Tāladhvaja

Tāladhvaja · tāla-dhvaja, “he whose banner bears the palm”

Tāladhvaja is the king in the account of the Māyā of Bhagavān Vishṇu that Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Yudhishṭhira in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa.

Bhagavān Vishṇu and Nārada came near the country of Kānyakubja and bathed in a lovely sarovara. When Nārada came out of the water he saw himself as a divine maiden, and Bhagavān Vishṇu withdrew from sight. At that moment King Tāladhvaja came there with his armies. Seeing her beauty, he wondered whether she was a deva woman or an apsarā, and asked who she was. She said she had no mother, father or refuge, and was in his śaraṇa. The king, delighted, seated her on his horse, reached his capital and married her by the proper rites.

In the thirteenth year she bore a gourd containing fifty divine-bodied boys skilled in war. Their sons and grandsons grew in number, fought one another out of greed for the kingdom, and all perished. The queen beat her breast and fell senseless, and the king too wept in grief.

Then Bhagavān Vishṇu came in the form of a brāhmaṇa, with other dvijas, and taught the king and queen: “This is the Māyā of Vishṇu. You weep in vain. Such is the end of all beings.” He took the queen’s hand, called her Nārada, and had her bathe in the same tīrtha. Nārada gave up the woman’s form and took his own. The king, with his ministers and purohitas, saw a radiant muni with jaṭā and yajñopavīta, bearing daṇḍa and kamaṇḍalu, holding a vīṇā and standing on wooden sandals, and saw that this was not his queen.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 3

Sources

• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 3