As discussed in this QnA, the Tamil version attributes Mandha Devi & Jyesta Devi as Shani dev's wife. However, the more commonly accepted or albeit, say, as per the popular stories, it is the gandharva Chitraratha's daughter called Dhāminī or Māndā, is mostly referred to as Shani's wife.
In several popular stories:
She is said to be the one to have caused the Vakrī dṛṣṭi (वक्री दृष्टि ) of Shani owing to his too much devotion towards either his tutelary deity, Shri Krishna or his guru Lord Shiva or either because of too much pre-occupation with his position of the "Karma-adjuciator (कर्म फल दाता )" of the mankind. Due to either of the cases, the final result being him neglecting his wife and thus the resultant curse of vakri-drishti. Thus, whomsoever he shall look onto or into, that person will suffer in some form or another. A popular recession of which is found in several alternate stories of the Lord Ganesha beheading episode where it's due to Shani looking at the newly manifested Vināyaka, which leads to his head being decapitated, in contrast to the rather the more popular recension of beheading by Shiva himself.
Anyway, my interest more lies with the occasionally alluded First wife (and in some cases kind of twin sibling too ?) of Lord Shani, Nīlama or Nīlā or Nīlimā
The Wikipedia page goes on as:
In Hinduism, Neela is known as Neelima or Neelamratna. She is the first consort of Shani and mother of Kuligna. She balances and increases power of Shani and is the goddess of the gemstone sapphire. She has the power of fifth head of Brahma. Her son Kuligna is a Rishi. Her husband, Shani, also married a Gandharva lady, Dhamini.
The page further quotes the plot of a popular TV series based on Shani Deva and quotes as:
According to the series, Neela and Shani both created by Shiva at the same time. But, Shani was Sakaratmaka Shakti (Positive energy) and Neela was Nakaratmaka Shakti (Negative energy). After birth of both, Neela was imprisoned by Lord Vishvakarman in his loka when she was in form of energy but after 12 years of her birth she came in body form.
So,
Which scriptures talk about the vakri-drishti curse by his wife, Dhāminī on Shani ?
What are the scriptural sources for Nīlimā, as either Lord Shani's wife or as per that TV show, the 'negatively created twin energy formed along with Shani, by Lord Shiva '?
It would also make sense for Nīlimā, to be as his wife considering we have a Nīlamaratna, i.e., the Blue Sapphire stone which is intricately connected with Shani and its remedial measures as per Jyotisha treatises.
- What's the validity and the implication of that Wikipedia's statement - "She has the power of the fifth head of Brahmā (ब्रह्मा)" ? As I recall, the fifth head was chopped off by Shiva at the beginning of creation itself. So, did somehow the head reconnected as a manifestations of Nīlimā? Any story in the scriptures on the same ?
