Śīladhanā

Śīladhanā · śīla-dhanā, “the one rich in virtue”

Śīladhanā was the chief of the one thousand queens of King Kṛtavīrya of the Haihaya line, in the city of Māhishmatī, endowed with all good marks. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells of her to King Yudhishṭhira in the glory of the Ananta vrata.

One day she asked the brahmavādinī Maitreyī how to obtain a son. “Śīladhanā! Any woman or man who does ārādhanā of Bhagavān Janārdana has all wishes fulfilled,” Maitreyī said, and she taught her the Ananta vrata. “If you desire an excellent son, keep this Ananta vrata with faith, according to rule.”

Śīladhanā began the vrata with bhakti. By its power Bhagavān Ananta was content and gave her an excellent son. At his birth the sky became clear, the devas sounded dundubhis, a rain of flowers fell, and the gandharvas sang and the apsarās danced. King Kṛtavīrya named him Arjuna, and as the son of Kṛtavīrya he was called Kārtavīrya.

So by the power of the Ananta vrata Queen Śīladhanā gained a most excellent son, and his father had no grief from his son. The Purāṇa says that a man or woman who hears this birth of Kārtavīrya does not suffer grief about children for seven births, and one who keeps the Ananta vrata with bhakti gains excellent children and aiśvarya.

Sources

• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 105–106