Sudevā, First Wife of Śivaśarma

Sudevā was the first wife of Śivaśarma, a brāhmaṇa householder of Dvārakā. She appears in the Bhūmi Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa. The Purāṇa uses her as the opposite of Maṅgalā, Śivaśarma’s second wife, to teach pātivratya, a wife’s devotion to her husband. Maṅgalā gave patī-śuśrūṣā (devoted service to her husband) in the highest degree. Sudevā did not.

After her death Sudevā was reborn as a śūkarī (female boar) in a wild forest. She could not free herself from that state. Maṅgalā freed her by giving her the whole store of puṇya (merit) that she had gained through her service to Śivaśarma. At that moment Sudevā left the body of the boar, rose in her original divine form, and went up to svarga (heaven).

This Sudevā is not the queen of Ikṣvāku, who has the same name. That queen met this Sudevā when she was a boar.

Life as Śivaśarma’s first wife

The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa does not tell of Sudevā’s childhood or family. She appears as the first wife of Śivaśarma in Dvārakā, and her difference from Maṅgalā marks her out. The virtue she did not keep was patī-śuśrūṣā. The Purāṇa presents this devoted, heartfelt service to the husband as the basic virtue of a wife’s dharma.

The result was a fall in the next birth. She died and was reborn as a boar in a forest. She could not free herself from this animal birth. This is from the Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 35 to 38.

Life as a boar

As a boar, Sudevā kept some trace of awareness from her earlier life. It was enough for her to speak Sanskrit when she came near a pure-hearted person. This is how she came to speak to Sudevā, the wife of Ikṣvāku. That pativratā gave her water after Ikṣvāku’s hunting party had wounded her in the great hunt.

The boar said to Ikṣvāku’s wife: “Your compassion has lightened my burden of pāpa (sin).” She had lived a long time in animal form, through the births and deaths of a clan of boars. Meeting the pativratā took away part of her pāpa. This is from the Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 43 to 46.

Freed by Maṅgalā’s gift of puṇya

Full freedom came through Maṅgalā. When Maṅgalā met the boar, she saw the state of the trapped one. She then made the greatest gift that the Purāṇic dharma knows, a puṇya-dāna (gift of merit). She gave Sudevā, in her form as a boar, her whole store of puṇya from her devoted service, the patī-śuśrūṣā she had given Śivaśarma for many years.

The effect was at once and complete. The boar dropped her animal body, rose in her own form as Sudevā, and went up to svarga.

The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa shows that the very virtue Sudevā had not kept in her human life, patī-śuśrūṣā, was the virtue whose gathered power freed her from her animal birth. This is from the Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 51 and 52.

What her story teaches

The Purāṇa sets Sudevā beside Maṅgalā. Both were wives of the same man, Śivaśarma. They lived in the same place and held the same place as wife. The difference between them was in their devotion to patī-śuśrūṣā, how deep it was and how steady. The Purāṇa teaches that the power of a wife comes from the devotion that fills her duty, not from carrying out the outer duties of a wife. This is from the Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 35 to 52.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 35–52
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 35–38
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 43–46
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 51–52