Suśyāmā

Suśyāmā · su-śyāmā

Vṛddhā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vṛddhā.

Suśyāmā was a celestial woman, the daughter of the king of the gandharvas. In a cave of the Himālaya she met King Ṛtadhvaja, and of their union was born Vṛddhā, the old tapasvinī who later became the wife of the ṛshi Vṛddha-gautama. Before she went back to svarga, Suśyāmā told her daughter that whoever entered the cave would be her husband.

The meeting in the cave

Brahmā tells Nārada the account of the tīrtha Vṛddha-saṅgama, where Bhagavān Śiva is called Vṛddheśvara. Within it, the old woman of the cave tells the ṛshi Gautama the account of her own birth.

Ṛtadhvaja was a heroic, intelligent kshatriya, devoted to the dharma of kshatriyas. Drawn by a wish to hunt, he went to the forest with a large army and rested in this very cave. As he rested, Suśyāmā, the daughter of the king of the gandharvas, saw him. The king was drawn to her, and she too came to love him. The king united with her, and when his desire was fulfilled he took leave of her and went back home.

Her word to her daughter

“I was born of that Suśyāmā,” the old woman tells Gautama. As Suśyāmā was about to go back to svarga, she said to her daughter: “O gentle girl, he who enters this cave will become your husband.” Having said this, Suśyāmā passed away.

Her daughter stayed on in the cave, keeping brahmacarya and doing tapas (austerity), while her father Ṛtadhvaja ruled for eighty thousand years, did tapas and went to svarga, and her brother after him ruled for ten thousand years. No one else ever entered the cave until Gautama came, and the old woman told him that he was the husband her mother had foretold, given to her by Brahmā.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37