Toṇḍamānadu Ākhyāna

The Toṇḍamānadu Ākhyāna is the account of three devotees whose stories are joined in Chapters 9 and 10 of the Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya. They are Vasu the hunter, Raṅgadāsa the gardener and King Toṇḍamānadu. Together their stories tell how Veṅkaṭādri became open to pilgrims, how its gardens were planted, and how the first prākāra (enclosing wall) with a gopura (gate-tower) was built around the home of Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa. The account ends with Toṇḍamānadu gaining sārūpya, a form like that of Bhagavān Vishṇu. Bhagavān Varāha tells it to Bhūdevī as a foretelling of devotion on the mountain in the years to come.

Bhagavān Varāha begins with these words: “Whoever hears or reads this story will reach Vishṇuloka.”

Vasu the hunter

In the Kali-yuga a hunter named Vasu lived on the slopes of Veṅkaṭādri with his wife Citrāvatī and their son Vīra. Vasu loved Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa with all his heart. He grew cāma (a grain crop) on the mountainside. He would cook the ripe cāma with honey and offer it to Śrīnivāsa in the presence of Śrīdevī and Bhūdevī. This was his daily bhakti.

One day Vasu left his son Vīra in charge of the grain and went into the forest with his wife to collect honey. While his father was away, young Vīra plucked the cāma, threw it into the fire, ground the charred grain and offered it to Śrīnivāsa under the tree. Then he ate the prasāda and sat down content.

When Vasu came back and found the crop gone, he was furious and raised a knife against his son. At that moment the hand of Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa reached out from the tree and seized the knife. Vasu looked back and saw Śrīnivāsa, holding the śaṅkha, cakra and gadā, visible from inside the tree down to the waist. Vasu let the knife fall and bowed to the ground.

Śrīnivāsa spoke: “Your son’s bhakti toward me is greater than yours. I have shown myself here for his sake. I am present all along the south bank of Svāmi Pushkariṇī.” Vasu was filled with joy.

Raṅgadāsa the gardener

A śūdra devotee named Raṅgadāsa came from the Pāṇḍya country. He heard of Śrīnivāsa at Nārāyaṇapura. He crossed the river Svarṇamukhī and bathed in the Padma-sarovara, where the āśrama of Śuka Muni stood. He bowed to Kṛshṇa with Baladeva, whom Śuka worshipped, and then entered the mountain. He came to the Cakra-tīrtha and the Pāpanāśana-tīrtha. A Vaikhānasa priest whom he met on the way guided him.

Raṅgadāsa was only twelve years old. He climbed to Svāmi Pushkariṇī, bathed, and saw Śrīnivāsa under the Śrī-vṛksha tree. Śrīnivāsa had four arms and stood with Śrīdevī and Bhūdevī. Kumārasvāmī worships him at the three sandhyās (the junctions of the day), and his feet were hidden in the anthill.

The sight overwhelmed Raṅgadāsa. He decided to make a garden for the worship of Śrīnivāsa. He arranged for the Vaikhānasa priest to make the daily offerings. Then he cleared the forest around, leaving only the tamarind tree and the campaka tree, which Śrīnivāsa himself named as his own home and Lakshmī’s home. Around the cleared ground he built a stone enclosure (goda). Inside it he planted mallika, kanera, lotus, jasmine, bondu-mallika, mandāra, jāji, tulasī and sampaka. He dug a well for water and used it to feed all the plants. Every day he gathered the flowers, made garlands, and gave them to the Vaikhānasa priest to adorn Śrīnivāsa. This selfless kaiṅkarya (service) went on without a break for seven years.

Then one day a gandharva came down with his companions to bathe in the garden’s lake. The sight broke Raṅgadāsa’s attention for a while. His eyes followed the gandharva’s display of beauty, and he missed the time for making the garlands. The Vaikhānasa priest asked why he was late, but Raṅgadāsa was too ashamed to answer.

Śrīnivāsa himself spoke to comfort him: “O Raṅgadāsa, do not be ashamed. I caused your distraction myself, to show you your own quality. You are truly a jitendriya, one who has won his senses, and steady beyond all hope. Because of this, you will be born again as a great king in the Candra-vaṃśa. You will build my prākāra and my vimāna. For now, serve me here until you leave this body.”

Raṅgadāsa looked after the garden for more than a hundred years. Then he left his body, to be born again as Toṇḍamānadu.

Toṇḍamānadu’s birth and the hunt

Toṇḍamānadu was born to Suvīra and Nandinī in the Candra-vaṃśa. He showed love for Bhagavān Vishṇu from the age of five. He married Padmā, a Pāṇḍya princess, and a hundred other brides chosen at svayaṃvara. He ruled from Nārāyaṇapura like Indra.

One day he took leave of his father and went hunting on Veṅkaṭādri. He crossed the Svarṇamukhī and met the great ṛshi Śuka, and he bowed to him. He passed the grove of Reṇukā Devī and bowed to her. Then he saw a five-coloured parrot crying “Śrīnivāsa!” and chased it up the mountain. At the cāma field he could not catch it. Instead he met the farmer Vasu. Vasu’s son guided the two along the rocky path to Svāmi Pushkariṇī. They bathed and went to the Śrī-vṛksha on the south bank.

