Pulomā and Kālakā

Pulomā and Kālakā were two rākshasa women. They did great tapas (austerity) to Brahmā. As a result, Brahmā made Hiraṇyapura, a splendid city that moves through the sky, for their sons, the Pauloma and Kālakañja rākshasas. Arjuna later destroyed the city and its people. This happened in the Nivātakavaca episode of the Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata.

The tapas and the vara

Pulomā and Kālakā did tapas for Brahmā for one thousand divine years (divya-saṃvatsara). The text does not describe their tapas in detail.

Brahmā was pleased. He appeared before them and offered them varas (boons). The two mothers did not ask for themselves. They asked only for the good of their sons. Their requests were these.

  1. Freedom from suffering. Their sons, the Pauloma and Kālakañja rākshasas, should live free from pain and trouble.
  2. A beautiful city in the sky. It should be a city of divine craft where their sons could live in comfort.
  3. A city that moves. It should travel through the sky like a vimāna (a flying vehicle) and go wherever its people wished.
  4. A city that cannot be taken. It should not be broken into or entered by force by devas, rākshasas, nāgas or gandharvas.
  5. A city full of comforts. It should hold every good quality, every pleasure and every kind of beauty.
  6. Freedom from disease. No sickness should touch the people who lived there.

Brahmā gave all these varas. The city he made was Hiraṇyapura, the Golden City. It shone with divine light. It was decorated with trees set with gems, bearing rare fruits and flowers. It had four strong gates. Rākshasa guards who never tired, armed with every kind of weapon, kept watch over it.

The destruction of Hiraṇyapura

The vara covered devas, rākshasas, nāgas and gandharvas. None of them could attack the city or enter it by force.

Arjuna was a human warrior. He had spent twelve months in svarga and had learned the sixty divine astras (weapons) from Indra. After he defeated the Nivātakavacas, he saw Hiraṇyapura in the sky. His charioteer Mātali told him how the city came to be. Arjuna attacked the city with his divine weapons. The Pauloma and Kālakañja rākshasas who guarded it fought back fiercely, but Arjuna’s astras overcame them. Hiraṇyapura was destroyed, and its women wept bitterly afterward.

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapter 173