Vṛddhā
Vṛddhā, “the old one”
Vṛddhā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vṛddhā.
Vṛddhā, “the old one”, is the daughter of the kshatriya king Ṛtadhvaja and the gandharva princess Suśyāmā. Alone in a cave of the Himālaya she kept brahmacarya and performed tapas for ages, waiting for the husband her mother had promised her, until the noseless brāhmaṇa Gautama entered the cave. By her tapas she had pleased Devī Sarasvatī, the Waters and Agni, and through them she made Gautama learned and handsome before she married him. When visiting ṛshis laughed at the aged wife and her radiant husband, the two went to the Gautamī, and by the river’s grace both gained beautiful forms. The water of that bath became the river Vṛddhā, named after her, and her husband came to be called Vṛddha-gautama. Brahmā tells her account to Nārada in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa.
Her birth and her tapas
Brahmā tells Nārada that the brāhmaṇa Gautama, born without a nose, wandered the tīrthas for many years, and no one would give him a daughter in marriage. In the Himālaya he came upon a beautiful cave overgrown with creepers and went inside. There he saw a lean old woman with slack limbs, a kanyā (maiden) keeping brahmacarya and performing tapas, living alone. When he made ready to bow to her, she stopped him: “You are about to become my guru. It does not befit you to salute me. Long life, learning, wealth, fame, dharma and svarga perish if a guru bows to his disciple.” Gautama, surprised, said with joined palms that she was older and greater in every quality, and asked how he, younger and less learned, could be her guru.
Then she told him what had happened long ago. Ṛtadhvaja, a meritorious, intelligent and heroic kshatriya devoted to the dharma of kshatriyas, once came hunting to this very cave with a large army and rested there. Suśyāmā, daughter of the king of the gandharvas, saw him; the two loved each other and united, and the king went back home. “I was born of that Suśyāmā,” she said. As her mother was about to go back to svarga she told her: “O gentle girl, he who enters this cave will become your husband,” and with that she departed. Her father performed tapas after ruling his kingdom for eighty thousand years and went to svarga; her brother ruled for ten thousand years and died. She alone remained. “No one has ever sought me in marriage. I have neither father nor mother. I am mistress of myself, a kshatriya girl, waiting for you. You are the only man who has ever entered this cave. Accept me, who have kept holy vows seeking a husband.”
Her marriage to Gautama
Gautama answered that he was a thousand years old, a boy beside her, and their union was impossible. She said: “You were pointed out long ago as my husband, and you have been given to me by Brahmā. I accept no one else. If you reject me, pure and ready to follow you as I am, I shall give up my life here before you. For every embodied being, death is better than not gaining what is desired, and there is no end to the pāpa of one who abandons those attached to him.”
Gautama said he had no tapas, no learning, no wealth and no nose, and asked her first to make him handsome and learned. She answered that by her tapas she had pleased Devī Sarasvatī, the Waters of beautiful form, and Agni, the giver of comeliness: Devī Vāk would grant him learning and Agni a lovely form. She propitiated Agni and made Gautama handsome and learned. Then Gautama, learned, handsome and radiant, married her, and they lived happily for many years in the cave.
The ṛshis who laughed
In time Vasishṭha, Vāmadeva and other ṛshis, wandering the holy tīrthas, reached the cave, and the couple welcomed them with great hospitality. But some of the party, boys proud of their youth and some men of middle age, saw the old woman beside the radiant Gautama and laughed. They saw her lean and hairy body, her hanging lips, her ears broad as winnowing baskets, her teeth, nose and hair all too long, her body infirm and decaying. “Is this your son or grandson, old lady? Who is this Gautama?” they asked, and laughed. In words that sounded like praise they spoke of the power of tapas, of equanimity and truthfulness, of compassion, dāna, purity, hospitality and the protecting of sons, and said that through this boy she would surely reach Vishṇuloka or a pure family in her next birth. Having received hospitality, they went away. The couple were ashamed and grieved.
The Gautamī’s grace
Gautama asked Agastya where happiness, enjoyment and moksha could be had, and Agastya sent them to the Gautamī, where every desire is fulfilled. There Gautama performed tapas with his wife, praised Bhagavān Vishṇu and Śambhu, and propitiated Gaṅgā on her behalf. The Gautamī spoke to them: “Pour my water over your beloved wife from pots sanctified with mantras. All her limbs will become youthful; she will have marital happiness, enchanting eyes, good marks and a beautiful form. Then let her pour water over you, and you will have every good mark in full.” They did so, and by the grace of the Gautamī both gained beautiful forms.
The water of that bath became a river, famed after her as the Vṛddhā-nadī, and the ṛshis who lived with them called Gautama Vṛddha-gautama. Then Vṛddhā spoke to Gautamī Gaṅgā, who stood before her in visible form: “O Devī, let this river be called Vṛddhā after my name, and let its confluence with you be an excellent tīrtha. Let bathing, dāna and homa there increase beauty, good fortune, wealth, sons and grandsons; let it give long life, health and welfare, victory and joy; and let it sanctify the pitṛs.” “Let it be so,” said Gaṅgā to the beloved wife of Gautama. The liṅga Gautama installed there is glorified as Vṛddheśvara. The ṛshi attained great joy there with her; bathing and dāna there grant every desired thing, and the tīrtha has been called Vṛddha-saṅgama ever since.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37