Dharmavratā and Marīci

Dharmavratā was the daughter of Dharma. She was the wife of the ṛshi Marīci, a pativratā (a wife devoted to her husband). The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa tells how her husband gave her a śāpa (a curse) by mistake. She then performed tapas (austerity) in the middle of a fire. The devas gave her a vara (a boon), and she became the Dharmaśilā, the sacred rock of Gayā, where all the devas and all the tīrthas (holy places) live.

Her birth and tapas

Dharma had a daughter named Dharmavratā, “she who has dharma as her vrata (vow)”. She had all thirty-two auspicious qualities. She was as beautiful as Lakshmī, and every good quality of the three worlds was gathered in her. The text says: “There was no woman like her in the three worlds.”

Dharma searched the three worlds for a husband worthy of his daughter. He found none equal to her. So he told her to perform tapas to win a fitting husband. Dharmavratā agreed at once and went alone into the forest.

There she performed great tapas. She took only air as food (vāyubhakshaṇa). She stood in the pañcāgni, the vow of five fires, in which one sits among four fires with the blazing sun overhead. She stayed so for laksha yugas (hundreds of thousands of yugas) without wavering.

Marīci meets her and marries her

Marīci was a mānasa-putra (mind-born son) of Brahmā and one of the ten Prajāpatis. He was travelling the earth to find a wife of the highest virtue. He came upon Dharmavratā in her tapas and was struck by her beauty and purity. He asked her: “Who are you? Whose daughter are you? I am Marīci, born of the tejas of Brahmā. I am known as a knower of the Vedas.”

Dharmavratā answered: “I am Dharmavratā, the daughter of Dharma, a tapasvinī (woman of tapas). I am performing this highest tapas to become a pativratā.”

Marīci was sure that she was the wife meant for him, and he told her so. Dharmavratā, true to her place as a daughter who keeps dharma, told him to ask her father Dharma. Marīci went to Dharma. Dharma received him with honour and saw that he was a great being, worthy of Dharmavratā. He gave her to Marīci with the proper Vedic rites, including the agnihotra (the daily fire offering).

Marīci took Dharmavratā to his āśrama (hermitage). He lived with her as happily as Bhagavān Vishṇu with Lakshmī, Bhagavān Śiva with Pārvatī, and Brahmā with Sarasvatī. One hundred sons were born to them, each as glorious as Vishṇu.

The misunderstanding and the śāpa

One day Marīci came home tired after gathering fruits and flowers in the forest. After he had eaten, he lay down on his bed. He said to Dharmavratā: “Press my feet while I rest.” She began this service with devotion.

At that very moment Brahmā arrived at their āśrama. Dharmavratā did not know what to do. Her husband lay asleep with his feet in her hands, and she was in the middle of her service. But Brahmā was Marīci’s own father, and so her own elder and guru (teacher) through her husband. He had come and stood before her, and he had to be honoured.

She thought: “This is the creator of the universe, my husband’s father and so my own pati-guru. I must rise and receive him.” She gently set down her husband’s feet and stood up. She honoured Brahmā with arghya (water of welcome), pādya (water for his feet), āsana (a seat) and all due respect. At Brahmā’s request she made ready a place to rest, and Brahmā lay down.

In the meantime Marīci woke up. He did not find Dharmavratā at his feet. He saw her standing near Brahmā. He asked for no explanation. Full of anger, he gave this śāpa:

“You have left my service and gone elsewhere. For that pāpa (sin), through my śāpa, you shall become a rock (śilā)!”

Dharmavratā’s answer

Dharmavratā knew that she had done no wrong. She did not simply accept the śāpa. She saw the injustice clearly and spoke:

“You were asleep. Your own father, the master of creation, came. I honoured him, as is my dharma toward my husband’s father. By doing this very dharma I have received your śāpa. You have given it to me unjustly. Therefore I give you this śāpa in return: you shall receive a śāpa from Mahādeva.”

The text records that Marīci did receive the śāpa of Bhagavān Śiva as a result of this unjust act.

Tapas in the fire and the vara

Shaken by what had happened, Dharmavratā came before Brahmā, who had woken up. She bowed down to him. Then, without hesitation, she entered the agni (sacred fire) and performed the hardest tapas of all. She stood in the flames themselves, while Brahmā watched.

The heat of this tapas spread out and troubled all of svarga. Indra and the devas could not bear it. They went to Bhagavān Vishṇu in the Kshīrasāgara (the ocean of milk) and begged him: “O Hari, protect the three worlds from the tapas of this pativratā and of this muni (Marīci).” Bhagavān Vishṇu told the devas that he would go to Dharmavratā. They all went together to Dharmavratā where she stood in the fire. Bhagavān Vishṇu, Brahmā (now fully awake), Indra and all the devas came.

They offered her a vara. Dharmavratā said:

“I cannot take away my husband’s śāpa. The śāpa of a great ṛshi cannot be undone, even by devas and Brāhmaṇas. Let me become a rock, but a rock of the highest holiness. Let all rivers (nadīs), lakes (sarovaras), holy tīrthas, all devas and devīs (both mūrta, with form, and amūrta, without form), and all ṛshis and gandharvas live in my body for ever. Let Brahmā, Vishṇu and Rudra set their pādas (footprints) on me. Let the three sacrificial fires, the five fires, Kumāra and all the devas stay in me. Let whoever sees me, touches me, or bathes in the tīrthas of my body be made pure. Let those who perform Śrāddha on me send their Pitṛs (ancestors) to Brahmaloka. Let Śrāddha done on me be akshaya (without end). Let all four-footed creatures (catushpādas) who die on me reach the nature of Vishṇu. Let pūjā and japa done on my rock-body give results at once. Let those who perform Śrāddha on me free a thousand generations of their family and themselves reach Vishṇuloka. Let this rock-body of mine last as long as the brahmāṇḍa (the egg of the universe) lasts.”

The devas, with Bhagavān Vishṇu among them, granted every one of these requests. Dharmavratā, changed into the Dharmaśilā, became the sacred rock of Gayā. Bhagavān Vishṇu, the devas and all the tīrthas live in it for ever. Vishṇupāda, Rudrapāda and Brahmapāda, the footprints of Vishṇu, Rudra and Brahmā, were set on it, as the text describes.

Sources

• Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 7