Dharmamūrti
Dharmamūrti · dharma-mūrti, “the embodiment of dharma”
Dharmamūrti is a king of an earlier mahākalpa, bright as ten thousand suns and ruler of the seven dvīpas. He was the friend of Indra and slew thousands of daityas. Though a man, he could take any form at will. No one defeated him, and hundreds of enemies were defeated by him. Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa tells his account to the king in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa, among the mountain gifts.
King Dharmamūrti and Bhānumatī
Before his tejas the sun, the moon and the others lost their lustre. His wife was Bhānumatī, the most beautiful woman in the three worlds and his chief queen, dearer to him than his own life.
Once, in the assembly hall, the king, filled with wonder, asked his purohita Vasishṭha Maharshi by the power of what dharma he had gained this supreme Lakshmī and this abundant tejas.
His former birth
Vasishṭha Maharshi said that long ago there was a veśyā named Līlāvatī, a bhaktā of Bhagavān Śiva. On a caturdaśī tithi, by the proper rule, she gave to her guru the Lavaṇācala with its golden trees and other furnishings. A goldsmith named Śauṇḍa, of śūdra jāti, served in her house. With śraddhā he made the trees and the images of the chief devatās in gold, and took no wage, knowing that this was a work of dharma. His wife rubbed the golden images and trees until they shone. Līlāvatī, freed of all pāpa, went to Śivaloka.
“That goldsmith is you now in this birth,” said Vasishṭha Maharshi, and the goldsmith’s wife was Bhānumatī. Because the two had worked at night as helpers in the gift of the Lavaṇācala, they had gained invincibility in the world, freedom from disease, saubhāgya and Lakshmī.
The mountain gifts
Vasishṭha Maharshi told him to give, in this birth too, the ten kinds of mountains by the proper rule. King Dharmamūrti said, “I shall do so,” and gave all the mountains, the Dhānyācala and the others, hundreds of times. As the fruit of this, worshipped by the hosts of devas, he reached the loka of Bhagavān Purāri.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 204
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 204