Vedavatī

Vedavatī was a tapasvinī (woman of great tapas, austerity) whose whole life was given to one aim: to have Bhagavān Vishṇu as her husband. Her name means “she in whom the Vedas dwell”. The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa and the Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa each tell her story.

In every account Rāvaṇa meets her in the forest and tries to seize her. She curses him, gives up her body, and is born again as Sītā, the wife of Bhagavān Rāma. The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa also names her as Draupadī in a third birth and calls her Trihāyaṇī, she of three yugas.

Ancestry in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa

Vedavatī’s line begins with Vṛshadhvaja, a king devoted to Śiva, who was cursed by Sūrya. After the deaths of Vṛshadhvaja and his son Haṃsadhvaja, the brothers Dharmadhvaja and Kuśadhvaja, sons of Haṃsadhvaja, performed tapas to Mahālakshmī. They received the vara (boon) of restored royal fortune. Lakshmī promised to be born as a daughter in each of their homes.

Kuśadhvaja’s wife was Mālavatī. She bore a daughter who was an aṃśa (part) of Mahālakshmī. This daughter was Vedavatī. Dharmadhvaja’s daughter, also born as an aṃśa of Mahālakshmī, was Tulasī.

Birth and the gift of the Vedas

Vedavatī was born reciting the Vedas. Even in the sūtikā-gṛha (birth chamber) she began to recite. The four Vedas were always on her tongue, so the learned named her Vedavatī, “she in whom the Vedas dwell”.

She was born into a royal family and was tied to the earth, yet she had jñāna (knowledge) from the first moment of life. Her mind was fixed on the divine.

Tapas at Pushkara and Gandhamādana

As soon as she was old enough, Vedavatī left for the forest, in spite of the protests of all her relatives. She went to the tīrtha (sacred place) of Pushkara and did intense tapas for the length of a manvantara (a very long age). She did not grow thin or weak.

During her tapas, an ākāśavāṇī (voice from the sky) told her: “In another birth you will have Śrī Hari as your husband.” This made her angry, because she did not want to wait for another life. She moved to the lonely region of Mount Gandhamādana and took up her tapas again with even greater force.

Meeting with Rāvaṇa in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa

After long years on Gandhamādana, Vedavatī opened her eyes one day and saw Rāvaṇa standing before her. She followed the rule of hospitality. She gave him pādya (water for the feet), tasty fruit and roots, and cool water.

Rāvaṇa accepted and sat beside her. He was overcome by her beauty and tried to take her by force. The moment he touched her, his hands and feet became stiff. He stood still like a lifeless thing, held by the power of her tapas.

Vedavatī looked at him with controlled anger. She called on Lakshmī, praised her, and then cursed Rāvaṇa: “You and all your relatives and allies shall perish on my account.”

Then she said: “You have touched this body. I will not carry it any further.” By her yoga-bala (power of yoga) she gave up her body. Rāvaṇa was shaken and full of regret. He placed her body in the waters of the Gaṅgā and went home, ashamed and unable to stop thinking of what he had done.

Rebirth as Sītā in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa

In her next birth Vedavatī was born as Sītā, the daughter of Janaka, to be the wife of Bhagavān Rāma, who is Bhagavān Vishṇu as Rāghava. Her long tapas bore its fruit. In Tretāyuga she had Śrī Hari himself, as Rāma, for her husband.

Just before Rāvaṇa’s abduction of Sītā, Agni Deva came to Rāma in the form of a brāhmaṇa. He asked Rāma to give the true Sītā to him for safekeeping and to take a māyā-Sītā (a perfect copy) in her place. Rāma agreed in silence and the exchange was made. It was kept completely secret, even from Lakshmaṇa.

Rāvaṇa carried the māyā-Sītā to Laṅkā. The true Sītā stayed safe with Agni. Rāma killed Rāvaṇa together with all his relatives, and so Vedavatī’s curse was fulfilled across the yugas. Then the agni-parīkshā (trial by fire) took place. Agni gave the true Sītā back to Rāma. The māyā-Sītā asked what she should do, and Agni sent her to Pushkara for tapas. She did tapas there and gained svarga-lakshmī (the glory of svarga, heaven). In time she was reborn as Draupadī, who arose from the yajña-kuṇḍa (sacrificial fire pit).

Draupadī, the third birth

The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa says that the māyā-Sītā did tapas after Rāma’s victory, became svarga-lakshmī, and was reborn from the sacrificial fire as Draupadī, the daughter of Drupada. She became the wife of the five Pāṇḍavas.

It gives this reason for the five husbands. After she had been the māyā-Sītā, which the text calls Vedavatī’s subtle continuation, she did tapas to Śaṅkara and asked for a husband. She asked Śiva five times: “Give me a husband (patiṃ dehi).” Śiva, who loves play (rasikheśvara), smiled and said: “You shall have five husbands.” So Draupadī became the wife of the five Pāṇḍavas.

Trihāyaṇī, she of three yugas

In the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Vedavatī lived in Kṛtayuga, Sītā in Tretāyuga and Draupadī in Dvāpara. This is the same ātmā across three ages. She is therefore called Trihāyaṇī, she of three yugas and three births. The three births form one path of devotion, tapas and union with Bhagavān Vishṇu. Her curse on Rāvaṇa in Kṛtayuga was fulfilled in Tretāyuga when Rāma conquered Laṅkā. The text declares the puṇya (merit) of Vedavatī’s tapas to be immense.

