In Hinduism, Daksha is an ancient creator god, one of the Prajapatis, the Rishis and the Adityas, and a son of Aditi and Brahma.

With his wife Prasuti, he is the father of many daughters, twenty-seven of whom were married to Soma. Daksha found that Soma overly favored one daughter (Rohini) over the others, thus neglecting their needs and flouting his responsibilities. For this, Daksha cursed him to wither and die. The daughters intervened and made his death periodic, symbolized by the waxing and waning of the moon.

In later Hindu tales, Daksha is said also to be an ancient king of great repute and power. One of his daughters (often said to be the youngest) was Sati or Dakshayani , who had always wished to marry Shiva. Daksha forbade it, but she disobeyed him and did so anyway, finding in Shiva a doting and loving husband. Daksha disliked Shiva intensely, calling him a dirty, roaming ascetic and reviling the great yogi's cohort of goblins and ghouls.

From then on, he distanced himself from his daughter and his son-in-law. This enmity culminated in a great sacrifice he had been hosting, one to which he invited all and sundry, family and allies, gods and rishis, courtiers and subjects. Consciously excluding Sati from the list, he also set up a statue of Shiva, which he defiled and mocked, at the entrance to his hall. Sati, ebullient at the thought of such a great event, and assuming that the daughter of the king was welcome no matter what, attended the festival. Snubbed by her father and treated with disdain, Sati nonetheless maintained her composure. Indeed, even her father's refusal to invite Shiva, her husband and thus a traditionally honored member of any Hindu family, was to some extent borne.

However, on seeing the shameless insult to her husband in his absence, and the repeated slights King Daksha and his courtiers railed at Shiva, she committed suicide in grief for her beloved. Infuriated that Daksha would so callously cause the harm of his (Daksha's) own daughter in so ignoble a manner, Shiva manifested a fierce beast from his brow and sent his hordes to the feast. They killed many of the guests and decapitated Daksha, though at Shiva's command Daksha's head was later replaced with that of a goat.

In his humility and repentance for his graceless and sinful acts, Daksha became one Shiva's most devoted attendants. Sati/Dakshayani later incarnated as Parvati in her next life and remarried Shiva, thenceforth never to part with him again. It is for this reason that Shiva, while monogamous, has had two wives, in reality but the same soul in two incarnations.

Some of Daksha's daughters, including Bharani and Anuradha, married Chandra. Another, Rati, married Kama.