Tulasī and Śālagrāma

The Śiva Purāṇa tells how the Śālagrāma stones began and how the worship of Tulasī and Śālagrāma was set up. The account is in the Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapter 41. After Śaṅkhacūḍa died, Bhagavān Vishṇu took his form and went to Tulasī, Śaṅkhacūḍa’s wife. Tulasī knew who he was, and she gave a śāpa (a curse): “You shall become stone.” From her body came the Gaṇḍakī river, and in its waters the Śālagrāma stones took shape.

What came before

This account follows straight after the death of Śaṅkhacūḍa. Bhagavān Śiva’s triśūla (trident) killed Śaṅkhacūḍa, and the freed soul of Sudāmā the gopāla (cowherd) came out of him. Bhagavān Vishṇu’s task was not yet finished.

Bhagavān Śiva had given Bhagavān Vishṇu a painful duty. In the Jalandhara war, Bhagavān Vishṇu had broken the pativrata (faithful wife’s vow) of Vṛndā by deception. Now he had to go, again in disguise, to Tulasī, the faithful wife of Śaṅkhacūḍa. During the last battle he had first taken from Śaṅkhacūḍa the Śrī Kṛshṇa Kavaca (armour).

Wearing the Kavaca, and looking exactly like Śaṅkhacūḍa, Bhagavān Vishṇu came to Tulasī. She welcomed him, believing her husband had come home. As time passed, her deep awareness as a faithful wife began to notice small differences in the one before her. She asked him searching questions. Then she knew the truth.

Chapters 40 and 41 of the Yuddha Khaṇḍa give this part.

Tulasī’s śāpa

When Tulasī knew that this was Bhagavān Vishṇu and not Śaṅkhacūḍa, she was overcome. Her vow had been kept with perfect faith. It was broken, not by any weakness of hers, but by Bhagavān Vishṇu, whom she revered. He himself had become the cause of her ruin.

From her firm righteousness she spoke the śāpa: “You shall become stone.”

Nothing could turn this śāpa aside. Her power as a faithful wife was supreme, and even Bhagavān Vishṇu could not turn it back. So Bhagavān Vishṇu is present as the Śālagrāma stones in the Gaṇḍakī river, the Gandak river that flows from Nepal into Bihar. These are sacred black stones with spiral marks. They hold Bhagavān Vishṇu in his form as stone.

The Gaṇḍakī river and the cakra marks

The Gaṇḍakī river arose from Tulasī’s own body, from her tejas (radiance) and the tears of her deepest grief.

Special worms live in the Gaṇḍakī. They bore into the Śālagrāma stones and cut the cakra mark, the mark of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s Sudarśana Cakra. The mark is permanent. Every true Śālagrāma stone carries the spiral or cakra mark made by these sacred worms.

The rules of Śālagrāma, Tulasī and Śaṅkha pūjā

Bhagavān Śiva comforted Tulasī and showed her the purpose behind all that had happened. Then Bhagavān Śiva himself set down the rules of Śālagrāma pūjā.

• Śālagrāma and Tulasī leaf. Using the Śālagrāma stone together with the Tulasī leaf is declared the most powerful act of Vishṇu pūjā in all creation. No other offering equals it.
• Śaṅkha (conch). The conch used in the pūjā of Śālagrāma is linked to Śaṅkhacūḍa. His name means “the one with a conch on his crest”. So the conch in the pūjā of Bhagavān Vishṇu always carries the memory of Śaṅkhacūḍa.
• The three together. Śālagrāma, which is Bhagavān Vishṇu in stone from Tulasī’s śāpa, the Tulasī leaf, and the Śaṅkha make up the full pūjā of Bhagavān Vishṇu. Their beginnings all lie in these Yuddha Khaṇḍa accounts.

The Jalandhara war

In the Jalandhara war, the Śiva Purāṇa says that Vṛndā’s tejas became three sacred plants, Dhātrī, Mallī and Tulasī, and that her śāpa turned Bhagavān Vishṇu into Śālagrāma. This is told in Chapter 23. In the war with Śaṅkhacūḍa, Tulasī’s śāpa made Bhagavān Vishṇu into stone, and the Gaṇḍakī river arose from her body. This is told in Chapter 41.

Tulasī’s end

Bhagavān Śiva then explained the whole plan to Tulasī. Everything that happened came by his own will, for the freeing of Sudāmā. These were Śaṅkhacūḍa’s birth as Sudāmā the gopāla, his life as a dānava, the marriage, the war, the death and the disguise. Tulasī had been the one through whom this freedom came.

Her sacrifice and grief were real, and so was the great result. Sudāmā went back to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa in Goloka. Tulasī was given a divine form and reached Vaikuṇṭha, the realm of Bhagavān Vishṇu. This fulfilled the vara (boon) that Bhagavān Brahmā had given at her wedding.

Sources

• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapter 41
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapters 40–41
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapter 23 (Vṛndā’s śāpa)