The account in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa

The Uttara Kāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa (Chapters 22–23) gives a different account.

Lineage. Her father Kuśadhvaja is a son of Bṛhaspati, the teacher of the devas. He is not the brother of Dharmadhvaja. He had vowed that only Vishṇu was a worthy husband for her. A rākshasa named Śambhu, who wanted to marry her, killed him. Her mother then followed him in satī. Vedavatī did tapas alone in the forest.

The meeting. Rāvaṇa came to her and tried to seize her by the hair. Vedavatī cut off her hair where he had gripped it. She stepped into the fire of her yoga-bala and declared that she would be reborn as his kāla (destroyer). A fire-born form of her then arose, and Rāvaṇa took this form to Laṅkā. His minister Aviddha warned him that she would cause his destruction. Rāvaṇa threw her into the ocean.

Rebirth as Sītā. She came up from the earth into the yajña-kuṇḍa of King Janaka, in the furrow (sītā) of his plough in the ritual field, and was born as Sītā. This account does not speak of a māyā-Sītā. Sītā is Vedavatī reborn.

The account in the Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa

The Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa (Pūrvārdha, Chapter 221) tells her story at greater length.

Lineage and birth

Vedavatī’s father was Kuśadhvaja, a son of Bṛhaspati, a man deeply learned in the Vedas. He was firmly sure that his daughter was meant for Bhagavān Vishṇu and for no one lesser, and he brought her up with that aim. Her name Vedavatī, “she who has the Veda”, became famous in all the worlds.

An asura named Śambhu came by night and killed Kuśadhvaja. Vedavatī’s mother could not bear the loss. She performed agni-praveśa (willing entry into fire) and followed her husband in death. The young Vedavatī, now alone, decided to carry out her father’s wish through her own tapas. She would win Bhagavān Vishṇu as her husband by her own austerity.

The meeting with Rāvaṇa

Rāvaṇa was conquering all the kingdoms of the earth when he found Vedavatī in the forest. She was a young woman of unequalled beauty, dressed in bark, with matted hair, doing severe tapas. He asked who she was and why she practised austerity in the prime of her youth.

Vedavatī answered truthfully. Her father Kuśadhvaja had believed she was fit only for Bhagavān Vishṇu. She had continued his purpose by her own tapas, worshipping Madhusūdana in order to have him as her husband.

Rāvaṇa then spoke at length against Bhagavān Vishṇu. He said that Vishṇu had no known family line, that sleeping on a serpent was dangerous, and that the one who had killed asuras with his nails was not a fit husband. With long arguments and praise of her beauty, he urged her to give up her tapas and accept him.

Her reply was short and final: “O night-wanderer, the virtues of Bhagavān Sureśvara are like sunrays that give light to the world. To owls like you they look like faults. There is no point in arguing with you. Whatever he may be, he is my master and he alone is worth wanting.”

The insult and the curse

Rāvaṇa heard her, burned with desire, lost his self-control and seized her by the hair. This was a grave offence against a tapasvinī.

Vedavatī said: “You have defiled me by your touch. I will enter fire. I will be born again to cause your death.” She gathered wood for a pyre, entered the fire and died.

Rebirth as Sītā

Vedavatī was born again as Sītā, the daughter of King Janaka. She was ayonijā, not born from a woman’s womb. Janaka found her while ploughing a field for a yajña. She had come through the earth itself.

Through her tapas in both lives she gained Bhagavān Rāma, who is Bhagavān Vishṇu himself as a human avatāra (descent), as her husband. Her abduction by Rāvaṇa set the whole Laṅkā campaign in motion. Rāma killed Rāvaṇa and rescued her, and her curse was fulfilled.

The agni-parīkshā and the return to the earth

After the war, Rāma asked for the agni-parīkshā and Sītā entered the flames. She came out pure and proved right.

Later, in Rāmarājya, Rāma was bound by dharma and troubled by public talk. He asked her to give proof of her purity. Sītā called on the earth: “If I have never wished for another in heart or deed since I became Rāghava’s, may the earth open and take me in.” The earth split open. Bhūdevī came, riding a great serpent throne, and carried Sītā down into pātāla. Brahmā comforted the grieving Rāma.

For the rest of Rāmarājya, Rāma used a golden image of Sītā in her place at his yajñas. It was a time of perfect order. There were no widows, no early deaths, and all beings lived in dharma.

Kuśa and Lava

The two sons of Rāma and Sītā, Kuśa and Lava, were born in the āśrama of Vālmīki and raised by the ṛshi himself. He taught them the Vedas, dhanurveda (the science of the bow) and the whole Rāmāyaṇa, which he had composed as the first kāvya (poem). The boys sang the Rāmāyaṇa at Rāma’s great aśvamedha yajña, in front of Rāma himself. Through the song, Rāma knew them as his own sons. He was moved and called Sītā, and then she made her final departure into the earth.

Sources

• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapters 13–14
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapters 22–23
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 221