There Toṇḍamānadu had his first darśana of Śrīnivāsa. Śrīnivāsa stood tall with four arms, wide lotus eyes and a gentle smile, with Śrīdevī and Bhūdevī. Kumārasvāmī worshipped him, and his feet were hidden in the anthill. Toṇḍamānadu stood still, with folded hands, and joy filled his whole being.

On the way back he worshipped Reṇukā Devī on Caitra Śukla Navamī and received a vara from her: “Your kingdom will have no obstacle. A capital will bear your name. You will rule long near me. The blessings of the Supreme will come to you.” He visited Śuka’s āśrama, heard the greatness (māhātmya) of the Padma-sarovara, bathed in it, and went home. His father crowned him after a three-year trial as yuvarāja (crown prince).

The Varāha in the anthill

After Toṇḍamānadu began to rule, Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa took the form of a shining white varāha (boar). He roamed at night in Vasu’s cāma field near Svāmi Pushkariṇī. Vasu kept watch at night with his bow and chased the gleaming boar. The boar went into an anthill. Vasu dug it up in anger and fell unconscious at the sight. His son prayed. Śrīnivāsa entered Vasu and spoke: “I am Varāha Svāmī. I live always in this anthill. Have the king come here. Let him bathe the anthill with the milk of black and mixed-colour cows. Let a stone image in the form of Varāha be carved and set up. Let him build prākāras to the north and the south.” Then Śrīnivāsa left Vasu’s body, and Vasu recovered.

Vasu came to Toṇḍamānadu’s court with this message. That night Śrīnivāsa came in a dream to Toṇḍamānadu and showed him a tunnel route to the anthill, marking the path with fresh leaves. The next morning Toṇḍamānadu found the leaves, called his court together, and set out. He founded a town (paṭṭana) at the tunnel mouth and went on to the anthill.

He followed Śrīnivāsa’s instructions.

• The anthill was bathed with milk from black and mixed-colour cows.
• Craftsmen carved a stone Varāha image, and Vaikhānasa munis set it up with the proper rites.
• The tamarind and campaka trees were protected for good. Śrīnivāsa declared them his own home and Lakshmī’s home, and commanded that all, whether kings, ṛshis, devas or humans, must bow to them.
• The trees around were removed.
• A prākāra with a gopura was built.

Śrīnivāsa told Toṇḍamānadu to come every day at midday, after the naivedya (food offering), by the underground passage, to offer golden lotus flowers and then return to the city. Śrīnivāsa also announced: “The vimāna will be built by my devotee Nārāyaṇa, a future king of your dynasty.”

The brahmin Vīraśarma

In Toṇḍamānadu’s reign a brāhmaṇa named Vīraśarma, of the Sāmaveda and the Vasishṭha gotra, was travelling to the Gaṅgā on pilgrimage with his wife Lakshmī, of the Kauśika gotra. She was too far along in pregnancy to travel. He left her in Toṇḍamānadu’s care with food for six months and set out.

He went to Prayāga, to Kāśī for three days, to Gayā for the pitṛ-śrāddha (rites for the ancestors), to Ayodhyā and to Badarī. On the way back he bowed at Śālagrāma. After two years he came home on Vaiśākha Śukla Ekādaśī. He found that the king had forgotten his wife, and that she had died in the palace and become a skeleton.

Toṇḍamānadu was alarmed. He went into the underground passage to Śrīnivāsa and told him urgently. Śrīnivāsa said: “Do not fear. Put this brahmin’s wife in a palanquin with your queens. Bring her on a dvādaśī day to the Asthi-sarovara in front of my temple, and bathe the body in it. This lake removes untimely death. She will live again.”

It was done exactly so. The dead woman was bathed in the Asthi-sarovara on a dvādaśī and came back to full life, as beautiful as before. She came out of the lake among the queens and was joined again with her husband. Toṇḍamānadu honoured Vīraśarma with a thousand nishkas of gold and rich garments and sent him home.

The liberation of Bhīma the potter

Toṇḍamānadu saw that some of the golden lotuses he brought for Śrīnivāsa’s worship had mud on them and were mixed with tulasī blossoms. He asked Śrīnivāsa who else was making offerings. Śrīnivāsa told him it was Bhīma, a kumbhāra (potter) of Kurva village, who worshipped from his home.

Toṇḍamānadu went to the village and found Bhīma. As they met and talked, Bhīma remembered Śrīnivāsa’s earlier promise to him: “When King Toṇḍamānadu comes and speaks with you, you will gain moksha.” While Bhīma was still speaking, a divine vimāna came down from the sky. Bhīma and his wife gave up their lives, took divine forms, and rose to Vaikuṇṭha before the astonished king. Toṇḍamānadu went back full of wonder.

Toṇḍamānadu gains sārūpya

At last Toṇḍamānadu gave the kingdom to his son Śrīnivāsa. He blessed him with the charge of ruling the earth and its people with dharma, and he went alone into the forest. There he did intense tapas (austerity).

Śrīnivāsa came, riding Garuḍa, with Śrīdevī and Bhūdevī, and asked, “What do you wish for?” Toṇḍamānadu bowed to the ground and said in a choked voice: “I wish to live in your loka, where there is no jarā (old age) and no maraṇa (death).” Śrīnivāsa granted it. Toṇḍamānadu gave up his body, rose in a divine vimāna to the sound of the gandharvas’ praise, and reached Vaikuṇṭha. He had gained sārūpya, sameness of form with Bhagavān Vishṇu, and he would never return.

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapter 9
• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapter 10