Kalā, Wife of Śoṇa

Kalā was the devoted wife of Śoṇa, a brāhmaṇa who lived on the banks of the Gaṅgā. The Pātāla Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa presents her as a pativratā (a wife wholly devoted to her husband) of the highest order. The rākṣasa Mārīca killed her, and she went to the abode of Bhagavān Śiva through the power of her chastity.

Though she died a violent death, Devī Pārvatī herself honoured her in Kailāsa. Bhagavān Śiva said that Kalā’s life had been meant to last one hundred years more. Her virtue was so great that she was taken to his abode all the same.

The silver pitcher

Śoṇa and Kalā once found a silver pitcher full of treasure on the bank of the Gaṅgā. Śoṇa thought carefully before hiding it. Before he did so, Kalā spoke to him at length about why women cannot be trusted with a secret, and why the place of the treasure should not be told to her. She spoke about herself with irony. Śoṇa hid the treasure and did not tell her where it was.

The attack by the rākṣasa Mārīca

The rākṣasa Mārīca took the exact form of Śoṇa. The text names him as the uncle of Rāvaṇa known from the Rāmāyaṇa. Pretending to be her husband, he led Kalā away from their home into the forest. There he showed who he was and tried to violate her.

Kalā knew at once that she had been deceived. She stayed calm and made a covering of stone around herself. This was her pātivratya (devotion to her husband) taking form as a shield. The rākṣasa could not break through, and he killed her.

Reception at Kailāsa

The messengers of Bhagavān Śiva came at once after Kalā’s death. They took her ātmā (soul) to the abode of Bhagavān Śiva. There Umā-Pārvatī, the Śakti and ruler of Kailāsa, honoured Kalā for her supreme pātivratya. Kalā’s virtue was counted among that of the foremost women who kept their chastity even at the cost of their lives.

Śiva’s words about Kalā’s life

Later the ṛṣis Viśvāmitra, Vasiṣṭha, Śoṇa and Devarāta went to Kailāsa to learn what had happened. Bhagavān Śiva told them that Kalā had one hundred more years to live. She had not died in her own time; her life had been cut short. But she had said “Hara”, a name of Bhagavān Śiva, at the moment of her death. So she came straight to his abode, in spite of the years left to her.

Pārvatī’s gift to Śoṇa

Devī Pārvatī honoured Kalā’s purity but could not send her back to earthly life. The ātmā of such a pativratā, once raised up, cannot come down again. Instead Pārvatī gave Śoṇa another wife, a vara (boon) of prosperity, a kingdom, and steady bhakti (devotion) to Bhagavān Śiva that would support him through the rest of his life.

Śoṇa lived out this second part of his life. At the end he died lying in sacred ash (bhasma) with the Rudra hymn on his lips, and he joined the abode of Bhagavān Śiva.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Pātāla Khaṇḍa, Chapter 112