Shashthi tells of the youngest of seven daughters-in-law in a prosperous household who was a glutton that used to secretly steal food and then blame a black cat, which was thrashed as punishment.

The mother asked the cat's pardon, which was granted, and then she promised the goddess that she would offer worship in a ritual dedicated to her, which would come to be known as the Jamai-Shasthi Vrata.

[17] A different version of this tale narrates that when the youngest daughter-in-law was pregnant, she secretly ate the food-offerings ritually dedicated to Shashthi and then blamed the theft on the black cat.

Angered by the dishonour of its mistress and the unjust accusation of theft, the cat pledged to teach the young mother a lesson.

The goddess explained the reason of her suffering, and after the mother had begged the cat for forgiveness and had sworn to worship Shashthi on anointed days, all seven of her children were returned to her.

In the Shashthi-kalpa rite, which was described as performed on the sixth lunar day of every fortnight, Shashthi was invoked to provide sons, cattle, treasures, corn, and the fulfilment of wishes.

Shashthi is worshipped in a different form in each of these lunar months as the deities Chandan, Aranya, Kardama, Lunthana, Chapeti, Durga, Nadi, Mulaka, Anna, Sitala, Gorupini or Ashoka.

In honour of Shashthi, women tie a stone in a small rag to the branch of a tree in the shasthitala: a mother does this to ask for long life for her child, while a barren woman does so to entreat the goddess to aid her in conceiving.

Dough images of Shashthi and her black cat are prepared and worshipped, along with a water pitcher with a banyan tree branch near it.

[20] In Bengal, on the night of the sixth day after childbirth, a number of items may be placed in the lying-in chamber in deference to Shashthi, such as an earthen pitcher of water covered with a napkin, offerings of husked rice, cooked rice, bananas and sweets, bangles, and pieces of gold and silver.

A lump of cow dung dressed in red cloth or paper and covered with vermilion, symbolising the goddess, is kept in the lying-in room.

By these rites, it is believed a childless woman may gain offspring, while a mother may secure the longevity and welfare of her child by the grace of the goddess.