Sūkala Charitra

The Sūkala Charitra is the central narrative of the Bhūmi Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa. It runs through chapters 40 to 60. It tells of Sūkala, a vaiśya woman who stays true to her husband Kṛkala (also called Vṛkala) while he is away on a tīrtha-yātrā (a journey to holy places). Indra and Manmatha, who is Kāmadeva himself, try every means to break her vow, and every attempt fails. The narrative ends with Dharmarāja’s teaching that a wife is needed in every act of household dharma. Kṛkala’s tīrtha journey bears no fruit because he did śrāddha (the rite for the ancestors) without her. When he returns and does the śrāddha with Sūkala’s hands preparing the food, the pitṛs (ancestors) are freed and the devas come down to bless them.

The boar hunt and Sūkala’s introduction

King Ikshvāku, the son of Manu and ruler of Ayodhyā, went on a great hunt near the Meru and Gaṅgā region. He met a large herd of boars led by a brave male. The boar’s wife, a śūkarī (female boar) of great calm, stayed beside her husband through the whole fight. She spoke with him of vīra-dharma, the duty to die bravely in battle rather than flee. After the fight, this śūkarī shows the quality of patnī-bhakti (devotion of a wife to her husband) that runs through the whole narrative. The narrative ties her to Sūkala through a connection from a past life.

The main account then begins with Sūkala, the wife of Kṛkala. Kṛkala was a vaiśya of upright conduct and love of dharma. He decided to make a complete tīrtha-yātrā. Sūkala, a model pativratā (a wife devoted to her husband), stayed at home. Three years passed. The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa tells this in chapters 40–43.

Indra’s first plan: the messenger and the argument for pleasure

Indra saw Sūkala’s great radiance. It was the tejas (spiritual brilliance) that comes from pātivratya (a wife’s devotion to her husband). He decided to draw her away from her vow. He sent a dūtī (a woman messenger) to Sūkala’s house.

The dūtī used the old argument of pleasure. Youth passes, old age destroys the body, the husband is far away and may even be dead, so why waste the flower of youth? She also praised a rich suitor who wanted Sūkala.

Sūkala’s answer took apart the whole argument. She taught that the jīva (the living being) has no childhood, youth or old age. Only the body passes through these states, like a house that is built, decorated and at last falls to ruin. The jīva is svayaṃsiddha (self-existing), deathless, unborn and everywhere. She then described the body without softening it: the unclean things it is made of, the worms that live in the skull, and how the itch of desire (kāma-kandūti) arises through a nāḍī (channel) in the palate. She ended by saying that this body is a home of filth and of change. What the dūtī offered was nothing new, only the same itch scratched again. The dūtī went away with nothing gained. The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa tells this in chapter 53.

Indra’s judgement and Manmatha’s boast

The dūtī reported to Indra. Indra thought about the depth and exactness of Sūkala’s reply and said: “This woman is extraordinary. Her words are true and brave, full of dharma and jñāna (knowledge). She is able to bear the weight of all three worlds.”

He turned to Manmatha and warned him that Sūkala was beyond ordinary conquest. Manmatha was stung by this challenge to his pride. He boasted that he had defeated devas, ṛshis and tapasvins (people of austerity), so what was one woman to him? Indra reminded him of his defeats. Parameśvara Śiva had burned his body away. Gautama’s śāpa (curse) had left Indra himself with a thousand female marks on his body. Anasūyā had made the Trimūrti serve her. Sāvitrī had taken Satyavān out of Yama’s own hands. Indra said that pativratās are like fire, and no one can touch them. Manmatha brushed all this aside. He said he would conquer Sūkala before Indra’s eyes. The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa tells this in chapters 54–55.

Satya and Dharma keep watch, and Prajñā comes as a bird

While Indra and Manmatha prepared their attack, the guardians of Sūkala’s home were watching. Satya (Truth) and Dharma spoke together. Satya said that Sūkala’s home is his own dwelling, for where truth is lived, Satya lives, along with Śiva, Vishṇu, all the devas and the great ṛshis. If Manmatha entered, Satya would be driven out.

Dharma answered with a remedy. He sent Prajñā (inner insight) in the form of an auspicious bird, a śakuna (omen bird), to Sūkala’s door. A brāhmaṇa read the omen and said: “Your husband will return within seven days.” Sūkala’s heart filled with joy, and her thought on her husband’s feet (padadhyāna) grew stronger. The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa tells this in chapters 55–56.

Krīḍā’s trick and the garden

Manmatha sent his helper Krīḍā (Play) in the form of a sādhvī, a woman in her own trouble, left by her husband and living a pure life. Sūkala’s heart was open and kind, and she took Krīḍā as a friend in sorrow. Krīḍā spoke well of dharma, said she longed only for her husband, and won Sūkala’s trust.

Krīḍā then invited Sūkala to a divine grove nearby. It was pure and holy, full of divine flowers and trees of every season, and full of the sound of birds and bees. Sūkala agreed, thinking it a visit to a tīrtha. But the grove was truly Manmatha’s own, a pleasure garden made to enchant her by its richness. Vasanta (Spring) himself was sent into it. The scent of flowers, the hum of bees, the cries of birds, the heady air of a divine spring morning were all aimed at Sūkala.

Yet nothing entered her. Sūkala did not smell the flowers. The scents did not reach her. Vasanta was beaten. He drew back, overcome with shame, his essence dripping uselessly to the ground like honey falling from a flower. The birds in the grove themselves announced Vasanta’s defeat in their songs.

Rati, Manmatha’s wife, then came and called Sūkala toward Indra, who was watching. Sūkala said to Rati: “Where my husband is, there I am. My body here is only a shell. Go back.” Rati and Prīti (Delight) went back to Manmatha in shame. The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa tells this in chapter 57.

