Varūthinī

Varūthinī was a beautiful and famous apsaras who lived and played among the peaks of the Himālaya mountains. She was known for her grace and charm, spending her days in the company of other celestial beings like siddhas and gandharvas. As a divine woman of the heavens, she possessed a form that was perfectly shaped and a complexion as lovely as the inside of a lotus flower. Her life was filled with the joys of the mountain forests and the music of the heavens, yet her heart remained empty until the day she encountered a mortal man who would change her destiny forever.

An Unexpected Encounter in the Snow

While wandering through the beautiful scenery of the Himālaya, Varūthinī spotted a handsome brāhmaṇa named Pravara who had become stranded after his magical travel paste melted away. The moment she saw him, her heart was struck by the arrows of kāma, and she fell deeply in love with his physical beauty and the bright tejas that surrounded him. She was amazed by his appearance, thinking that no deva, daitya, or gandharva she had ever seen could compare to this magnificent man. Driven by her intense feelings, she approached him and showed him all her beauty, hoping that he would return her love and stay with her in the mountains.

The Pain of Rejection

Despite her divine beauty and her promises of a life filled with music, fine clothes, and eternal youth, Pravara firmly rejected her. He was a man of strict dharma who only wanted to return to his home to perform his daily rituals and serve his sacred fires. Even when Varūthinī begged him and told him she could not live without him, he remained focused on his duty and his saccarita. After he prayed to Gārhapatya Agni, he was suddenly taken away by a bright light, leaving Varūthinī all alone. She was heartbroken and spent her days and nights crying, unable to find happiness even in the most beautiful gardens or the company of other birds.

A Deception and a New Life

As Varūthinī suffered from the pain of being separated from her love, a gandharva named Kali noticed her sadness. Kali had been rejected by her before, but he saw an opportunity to win her heart by using his magic to take the exact form of the brāhmaṇa Pravara. Believing that Pravara had finally returned to her, Varūthinī was filled with joy and agreed to his request to keep her eyes closed during their time together. Because she meditated so deeply on the tejas and the form of the original brāhmaṇa while she was with Kali, she eventually gave birth to a son who was as bright as Sūrya. This son was Svaroci, the great hero who would later become the father of a Svārociṣa Manu.