Dadhīci and Pippalāda

Chapter 40 of the Gautamī Māhātmya in the Brahma Mahā Purāṇa gives the longest Purāṇa account of Dadhīci. Dadhīci was a ṛshi whose āśrama stood on the Gautamī near Cakratīrtha. He took the devas’ weapons to guard for them. When a thousand divine years passed and the devas did not return, he drank the power of the weapons into his own body. Later he gave his bones so that the devas could have their weapons again.

His wife Gabhastinī was away at that time. She took her unborn son Pippalāda out of her womb, laid him by the fig trees, and entered the fire. Pippalāda was raised by the trees and the Moon. When he grew up and learned what had happened to his parents, he went to Cakreśvara on the Gautamī and asked Śiva for revenge. In the end Śiva calmed him, and the place became Pippaleśa tīrtha.

Dadhīci and Gabhastinī on the Gautamī

The great ṛshi Dadhīci had his āśrama on the Gautamī near Cakratīrtha, where Bhagavān Vishṇu had worshipped Bhagavān Śiva to get back his discus. Dadhīci had excellent qualities. He kept the duties of a householder, tended the sacred fire, and took care to please the devas and his guests.

His wife was Gabhastinī, also called Vāḍavā. She was the sister of Lopāmudrā and the dear wife of Dadhīci. She was a chaste lady of noble birth and great understanding. Together they practised tapas and the duties of a household.

The devas leave their weapons

The devas had won a great victory over the daityas and rākshasas. They came to Dadhīci’s āśrama near the Gautamī. Among them were the Rudras, the Ādityas, the twin Aśvins, Indra, Vishṇu, Yama and Agni. They were full of joy after their win, and the Maruts praised them.

Dadhīci welcomed them. Then they made a request. Now that the war was won, their weapons had become a burden. They could not keep them safely in svarga (heaven), because the daityas would seize them. They could not keep them in the nether world either. They asked Dadhīci to guard the weapons in his holy āśrama, protected by his tapas, while they went to enjoy themselves in the Nandana grove.

Gabhastinī warned her husband not to agree. She said: “What have we to do with the affairs of the devas? If we give them a place to keep their weapons, the enemies of the devas will hate us. If the weapons are lost, the devas will become our enemies. Good people should help others by speech, thought and action. But keeping things that belong to others is rejected by good people. Get rid of this at once.”

Dadhīci answered: “I first gave my consent to the devas. Saying ‘No’ to them now will give me no joy.” Gabhastinī was silent. She thought: “Except for fate, nothing else can do anything to men.”

The devas left the weapons and went away.

A thousand divine years: the weapons are drunk

A thousand divine years passed. The devas neither came nor sent any word about their weapons. Meanwhile the daityas became threatening.

Dadhīci spoke with Gabhastinī: “The asuras are strong and are acting as my enemies. The devas do not seem to want their weapons back. What is the right thing to do?” Gabhastinī replied: “It has already been said. The strong daityas, who have grown more skilful, will take away these weapons.”

Then Dadhīci acted. He washed all the weapons with holy water charged with mantras. The water took in the essence and the shining power of every weapon. He drank this water. Slowly, without their own power, the weapons themselves wasted away. The essence of the weapons now stayed in Dadhīci’s own bones.

Dadhīci gives his bones

At last the devas came back. Their enemies were threatening them again, and they asked for their weapons. Dadhīci said to them: “I was afraid of the asuras, and you did not return for a thousand years. So the weapons melted into liquid, and I drank them. They now stay inside my body. What is the right thing to do now?”

The devas begged him with great humility: “Without the weapons we are lost for ever. Our enemies are strong. Where shall we go?” Dadhīci said: “You may take the weapons that have been taken into my bones. There is no doubt about this.”

The devas said: “What use is that to us? Without the weapons we have become weak like women.” Dadhīci said: “I shall give up the life that moves my body. Make weapons from my bones, because the weapons have joined with them. Let them be excellent weapons.”

Gabhastinī was not nearby at that time. The devas were afraid she would stop him, so they urged the ṛshi to act quickly. Dadhīci sat in padmāsana (the lotus posture) and fixed his gaze on the tip of his nose. By yoga he slowly led his life breath to the innermost space of the heart and fixed his mind on the Brahman, which has no measure. He became one with Brahman, and his body was left without life.

The devas had bulls with faces as hard as diamond lick the bones clean. Tvashṭṛ made the divine weapons from Dadhīci’s bones, and the devas went away with the weapons they needed.

Gabhastinī enters the fire and Pippalāda is born

Gabhastinī came back to the āśrama. She was returning from the pūjā of Umā. She carried fruits and flowers and a pot in her hand. She was pregnant and eager to see the sacred fire and her husband. On the way her necklace fell and her bangle fell, and her right eye twitched. She reached the āśrama and found her husband was not there. Agni told her everything in detail.