Indra stands before Sūkala

Indra himself came before Sūkala in the grove, in his most splendid form, wearing every ornament and shining with divine glory. With him were his dūtī, Rati and Prīti. He told her that he desired her.

Sūkala’s reply was complete. She said: “I am protected. My protectors are here with me: Dharma with self-control (indriya-nigraha) and purity (śauca); Śānti (Peace) and Kshamā (Forgiveness); Satya walking before me; and Jñāna, whose power cannot be measured and who never leaves me. My husband is with me through his guṇas (good qualities), which I carry within me always. My eyes will see only as long as the light that my husband’s gaze gave them, and with those eyes I serve him at every hour. You speak of desire while I stand in the fullness of dharma. Even if Indra himself comes, I am bound by satya-pāśa: truth is my rope and I am tied fast. Even Manmatha’s arrows will fall to dust against me. My servants Dharma, Satya and Jñāna will kill you if you go on. Leave now, or you will be burned to ash.”

Hearing this, Indra, Manmatha and all their company were seized with fear of her śāpa. They fled in disorder, each to his own realm, just as they had come. Sūkala went home calm, and her thought of her husband shone brighter than before. The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa tells this in chapter 58.

Kṛkala’s return and the held pitṛs

Kṛkala finished his round of all the holy tīrthas and set out for home in joy. He thought: “My life in the world (saṃsāra) has now borne fruit. My pitṛs have been satisfied (tṛpti) and will rise to svarga.”

At that moment a great shining being appeared before him. In the being’s hands were Kṛkala’s pitāmahas (forefathers), held in chains. The being said: “The fruit of your tīrtha journey (tīrtha-phala) is void. All your labour was wasted. You will gain no puṇya from what you have done.” Kṛkala was crushed. He asked who the being was and what wrong he had done.

The being said he was Dharmarāja, and gave this teaching. A man who does sacred acts, such as tīrtha journeys, śrāddha and yajña, without his wife beside him gets no fruit at all. A pativratā wife of dharmic nature is not only a companion. She is the yajamānī, the presiding mistress of dharma in the household. The gṛhiṇī (housewife) is the śrāddha itself, and without her the śrāddha is theft. The food she makes with her own hands is amṛta (the nectar of life) that feeds the pitṛs. Without her hands, even pūjā done at the holiest tīrtha cannot reach the pitṛs. A house without a wife is a forest. Dharma cannot be done alone.

Dharmarāja went on. Kṛkala’s tīrtha-śrāddha, done without his wife, was done by a thief (corā). The brāhmaṇas who ate at that śrāddha were thieves too. The pitṛs who received food from that wrongful śrāddha are therefore held as well. The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa tells this in chapter 59.

The remedy: śrāddha with the wife

Dharmarāja’s instruction was short and clear. Go home. Comfort your grieving wife, who follows dharma (dharma-cāriṇī) and puṇya (puṇya-cāriṇī) and has waited faithfully. Then do the śrāddha again, this time with your wife’s hands making the food. Call to mind all the tīrthas you visited. Then the devas and pitṛs will receive their due offerings, the tīrtha-phala will come alive, and all will bear fruit.

Kṛkala went home. He found Sūkala calm, absorbed in thought of her husband. When he came, she did all the auspicious rites. He told her everything: Dharmarāja’s words, the held pitṛs and the teaching on the need for a wife. Sūkala took in Dharmarāja’s teaching and agreed with it with full joy. Together they did the śrāddha. The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa tells this in chapter 60.

The divine assembly comes down

The śrāddha done by the two together, with Sūkala’s hands preparing the offering, was so pure and strong that devas, pitṛs, gandharvas and great ṛshis came down in their vimānas (flying chariots) to watch. Bhagavān Vishṇu came himself. Brahmā came with Pārvatī and Parameśvara Śiva, and all the devas and gandharvas with them. The company of the pitṛs was set free from bondage and rose, released.

Indra then spoke before Kṛkala and the assembly. He told all that had happened: his own attempt on Sūkala, Manmatha’s boast, the garden, the meeting in the grove, and Sūkala’s full victory through satya. He praised Sūkala as mahānubhāvurālu, a woman of great spiritual power, and said he was granting a vara (a boon) out of pure respect for her.

Kṛkala’s prayer was: “Grant me unfailing devotion to the Trimūrti in all births, joy in dharma and satya, and at the end the reaching of Vishṇuloka together with my wife and my forefathers.” The assembled devas granted the prayer in full. The devas showered flowers, the gandharvas sang and the apsarasas danced. So Kṛkala, Sūkala and their pitṛs were all set free together. The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa tells this in chapter 60.

The fruit of hearing

Bhagavān Vishṇu told Brahmā that this whole account, the Sūkala Charitra, is the best example of nārī-tīrtha: the wife as the greatest tīrtha. Whoever hears it with faith (śraddhā) is freed from all pāpa (sin). A woman who hears it with attention will stay united with her husband and children for ever, will be blessed with saubhāgya (marital good fortune) in every birth, and will be a pativratā in every life she takes. The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa tells this in chapter 60.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, chapters 40–60
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, chapters 40–43 (the boar hunt and Sūkala’s introduction)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, chapter 53 (the dūtī), chapters 54–55 (Indra and Manmatha), chapters 55–56 (Satya, Dharma and Prajñā), chapter 57 (Krīḍā and the garden), chapter 58 (Indra and Sūkala), chapter 59 (Dharmarāja and the held pitṛs), chapter 60 (the remedy, the assembly and the fruit of hearing)