According to a story found in the Devi Bhagavata Purana, Vishnu’s three consorts – Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Ganga – shared him amicably for a time, until ordinary jealousy between co-wives escalated into an argument serious enough to require divine intervention to resolve.
A disagreement over favoritism
Tensions arose over perceived favoritism, with accounts describing Ganga behaving in a way toward Vishnu that Saraswati found inappropriately intimate for the setting, leading to a sharp confrontation between the two. When Lakshmi attempted to mediate and calm the dispute, she found herself drawn into the conflict as well, ultimately being cursed by an enraged Saraswati.
Curses exchanged in both directions
The dispute did not resolve quietly – Saraswati, having lashed out first, was in turn cursed by Ganga, and by the time the confrontation ended, multiple curses had been exchanged among the three, each affecting how and where they could remain in relation to Vishnu and to each other going forward.
An argument that reshaped how they are worshipped today
The resolution, brought about through Vishnu’s intervention, resulted in the three goddesses being separated into different domains – a rearrangement often cited to explain why Saraswati and Lakshmi are rarely invoked together in the same household ritual with equal emphasis, and why each of the three came to be associated with distinct, largely separate spheres of devotion and worship rather than remaining a single unified household as before.