She fell to the ground in distress, but Agni slowly comforted her. She did not give a śāpa (curse) to the immortal devas, because she knew it would be useless. She thought: “Men of puṇya (merit) give up their lives to protect cows, brāhmaṇas and devas. Who can know the mind of the Creator, whose actions are beyond the understanding of mortals? The life breaths of every embodied being will surely go. Those great-minded ones gave them up for brāhmaṇas, cows, devas and the suffering.”

Then she did a last act of great calm. She honoured the sacred fires with her husband’s skin and hair. She cut open her own belly, took out the unborn son from her womb, and held him in her hand. She bowed to Gaṅgā, to the Earth, to the plants and to the healing herbs of the āśrama. She laid the boy near the holy fig trees, with the yajña vessel. She said: “This boy has no father, no mother and no relatives. May all groups of living beings, the guardians of the directions, and the healing herbs protect him.”

Then she walked around the fire and entered it. She went up to svarga together with her husband.

Pippalāda is raised by the pippala trees

The trees and the forest dwellers whom Dadhīci had looked after wept. They said to one another: “We cannot live without him, nor without that mother.” They said: “This boy is Dadhīci to us. This boy is the mother. We will raise him.”

The healing herbs and the trees went to the Moon and asked for nectar. The Moon gave them excellent nectar. They fed the boy with the divine nectar, and he grew day by day like the Moon in the bright fortnight. He was raised (āda) by the pipal trees (pippalā), so he was named Pippalāda, one who eats the fruits of the pippala tree.

When Pippalāda was old enough, the trees told him everything. They told him of his father’s death, of his mother entering the fire, and of the devas taking the bones. He was overcome with grief and fell to the ground. The trees comforted him. He rose and said: “I will kill the killers of my father. Otherwise I cannot bear to live.”

Pippalāda’s tapas and the Kṛtyā

The trees took Pippalāda to the Moon. The Moon said: “First learn. Tapas, auspicious speech, courage and wisdom will all come at my word. But if you want revenge, go to the Gautamī in the Daṇḍaka forest and praise Cakreśvara Śiva with full devotion. He will be pleased with very little effort and will give all your dearest wishes.”

Pippalāda came to the Gautamī and worshipped Cakreśvara Śiva with a deeply moving stotra (hymn of praise). Śiva appeared and said: “O Pippalāda, may all go well with you. Choose any vara (boon).” Pippalāda asked for enough power to destroy the devas who had killed his father.

Śiva replied: “If you are able to look at my third eye, you will be able to attack your enemies.” Pippalāda tried, but he could not bear the gaze. Śiva told him to do tapas until he could. Pippalāda practised deep meditation for many years. Each day he rose before dawn, bathed, bowed to his elders and teachers, and meditated on the brightness of Śiva. At last he looked at the third eye.

Out of the fire of his deep meditation and grief, called up by his thoughts of his mother Vāḍavā (Gabhastinī), a fearful Kṛtyā (a devī of destruction) came out of his eyes. She took the form of Vāḍavā herself and blazed with a fire that could destroy all the worlds. Pippalāda ordered her: “Eat up the devas who are my enemies.”

The Kṛtyā said, “So be it.” But then she seized Pippalāda himself and said: “I do what you command. Your body was made by those same devas.” Pippalāda ran to Śiva. Śiva ordered the Kṛtyā: “Do not seize any living being within one yojana of this place. Go far away and do your work.”

The devas take refuge at Cakreśvara

The Kṛtyā stood one yojana east of Pippala tīrtha, blazing with a fire that could destroy the world. The terrified devas came to Śiva and said: “O Śambhu, protect us. The Kṛtyā is attacking us. You alone are the refuge of suffering beings.”

Śiva told them to stay within one yojana around Cakreśvara, where the Kṛtyā could not touch them. He said that the Sun (Sūrya) in his visible form would stay there for ever, and that all the other devas could stay there through their parts. Three crores and five hundred devas stood on the banks of the Gautamī around Cakreśvara. Each one took a space of one-fourth of a finger’s breadth of the bank.

Śiva calms Pippalāda

Then Śiva spoke gently to Pippalāda: “Even if the devas were destroyed, your father would not come back. He gave his life to complete the work of the devas. Who can be as kind to the poor and the suffering as your father? Your mother, a chaste lady, has gone to svarga. What is to be gained by destroying the devas? Give up your grief and be calm.”

Pippalāda, taught in this way by Śiva, gave up his grief and forgave the devas. The place became the great tīrtha of Cakreśvara and Pippaleśa. Śambhu is always present there, and even today the Sun stays there in his visible form.

Sources

• Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 40