Maṇikuṇḍala
Maṇikuṇḍala · maṇi-kuṇḍala, “the one with jewelled earrings”
Gautama has other meanings too: see all meanings of Gautama. Bhauvana has other meanings too: see all meanings of Bhauvana.
Maṇikuṇḍala, also called Kuṇḍala and Maṇimān, was a rich and flourishing vaiśya (merchant) of the city of Bhauvana, the friend of the poor brāhmaṇa Gautama, son of Vṛddhakauśika. The Brahma Purāṇa calls him the most excellent among those who know dharma (right conduct). Trusting his friend, he set out with him to trade, and Gautama, who secretly wanted his wealth, wagered with him three times on whether dharma or adharma is stronger. Each time the people judged against him; he lost all his wealth, then his hands, and then his eyes, on the southern bank of the Gautamī before Yogeśvara. Yet to the end he declared that dharma alone is the mother, father, friend and kinsman of all beings.
There, on the night of a śukla ekādaśī, Vaibhīshaṇi, the son of Vibhīshaṇa, found him, and at his father’s word placed on his heart a branch of the tree where the herb Viśalyakaraṇī had fallen from Hanumān‘s mountain. Maṇikuṇḍala regained his hands and eyes. With the same branch he restored the sight of the blind princess of Mahāpura and was given her hand and the kingdom. As king he did not forget his friend: when he found Gautama ruined by gamblers, he honoured him, taught him the power of dharma, and had him bathe in the Gaṅgā to wash away his pāpas (wrong deeds). With their kinsmen the two performed yajñas near Yogeśvara and went to svarga. He is not Kuṇḍala of Kurukshetra.
His friend Gautama
Brahmā tells Nārada of Cakshustīrtha on the southern bank of the Gautamī, which gives beauty and happiness in marriage, where the deity is Yogeśvara, Bhagavān Vishṇu as Hari, the master of Yogas. On the top of a mountain stood the city of Bhauvana, whose king, also named Bhauvana, kept the dharma of a kshatriya. In that city lived the brāhmaṇa Vṛddhakauśika, whose son Gautama was the most excellent of those who knew the Vedas, yet, because of a defect in his mother’s mind, his qualities ran the other way. His friend was the merchant Maṇikuṇḍala. It was an unlikely friendship, a poor brāhmaṇa and a rich vaiśya, but each wished the other well.
Again and again, in secret, Gautama urged Maṇikuṇḍala, a lord of riches: “Let us go to the mountains and the seas to seek wealth. Youth is futile without the means of pleasure, and how can that be without wealth? Fie upon a man without riches!” Kuṇḍala answered: “My father has earned a vast amount of wealth. O excellent brāhmaṇa, what shall I do with more?” Gautama pressed him: no one is praised for being content; blessed are those who live by their own effort, and those who live on wealth given by others live miserably; the son who earns wealth by the might of his own arms, and gives it to his father and kinsmen, is the real son, and he should not touch his father’s wealth.
The vaiśya took these words as true. He gathered his wealth and jewels in haste and handed them to Gautama, saying: “With this wealth we shall travel over all lands and come home with more.” He spoke in all sincerity and did not know that his friend was a cheat. Without the knowledge of their parents the two set out and went from place to place, and Gautama thought only of how to take the vaiśya’s wealth and spend it on pleasures in the cities of the world.
The three wagers
Laughing, Gautama said to him: “Beings gain prosperity, happiness and all they desire only through adharma. The righteous are seen to be miserable in the world. Of what use is dharma, which brings only misery?” Maṇikuṇḍala said no: “Happiness rests on dharma. In adharma and pāpa there are misery, fear, grief, poverty and pain. Where there is dharma there is moksha too. How can the fruit of doing one’s own svadharma be lost?”
The first wager: the wealth. They argued until they quarrelled, and agreed that whoever’s view the people upheld would take the other’s wealth. They asked the people: “Of these two, which has greater power in the world, dharma or adharma? Tell the truth.” Some of the people said: “Those who follow dharma suffer pain and misery; those who do pāpa are happy.” Defeated, the vaiśya handed his wealth to the brāhmaṇa.
Still Maṇimān praised dharma. “Do you still praise dharma?” asked the brāhmaṇa. “I do,” said the vaiśya. “All the wealth is won by me,” said Gautama. “Why do you prattle without shame?” Maṇikuṇḍala answered, smiling: “Dear friend, those without dharma are to me like shrivelled grains among grains, or gnats among winged creatures. Dharma is named first among the four aims of life, the purushārthas; artha and kāma come only after it. That dharma is in me. How then can you say you have won?”
The second wager: the hands. “Let the wager be our hands,” said Gautama, and the vaiśya said, “So be it.” They went to the people as before, and Gautama claimed the win. He cut off the vaiśya’s hands and asked: “How do you think of dharma now?” The vaiśya said: “I hold dharma supreme to the last breath of my life. Dharma alone is the mother, father, friend and kinsman of all embodied beings.”
