Dharmāṅgada

Dharmāṅgada was the son of King Rukmāṅgada and Queen Sandhyāvalī. He was a prince of rare virtue. He grew up in the home of his father’s unbroken Ekādaśī dharma and became an ideal ruler over a part of the kingdom.

The great test of his life came when his stepmother Mohinī, invoking an oath, asked Rukmāṅgada to cut off Dharmāṅgada’s head on Ekādaśī itself. Dharmāṅgada understood that his father’s oath to his wife was a matter of dharma that stood above his own life. He bowed his head willingly for the sword. Bhagavān Śrī Hari then stopped the sword and took all three, Rukmāṅgada, Sandhyāvalī and Dharmāṅgada, to Vaikuṇṭha.

Early life and upbringing

From childhood Dharmāṅgada lived in his father’s Ekādaśī dharma. All of Śrāvastī, the kingdom, kept Ekādaśī. So he grew up seeing every day that this great vrata (vow) was not only a personal practice but a duty of the king and of the whole world.

At one point, Rukmāṅgada gave Dharmāṅgada the rule of a part of his realm. His rule is described as a golden age. There was no suffering, no disease and no childlessness. Cows gave milk in plenty. Trees dripped with honey. Crops grew richly even in the Dvāpara yuga, though such plenty was known only in the Kṛta yuga. In Dharmāṅgada’s kingdom the only vrata known was the Dvādaśī vrata, and this was the standard of dharma. (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapters 20–22)

Talk with Rukmāṅgada

In an early talk (Chapter 9), Dharmāṅgada asked his father what the highest dharma is. Rukmāṅgada answered that it is the Ekādaśī vrata. Dharmāṅgada heard the teaching from his father’s own mouth and took it fully into his heart. When the last test came, his answer grew out of this understanding. (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 9)

The final test

Mohinī used her last demand. She asked Rukmāṅgada to kill Dharmāṅgada on Ekādaśī. Father and son then spoke together. Rukmāṅgada was in anguish. To break his oath was to break dharma, and to kill his son was just as unthinkable. He wept openly.

Dharmāṅgada, with great nobility, settled the matter himself:

“O Father, your oath to your wife was made in her presence and with full awareness. To break an oath is adharma. My life is a single life; your vow is the protection of eternal dharma. Cut off my head. I bow it willingly. Do not hesitate on my account. I am your son, the son of a great Vishṇu-bhakta. If I die for Ekādaśī-dharma, I die for the highest truth. What better death could there be?”

Dharmāṅgada bowed his head and held it still for the sword. Rukmāṅgada raised the weapon. (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 33)

Liberation

As the sword stood over Dharmāṅgada’s neck, Bhagavān Śrī Hari appeared in a blaze of divine light and stopped it. He said: “This youth is noble. No sword shall touch him.” Then he took all three, Rukmāṅgada, Sandhyāvalī and Dharmāṅgada, to Vaikuṇṭha in their own bodies. This rare sa-śarīra (in the body) liberation goes beyond even the greatest tapas (austerity). (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 34)

Dharmāṅgada as a model son

Dharmāṅgada stands as a son who upholds his father’s dharma even at the cost of his life. His readiness was not passive. It came from his understanding that Ekādaśī dharma, which his father had guarded all his life, was greater than any one life. He was taken to Vaikuṇṭha together with his parents. The Purāṇa teaches that the puṇya (merit) of Rukmāṅgada’s vrata lifted the whole family.

The account in the Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa

The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa (Chapter 22) gives a related account of Dharmāṅgada. In it Rukmāṅgada is the king of Vidiśā. He undertook a great tapas, and to complete it the life of his son had to be offered freely. Dharmāṅgada did not hesitate. He cut off his own head as an act of pitṛ-bhakti (devotion to his father), so that his father’s tapas could reach its end. By this supreme act he rose directly to Vishṇuloka.

From Vishṇuloka, Dharmāṅgada was born again as Suvrata. Suvrata was the son of the brāhmaṇa Somaśarma and his wife Sumanā, at the Revā tīrtha (the sacred bathing place on the Revā river). He was filled with bhakti (devotion), and from childhood he had a natural, unlearned devotion to Bhagavān Vishṇu. The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa gives this as the working of the puṇya that Dharmāṅgada earned by his act of self-offering. Suvrata rose again to Vishṇuloka and was appointed Vasudatta, the new Indra. The chain runs: Dharmāṅgada, Vishṇuloka, Suvrata, Vishṇuloka, Vasudatta (Indra). The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa teaches by it how a great self-offering lifts a soul across several lives.

The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa account in this passage does not mention Mohinī or Ekādaśī. In both accounts a son gives his life willingly for his father’s need. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 22)

Sources

• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapters 9, 15, 20–21, 33–34
• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapters 20–22 (for the account of his rule)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 22