Five Gandharva Maidens at Acchoda

Five gandharva maidens, daughters of five gandharvas in Kubera’s realm, went in the spring to the Acchoda lake to worship Devī Gaurī. There they saw the beautiful son of the ṛshi Vaidyanidhi, a brahmacārī (a student who keeps celibacy). They were overcome with desire. When they pressed themselves on him, he pronounced a śāpa (curse) on them. They answered with a śāpa of their own, and all six became piśācas (ghoul-like beings). The great ṛshi Lomaśa freed them by sending them to bathe in the Revā, which is the Narmadā. The Svarga Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa tells this in chapters 22 and 23.

The five gandharva maidens

The five maidens were the daughters of five gandharvas who all lived in Kubera’s realm.

Pramohinī, daughter of the gandharva Śukasaṃgīti
Suśīlā, daughter of the gandharva Suśīla
Susvārā, daughter of the gandharva Svaravedi
Sutārā, daughter of the gandharva Candrakānta
Candrikā, daughter of the gandharva Suprabha

The five were never apart. They always moved together like sisters and spoke freely to one another. They had golden skin. They wore golden ornaments and garlands of campaka flowers, and clothes of a golden colour. They were skilled in all sixty-four arts: svara (musical note), rāga (melody), tāla (rhythm), the flute, the vīṇā, the mṛdaṅga drum, dance and drawing. They played freely in Kubera’s land, and their fathers loved them. (Chapter 22)

The visit to Acchoda lake

One spring day the five maidens went with great joy from one forest to the next, gathering mandāra flowers. They came to the Acchoda lake to worship Devī Gaurī. At the bathing steps, made of crystal and vaidūrya (cat’s-eye gem), they bathed. They gathered golden lotus flowers and put on divine clothes. They made a mūrti of Devī Gaurī out of clay and decked it with golden and pearl ornaments.

They did the pūjā well, with sandal paste, scents, newly opening buds and many kinds of food. They sang with deep feeling in high notes, with perfect rāga and syllables, and they danced with deep bhāva (feeling). (Chapter 22)

The brahmacārī

While the five were lost in song, dance and devotion, the eldest son of the ṛshi Vaidyanidhi came to the Acchoda tīrtha to bathe. He was very beautiful. His eyes were like fully opened lotuses. His chest was broad and his limbs long and tender. His skin was dark, like a second Manmatha. He carried a daṇḍa (staff) and wore a black antelope skin and a mekhalā (girdle) at his waist. He looked like Madana himself with his bow in hand. He was a Vaishṇava brahmacārī with great yoga-siddhi (power won by yoga).

The moment the five maidens saw him, they were struck as if by arrows. Their dance and song stopped. They whispered to one another: “Is this Manmatha? But Rati is not with him. Are these the Aśvinīs? But they always travel together. Is he a gandharva? A kinnara? A siddha? Or the son of a ṛshi? Look, Brahmā made him just for us! Or is Devī Gaurī, whom we worshipped, sending us this vara (boon)?” They stared at him again and again, and their hearts were wholly taken by moha (delusion). (Chapter 22)

His flight and their night of longing

The brahmacārī knew the ways of the world. He looked at the maidens and thought how even great ones such as Viśvāmitra, Parāśara, Kaṇḍu and Devala had been caught by women in spite of their tapas (austerity). He thought: “Their arrow-glances, the movements of their brows, all the weapons of Manmatha: how can the deer of the mind not fall? How long does clear judgement shine before the intoxication of their glances puts it out?” He decided to leave before they came near. By the power of his yoga-siddhi he vanished before the maidens could reach him.

The five searched all ten directions in vain. They cried out: “O beloved! Come back! You entered our hearts like a thief. Why do you hide? We cannot live without you.” They cried like this for a long time. Then, afraid of their fathers, they went home.

That night they could enjoy nothing: not food, not wine, not music, not their pet birds and animals. They lay turning on beds of large lotus petals while their friends fanned them. They told their mothers they had been late because of play. (Chapter 22)

The two śāpas

The next day the maidens came back to Acchoda for their worship of Devī Gaurī. The brahmacārī also came again to bathe. The five stood round him and linked arms. They said: “Yesterday you escaped us. Today there is no escape. We want you. There is no need to think it over.”

The brahmacārī smiled. He said his vow was not yet finished. He said a wise man must follow the dharma of his āśrama (stage of life), and that he could not marry without his guru’s permission. The maidens answered with arguments from nīti-śāstra (the science of conduct). They said that desire which comes at the right moment should be taken. They said that high-born maidens learned in the Vedas, coming to a brahmacārī in the way of a svayaṃvara (a bride’s own choice), was the highest chance. They said that beauty like theirs joined to brahmacarya like his proved that Brahmā meant it so. The brahmacārī did not move.

Then Pramohinī held his feet. Suśīlā and Susvārā each took an arm. Sutārā embraced him, and Candrikā kissed his face. Even then he did not waver. He blazed like the fire at the end of the world and pronounced a śāpa: “You who have clung to me like piśācas, become piśācas!”

The five maidens were just as angry. They stood back and answered with a śāpa of their own: “You who are a thorn in dharma! You who have hurt devotees, friends and lovers, you also become a piśāca!”

So the brahmacārī and the five gandharva maidens all became piśācas and settled at the Acchoda lake. The male piśāca and the five female piśācas roamed its shores in great distress, wailing terribly. Their fathers, mothers and brothers wept in grief. (Chapter 22)

Lomaśa frees them through the Revā

After a long time the great ṛshi Lomaśa came to Acchoda by chance. The hungry piśācas ran at him to eat him, but they could not come near. His fierce tejas (radiance) turned them back.

The male piśāca then bowed to Lomaśa flat on the ground like a falling staff. He joined his palms above his head and said: “O best of brāhmaṇas! Meeting holy men like you comes only through great puṇya (merit) from before. However thick the darkness, it must go when the sun rises. O best of munis! We are gandharva maidens and a brāhmaṇa’s son. In our folly we pronounced śāpas on one another. Your darśana (sight) will surely free us from this suffering.”

Lomaśa was moved. He said to the brahmacārī who had become a piśāca: “By my grace, may the memory of your former life come back to all of you. Walk the path of dharma. That will end your śāpa.”

The piśāca asked what dharma could remove so terrible a śāpa. Lomaśa answered: “Come with me. All of you, bathe in the Revā by the proper rule. The Revā will free you from this śāpa. No other remedy is needed.”

Lomaśa then taught at length the glory of the Revā, which is the Narmadā. Mountains of cotton are burned by fire, and in the same way bathing in the Revā burns the pāpa (sin) of seven births and of this birth. The Revā alone gives the fruit of every wish and gives moksha (liberation). Even the devas in svarga long to bathe in the Revā. Those who bathe there never return to the womb.

The piśācas went with Lomaśa at once to the bank of the Narmadā. As soon as a breeze full of drops of Narmadā water touched them, the piśāca state left them completely. The five gandharva maidens and the brahmacārī praised the Narmadā with great joy. Then, as Lomaśa the great ṛshi instructed, the brahmacārī married the five gandharva maidens on the bank of the Revā, in the gāndharva way of marriage. All of them lived on that holy bank for a long time. They worshipped the Narmadā, bathed in her and drank her water. In the end they reached the world of Bhagavān Vishṇu. (Chapter 23)

Sources

Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Svarga Khaṇḍa, Chapters 22–23