Ahalyā

Ahalyā is the most beautiful being ever created by Brahmā. He shaped her out of curiosity, from among the many beautiful women he made. He gave her to the ṛshi Gautama to bring up, and she became Gautama’s wife after he won a contest of circumambulation against all the devas.

Her story is told in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Mahā Purāṇa. It includes Indra’s deception, Gautama’s śāpa (a curse) and her restoration at the Gautamī river. A tributary of the Gautamī bore her name. The tīrtha where she met the river became the famous Ahalyāsaṅgama.

Creation

Out of great curiosity Brahmā made many beautiful women. Of them all, Ahalyā was the most perfectly formed, beautiful in every limb without fault. Brahmā thought: “Who is able to bring up this girl? Neither among the asuras nor among the devas is there anyone able to raise her properly.”

So he gave her to Gautama. Gautama was a brāhmaṇa better than all others in good qualities, strong in tapas, and learned in all the Vedas. Gautama was to protect and nurture her until she came of age. When she reached the bloom of youth, Gautama brought her back to Brahmā, as he had been told to do.

Her name Ahalyā means “she in whom there is no ugliness.” All the devas and ṛshis who saw her on her return gave her this name. Every deva, ṛshi, Sādhya, dānava, yaksha and rākshasa who was there begged Brahmā to give the girl to him.

Marriage to Gautama

Brahmā announced a contest. The girl would go to whoever walked around the Earth and returned to him before all the others. All the devas set off to circle the Earth.

Gautama stayed behind. He saw the divine cow Kāmadhenu partly delivering her calf. By intuition he understood that the divine cow was the same as the Earth with her seven continents, and he walked once around her. He also walked around the Śiva-liṅga nearby. In principle he had made two circuits. He returned to Brahmā before any of the devas had finished even one round.

Brahmā understood the truth of Gautama’s argument through meditation and confirmed it. He said: “By walking around the divine cow who is partly delivering her calf, the Earth has been circled. By walking around the Liṅga the same puṇya (merit) is gained. I am pleased with your effort, courage, knowledge and tapas. This girl is given to you.”

When the devas came back from their long journey, they found Gautama and Ahalyā already united. Indra was jealous. He looked at her with longing and left.

Brahmā gave the mountain Brahmāgiri to Gautama as a gift.

Indra’s deception and the śāpa

In svarga (heaven) Indra heard about Brahmāgiri and about Ahalyā’s beauty. He came to the āśrama in the form of a brāhmaṇa. When he saw her splendour, desire overwhelmed him. One morning Gautama went out with his disciples. Indra took Gautama’s exact form, approached Ahalyā and took her hand. Ahalyā believed him to be her husband and accepted his approach.

Gautama came back unexpectedly. The watchmen at the Agnihotra hall saw two Gautamas at the same time, one outside and one inside. They told Gautama what they had seen. In terror Indra took the form of a cat. Gautama saw the cat slipping away, and demanded the truth. Indra confessed.

Gautama pronounced his śāpa: “A pāpa (sin) has been done by you because of your passion. So become a person with a thousand vaginas on your body.”

To Ahalyā he said: “Be a dry river.”

Ahalyā protested that she had been deceived. Indra had come in Gautama’s own form, she said, and the watchmen were her witnesses. Gautama understood the truth through meditation, and his anger faded. He said to the chaste woman: “When you come into contact with the Gautamī, the chief of rivers, you will become a river. After that you will regain your own form, which pleases me.”

Restoration

Ahalyā went to the Gautamī and bathed in its sacred waters. She regained the form Brahmā had first given her, fully restored and as perfect as at her creation. The meeting place where Ahalyā joined the Gautamī and then came out of it became the tīrtha Ahalyāsaṅgama. After Gautama forgave him, Indra also bathed there. His śāpa was changed: the thousand marks of shame became a thousand eyes. Brahmā himself saw both the return of Ahalyā and the change in Indra. From then on the place is also called Indra-Tīrtha.

Ahalyā in the Mahābhārata’s Uttaṅkopākhyāna

The Mahābhārata, in the Aśvamedhika Parva (Chapter 56), shows Ahalyā as the wife of the ṛshi Gautama. She lives an ordinary settled householder’s life at his āśrama, and she confidently runs the affairs of her guru’s household.

Gautama’s long-serving śishya (student) Uttaṅka finished his years in the gurukula (the teacher’s school). He asked Ahalyā what guru-dakshiṇā (a gift to the teacher) he might bring her. He called her “Ammā.” She first said that his devoted service had already satisfied her. When he pressed her, she asked him to bring the divine maṇi-kuṇḍalas (jewelled earrings) worn by the queen of King Saudāsa (Mitrasaha, also called Kalmāshapāda).

Later Gautama learned that Ahalyā had unknowingly sent Uttaṅka to a king who was then living under the śāpa of a man-eating rākshasa. He voiced concern for the brāhmaṇa’s safety. Ahalyā was sorry and asked Gautama for his grace, that no harm should come to Uttaṅka. Gautama granted it.

The Mahābhārata names her here simply as Ahalyā, the wife of Gautama.

Ahalyā in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa

The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells of her release from the śāpa in another way. It says the release came when Bhagavān Rāma arrived at the āśrama on his journey with Viśvāmitra.

Sources

• Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 16
• Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 56
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa (the account of Ahalyā’s release; no chapter is given)