Ruru and Pramadvarā

Pramadvarā was the daughter of the apsarā Menakā. She was raised by the ṛshi Sthūlakeśa. On the day of her wedding to Ruru, a snake bit her and she died. Ruru gave half of his own life to bring her back. She rose, and they were married. But Ruru’s grief turned into anger, and he vowed to kill every serpent he met. A snake who had once been a brāhmaṇa then taught him the dharma of ahiṃsā (non-violence).

The episode is told in the second Skanda of the Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa as an ākhyāna (a told account) spoken by Parīkshit to his ministers. The Mahābhārata, in the Ādi Parva, also tells it.

The setting: Parīkshit speaks

Parīkshit had received a curse (śāpa) that he would die of a snakebite within seven days. He called his ministers together and began to ask whether there was any way to prevent such a fate or to survive it. In that council he told the account of Ruru and Pramadvarā. It was a precedent: death by snakebite had in fact been undone through the power of mantra, tapas and the giving of one’s own lifespan. This gave the council reason to believe that great protection might be possible. The account is thus told as a witness to the power of spiritual strength over fate.

Source: Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 2, chapter 8.

Pramadvarā and her birth

Pramadvarā was born of the apsarā Menakā and the gandharva Viśvāvasu. She was born near a river and left there as an infant. The great tapasvin Sthūlakeśa, a righteous and kind ṛshi, found her by the riverside, a helpless child with no one to protect her. He took her in and raised her with a father’s love. He gave her the name Pramadvarā, “she who is beyond all others in the charm of her beauty.” She grew into a young woman of rare grace with every good quality, a jewel of the āśrama.

Source: Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 2, chapter 8.

Ruru’s love and the betrothal

Ruru was the son of Pramati and the grandson of Cyavana. He was wandering through the forest lands when his eyes fell on Pramadvarā. Love took hold of him completely. He could not rest and could talk of nothing else. His father Pramati saw the state of his son. He went straight to the āśrama of Sthūlakeśa and asked for the girl for his son.

Sthūlakeśa was glad. He knew that Ruru came from a noble family and was a man of tapas. He agreed, and promised to give Pramadvarā to Ruru at a fitting auspicious muhūrta (hour). The forest āśrama began to prepare for a lovely wedding.

Source: Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 2, chapter 8.

Death at the doorway

On the day of the wedding preparations, Pramadvarā was walking near the doorway of the āśrama. A serpent struck and bit her. She fell where she stood and her life left her in an instant. She lay on the ground with her face still bright even in death, her body as if asleep, and her bridal clothes made the scene bitter. Sthūlakeśa fell upon her, weeping without restraint. The ṛshis gathered and mourned. When Ruru heard and saw what had happened, he stumbled away from the āśrama, wholly broken. He went alone into the forest and wept like one who has no words left.

Source: Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 2, chapter 9.

The messenger of the devas and the offer

Ruru cried out in his grief and thought of ending his own life. Then he stopped himself with cold reason: his death would not help Pramadvarā in the next world. It would only bring more sorrow. He bathed, did ācamana (the sipping of water), took water in his joined palms, and made a vow with all the puṇya he had ever gathered by Vedic study, tapas, yajña and the worship of Bhagavān Sūrya. If all this puṇya was real, let Pramadvarā rise and live.

At that moment a devadūta, a messenger of the devas, appeared before Ruru. He said: “O brāhmaṇa! The devas have set a way. You may give half of your own āyus, your remaining life, to Pramadvarā. If you agree to this exchange, she will live.” Ruru answered without a moment’s pause: “Yes. I give half my life. Let her live now.”

Source: Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 2, chapter 9.

The sanction of Dharmarāja

The devadūta and Viśvāvasu went together before Dharmarāja, the deva of cosmic justice, and put Ruru’s case. Viśvāvasu was Pramadvarā’s gandharva father, who had also come down from the higher worlds when he heard of her death. Dharmarāja gave the vara (boon): the passing of Ruru’s ardha-āyus, his half-life, to Pramadvarā. Pramadvarā stirred, opened her eyes and rose from the ground, alive and whole, with no mark of death. The ṛshis who were gathered saw this wonder with joy and amazement. At a rightly fixed auspicious muhūrta, Ruru and Pramadvarā were married.

Source: Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 2, chapter 9.

The vow and the Ḍuṇḍubha

After the marriage, Ruru’s great relief had a shadow over it, a burning anger that sat in his heart like a live coal. A snake had killed his beloved at the very doorway of their life together. He took a fierce oath: he would kill every serpent he met, without exception. He wandered the forests and struck down snakes wherever he saw them.

One day he came upon a large Ḍuṇḍubha, a grass-snake that has no poison, harmless and old. He raised his staff to kill it. The snake spoke in a human voice: “O brāhmaṇa! What wrong have I done you? I am not a poisonous serpent. Why do you kill me?”

Ruru replied: “My beloved was killed by a serpent. I have vowed to kill all serpents.”

The Ḍuṇḍubha said: “You should tell the dangerous from the harmless. The duty of a brāhmaṇa is ahiṃsā in all circumstances. Violence is allowed only within the frame of a Vedic yajña, not in personal revenge.”

Ruru asked: “Who are you? How do you speak like a learned man?”

The snake replied: “In my last life I was a brāhmaṇa named Khagamu. Once, as a joke, I frightened my friend Durmukha with a grass-snake. In his fright he cursed me: ‘You who frighten others with serpents, become a serpent yourself.’ I fell at his feet and begged. His anger softened and he said: ‘When the son of Pramati named Ruru meets you and knows you, you will be freed.’ That day has come. You are Ruru.”

With these words the Ḍuṇḍubha took back his divine form and went away. Ruru was humbled and taught. He gave up his vow of killing serpents and went back to his life of dharma.

Source: Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 2, chapter 9.

The Ādi Parva account

The Mahābhārata, in the Ādi Parva, tells this episode within the Pauloma Parva, as part of the line of the Bhārgavas. Its main events are the same as in the Devī Bhāgavata: Ruru’s love for Pramadvarā, her death by snakebite on the eve of the wedding, Ruru’s gift of half his life, her return to life, the marriage, Ruru’s vow to kill serpents, and the meeting with the Ḍuṇḍubha.

The Ādi Parva places the episode right after the account of Bhṛgu, Pulomā and Cyavana. It follows the line Bhṛgu, Cyavana, Pramati, Ruru, and it shows Ruru as a descendant of Cyavana.

The Ādi Parva account has these points:

• Pramadvarā’s father is the gandharva Viśvāvasu and her mother is the apsarā Menakā.
• Her guardian is named Sthūlakeśa.
• The Ḍuṇḍubha was called Sahasrapāt in his earlier life as a brāhmaṇa. In the Ādi Parva it was Khagama who cursed him. In the Devī Bhāgavata, as above, it is Durmukha who cursed Khagamu.
• The teaching ahiṃsā paramo dharmaḥ (non-violence is the highest dharma) is given in more detail in the Ādi Parva, as the closing moral statement of the whole Pauloma Upākhyāna.

Source: Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Pauloma Parva, chapters 8 to 12.

Sources

• Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skanda 2, chapters 8 and 9
• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Pauloma Parva, chapters 8 to 12