Vakulamālikā
Vakulamālikā is the close personal attendant (celikatte) of Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa on Veṅkaṭādri. Her service began before the present kalpa (age of the world). She is the go-between in the divine marriage of Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa and Padmāvatī.
After Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa first saw Padmāvatī in the royal garden, he fell into viraha (the pain of separation). Vakulamālikā found him lying on his jewelled swing, drew out his sorrow, and heard the full account of Padmāvatī’s past life as Vedavatī. Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa sent her as his messenger to the palace of Ākāśarāja at Nārāyaṇapura. There she gave the marriage proposal to Dharaṇī and arranged the consent of the royal family. She returned with the parrot Śuka, who carried the formal reply to Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa.
The Skanda Mahā Purāṇa tells her account in the Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, in the Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapters 5–8.
Identity and devotion
Among all who serve Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa on Veṅkaṭādri, Vakulamālikā has a place of special closeness. The text calls her his celikatte, his nearest attendant, who has served him since before this kalpa.
Her name means “she who wears a garland of vakula flowers”. The vakula is the bullet-wood tree (Mimusops elengi), whose blossoms Bhagavān Vishṇu loves. The name shows that she is a devotee for all time.
Other attendants served with her: Padmāvatī, Padmapatra and Citrarēkhā. But she alone could enter Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa’s inner chamber without being announced. (Chapter 5)
Finding Śrīnivāsa in viraha
Each midday Vakulamālikā made a full meal for Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa. It had scented rice, divine broth, pāyasānna, jaggery rice, moong pongal, five kinds of apūpa (sweet cakes) and pūrī.
On the day after Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa came back from his hunting trip in the royal garden, she left the other attendants at the door and went in alone with his meal. She found him lying face down on the jewelled swing, his eyes closed, unable to eat or think, overcome. She massaged his feet and asked him gently:
“O Deva! What are you thinking? The meal is ready. Come and eat. You take away the sorrow of all the worlds, and now you yourself are caught as if in a whirlpool. What did you see while hunting? You are in the state of one struck by kāma (desire). Whom did you see, a deva-kanyā (daughter of the devas), a human girl or a nāga-kanyā? Tell me without fear who has stolen your mind.” (Chapter 5)
The account of Vedavatī
Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa then told Vakulamālikā the whole account of a promise from his past life.
In the Tretā-yuga, Rāvaṇa came to carry off Sītā from the Pañcavaṭī āśrama. Agni had already taken the real Sītā to Svāhā-devī in Pātāla. Agni then brought the woman Vedavatī. She was dear to Sītā, Rāvaṇa had touched her against her will, and she had already entered fire out of shame. Agni placed her in Sītā’s form in the āśrama. It was Vedavatī who was carried off to Laṅkā and kept prisoner there.
After Rāvaṇa’s death, Agni gave the real Sītā back to Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa, who was then Rāma. Agni said: “This Vedavatī served Sītā and suffered captivity in her place. Please grant her a vara (a boon).” Sītā said: “She always brought me joy. Please marry her.” Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa replied: “In the twenty-eighth Kali-yuga I will marry her. Until then let her live in Brahmaloka, honoured by the devas.”
In time she was born from the earth as the daughter of Ākāśarāja of Nārāyaṇapura. Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa told Vakulamālikā: “I have now seen her. Her beauty cannot be told in a hundred years. If I do not win her, I cannot live.” (Chapter 5)
The journey to Nārāyaṇapura
Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa sent Vakulamālikā to Nārāyaṇapura on a red horse. The text calls its colour gurivinda-giñja. He gave her clear directions.
- Go down by the route of the Narasiṃha cave.
- Reach the Agastya-liṅga on the bank of the Svarṇamukhī.
- Go on to the āśrama of Śuka-brahma at the Padma-sarovara.
- Take a golden lotus from that lake.
- Cross the river Araṇī.
- Reach Nārāyaṇapura.
He also described the city’s garden, with its hundreds of trees and flowers, so that she would know it.
Vakulamālikā rode through the forest and saw elephants, lions, deer, peacocks, wolves and many kinds of birds and animals in the mountain wilds. She came down to the Agastya-liṅga on the bank of the Svarṇamukhī, bathed, rested and then went on. On the road to Nārāyaṇapura she met Padmāvatī’s companions, who were going to the Śiva temple for pūjā. They saw a radiant woman on a divine horse and were amazed. They asked who she was. (Chapter 5)
Meeting the companions and Dharaṇī
Vakulamālikā said: “I am Vakulamālikā, come from Veṅkaṭādri. I wish to see Dharaṇīdevī.” The companions took her to the royal palace.
Dharaṇī had already asked a soothsayer about Padmāvatī’s illness. He had told her: “The cause of your daughter’s state is love for a divine being, the Master of Veṅkaṭādri. He will send a woman messenger to you. Do as she says.”
When Vakulamālikā was brought before her, Dharaṇī received her with honour. Vakulamālikā gave the proposal. Śrīnivāsa of Veṅkaṭādri, the Parameśvara, had seen Padmāvatī in the garden while hunting. He had fallen in love with her and wished to make her his queen. (Chapters 6–7)
Arranging the marriage
Dharaṇī took the news to Ākāśarāja and the ministers. The whole royal court rejoiced. Ākāśarāja said the match was beyond all hope: “This divine girl, who was not born from a womb, will become the wife of the Deva of all devas on Veṅkaṭādri.”
Bṛhaspati was called to fix the muhūrta (auspicious time). The wedding was set for the month of Vaiśākha, under the Uttarā Phālguṇī nakshatra (star).
Dharaṇī then sent Vakulamālikā back to Veṅkaṭādri with the parrot Śuka. Śuka carried Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa’s own vanamālā (forest garland) and a formal message. Śuka repeated to Padmāvatī the words she had spoken about her own devotion. In them she called Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa Mādhava and said she would always wear his signs. Padmāvatī took the garland and placed it on her head. All the preparations were then begun. (Chapter 7)
At the wedding
Vakulamālikā went back to Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa and told him all that had happened. She went with the wedding procession from Veṅkaṭādri to Nārāyaṇapura. With her went Brahmā, Bhagavān Śiva, Indra and all the devas, gandharvas and ṛshis who joined the divine procession. After the wedding she returned to Vṛshabhādri with Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa and his two queens, Lakshmī and Padmāvatī. (Chapter 8)
Sources
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapters 5–8