Origin of Kṛshṇa’s 16,000 Wives

The Padma Mahā Purāṇa tells how the 16,000 wives of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa came to be. In an earlier kalpa they were fire-born apsarās (heavenly dancers), daughters of Agni, who lived at Mānasarovara. Nārada laid a śāpa (a curse) on them for their pride. They were born as Bhagavān Kṛshṇa’s wives in Dvārakā, were carried off by dacoits after he left the world, and were later taught a vrata (vow) by the ṛshi Dālbya.

The background: Bhagavān Kṛshṇa’s avatāra

In the twenty-eighth Dvāpara of the Vārāha Kalpa, in the Vaivasvata Manvantara, Vāsudeva, the son of Vasudeva, would be born as Kṛshṇa to lighten the earth’s burden. Brahmā himself would build Dvārakā as the home of Bhagavān Vishṇu. In that city Bhagavān Kṛshṇa would live among learned men, perform yajñas, receive kings and gandharvas, and tell dharma-kathās (accounts of dharma).

The apsarās at Mānasarovara

In an earlier age the fire-born apsarās were playing in the water at Mānasarovara. They were proud of their beauty and lost in their play, and they paid no heed to those who came to see them. The brahmarshi Nārada arrived as a guest. They did not rise to greet him and did not bow to him properly. Full of rūpa-saubhāgya-mada (pride in their beauty and good fortune), they asked him: “O Nārada! Please teach us how to get Nārāyaṇa as our husband.”

Nārada’s śāpa

Nārada answered: “In the months of Caitra and Vaiśākha, on the twelfth day (dvādaśī) of the bright fortnight, give two golden beds. That is the way Nārāyaṇa can become your husband in another birth. But you asked me this without bowing to me, out of the pride of your beauty. So very soon you will be parted from him. Dacoits will carry you off, and you will become veśyās.”

This one declaration, a vara and a śāpa together, took effect. Because of the śāpa of Nārada and Bhagavān Vishṇu, the apsarās, deluded by desire, became veśyās in their next life.

Born as Bhagavān Kṛshṇa’s wives

As the śāpa had ordained, the 16,000 apsarās were born in Dvārakā as Bhagavān Kṛshṇa’s wives. They lived happily under his care and enjoyed the divine pleasures of Dvārakā.

One day Sāmba, the son of Jāmbavatī, walked through the city wearing every ornament, as radiant as Manmatha himself. The wives were struck by desire. Janārdana (Bhagavān Kṛshṇa), who knows all things, saw this with the eye of meditation and understood. He told them that dacoits would carry them away. Then he vanished.

The abduction and their ruin

After the Mausala-parvam, when Bhagavān Kṛshṇa had gone to svarga, the Yadu family fell into ruin. Arjuna came to take the remaining queens to Kurukshetra, but the dacoits overpowered him. By the hundred, Kṛshṇa’s wives were carried off and fell into great hardship, just as had been ordained. They mourned the pleasures of Dvārakā, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, their children and the people of the city.

Dālbya’s teaching

The great tapasvin (one who practises austerity) Dālbya Ṛshi, rich in knowledge and deep in tapas, came to them in their misery. They honoured him and told him their trouble through tears: “O Bhagavān Dālbya! Dacoits enjoyed us by force. Our svadharma (own duty) was destroyed. You are our refuge. Keśava himself sent us to you. What dharma is there even for such as us? Tell us.”

Dālbya told them their own past: the account of Mānasarovara and Nārada’s śāpa. He also told them how Indra had once taught a like vrata to the wives of the dānavas and asuras who were captured in war. Then he taught them the Veśyā-vrata.

On Sundays, when the nakshatras Hasta, Pushya or Punarvasu fall, one should bathe with all the medicinal herbs. One should do pūjā to Bhagavān Vishṇu in his Manmatha form with gandha (scent), mālya (garlands), dhūpa (incense), dīpa (lamp) and naivedya (food offering). Then one should honour a brāhmaṇa who follows dharma, feed him with devotion and give him gold and paddy. At the end of thirteen months one gives a bed (śayyā-dāna). Done with devotion, this vrata destroys all pāpa (sin) and leads to Vishṇuloka. Dālbya said: “One who keeps this vrata will reach my place.”

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Sṛshṭi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 23