So the brāhmaṇa grew rich and the vaiśya was left without hands or wealth. Wandering on, they came by chance to the Gaṅgā and to Hari, Yogeśvara, the master of Yogas. There the vaiśya began to praise the Gaṅgā, Yogeśvara and dharma alone. Gautama rebuked him: “Your wealth is gone, your hands are cut off, you have barely breath left. Speak so again and I will cut off your head with a sword.” The vaiśya laughed: “I hold dharma to be the greatest thing. Do as you please. The doer of pāpa who reviles brāhmaṇas, gurus, devas, the Vedas, dharma and Vishṇu should not be touched; the evil-minded one who reviles dharma should be shunned.”
The third wager: life. “If you praise dharma, let us wager our lives,” said Gautama. “So be it,” said the merchant. The people answered as before. In front of Yogeśvara, on the southern bank of the Gautamī, Gautama threw the vaiśya down and plucked out his eyes. “You have come to this because you praised dharma every day,” he said. “Your wealth is gone, your eyes are gone, your tender hands are cut off. I take my leave, my friend. Do not speak like this in another such dispute.” And he went away.
Healed at Yogeśvara
Alone, Kuṇḍala thought: “Alas, what has happened to me, though my mind is given only to deeds of dharma!” Poor, without hands and eyes, he sat on the ground motionless, sunk in an ocean of grief, yet still thinking only of dharma.
On the ekādaśī of the bright half of every month, at night after moonrise, Vibhīshaṇa, the lord of Laṅkā, came to that place with his son and his rākshasas, bathed in the Gautamī Gaṅgā and worshipped Yogeśvara. His son, like a second Vibhīshaṇa, was known as Vaibhīshaṇi. He saw the vaiśya and spoke with him, and when he had heard everything, he told it to his father.
Vibhīshaṇa said: “The glorious Rāma was my honoured guru, and his friend Hanumān is worthy of my reverence. When the need arose, Hanumān brought a great mountain, a store of all healing herbs, and handed it to Rāma; the chief herbs were Viśalyakaraṇī, which takes away the pain of wounds, and Mṛtasañjīvanī, which brings the dead back to life. When the purpose was served he carried the mountain back to Himavān, and as he went swiftly the herb Viśalyakaraṇī fell on the bank of the Gautamī, where the deity is Hari, the master of Yogas. Bring that herb and, remembering Hari, place it on this vaiśya’s heart, and he will gain all he needs.”
“Show me that herb quickly, father,” said Vaibhīshaṇi. “Nothing in the three worlds does more good than removing the anguish of others.” Vibhīshaṇa showed him, and out of love for the vaiśya Vaibhīshaṇi recited the Vedic mantra Ishe tvā and cut a branch from the tree. Vibhīshaṇa said: “The tree on the mountain where the herb fell has become powerful. Place its branch on this vaiśya’s heart, and at its touch he will regain his former form.” Vaibhīshaṇi placed the wood on his heart, and Maṇikuṇḍala regained his own form, with hands and eyes. No one can fully know the power of gems, mantras and healing herbs.
King of Mahāpura
Maṇikuṇḍala kept the twig. He bathed in the Gautamī Gaṅgā, bowed to Hari, the master of Yogas, and with the twig wandered over many lands. In the city known as Mahāpura ruled a powerful king known as Mahārāja. He had no son; his only daughter was blind, and he regarded her as his son. He had vowed and proclaimed day and night: “Whoever restores the sight of this princess, deva or dānava, brāhmaṇa, kshatriya, vaiśya or śūdra, with merit or without, shall be given my daughter in marriage, with the kingdom.”
The vaiśya heard it and said: “I shall surely restore the princess’s sight.” The officers brought him before the king, and at the mere touch of the twig the princess saw. The king asked in wonder who he was, and the vaiśya told him all that had happened, saying: “I have this power by the grace of the brāhmaṇas, by dharma, by tapas (spiritual austerity), by the yajñas I performed with plentiful dakshiṇā, by dāna (giving) and by the divine healing herbs.” The king thought: “This man must be a deva; who else has such power?” and gave him his daughter and the kingdom.
His kindness to Gautama
One day the new king went out, but his heart was heavy: “A kingdom without my friend is no good; there is no happiness without him.” He began to think of that same brāhmaṇa. This alone is the mark of the nobly born: their minds melt with pity even towards those who were hostile to them.
He went to the forest, and there he saw Gautama, whose riches had all been taken by gamblers given to pāpa. Maṇikuṇḍala, who knew dharma, took him home and honoured him duly. He taught him fully the power of righteous deeds and had him bathe in the Gaṅgā to remove his pāpas. Then the brāhmaṇa and the vaiśya with their kinsmen, Vṛddhakauśika chief among them, performed yajñas near Yogeśvara, worshipped the devas and went to svarga.
The tīrtha
From then on that tīrtha is known as Mṛtasañjīvana, Cakshustīrtha and Yogeśa. It gives puṇya (merit) even when it is remembered, brings delight to the mind and destroys all miseries.
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 100