Bahuḷa, Wife of Uttama

Bahulā was the renowned and celebrated wife of King Uttama, the son of King Uttānapāda. Her marriage to King Uttama was compared to the union of Indra and Śacī Devī. King Uttama was so deeply devoted to Bahulā that even in his dreams, no other woman occupied his mind. However, Bahulā did not reciprocate his affection with warmth. She remained cold and dismissive toward King Uttama, showing him disregard despite his boundless love for her. This ultimately led King Uttama to banish her to the forest in a moment of anguish. Her story, as narrated by Maharṣi Mārkaṇḍeya, reveals how King Uttama’s separation from Bahulā set off a chain of events involving a brāhmaṇa’s abducted wife, a rākṣasa, and a wise ṛṣi, and how King Uttama ultimately came to understand the gravity of abandoning one’s wife and reunited with Bahulā.

Marriage to King Uttama

Just as Indra, the king of the devas, married the universally celebrated Śacī Devī, so too did King Uttama, the dharma-abiding son of King Uttānapāda, marry the famous maiden named Bahulā. From the very moment of their union, King Uttama’s mind was entirely consumed by Bahulā. Much like the way Candra’s mind is perpetually drawn toward Rohiṇī with intense attachment, King Uttama’s heart was fixed upon Bahulā alone. No other woman held even the slightest place in his thoughts. So complete was his devotion that even in his dreams, his mind clung only to Bahulā and never wandered toward anyone else.

Bahulā’s Indifference Toward King Uttama

Despite King Uttama‘s all-encompassing love, Bahulā did not care for his affectionate words and did not feel honoured by his attention. Even though King Uttama treated her with the highest respect, Bahulā perceived it as though she were being disrespected. When King Uttama offered her exquisite ornaments and gifts, she showed no pleasure. When he arranged for her to be seated on the finest seat, she would not remain there, rising and leaving as if afflicted by grief in her body. When King Uttama, the great sovereign, personally offered her food by hand, Bahulā ate only the smallest morsel, and even that with a displeased heart, as though doing so against her will.

The Incident That Led to Bahulā’s Banishment

One day, while accomplished singers and skilled musicians were performing melodious songs in King Uttama‘s court, King Uttama, seated upon his royal throne surrounded by his courtiers, offered a goblet of madhvī, a sweet drink, to Bahulā with his own hands. However, even in the presence of the entire assembly, Bahulā turned her face away and refused to accept the drink. King Uttama was overcome with fury. Hissing like a serpent, he summoned his dvārapālaka and commanded: “This Bahulā, whom I hold dearer than my own life, has treated me with utter contempt. Therefore, take this hard-hearted woman away at once. Escort her to the forest and leave her among the wild animals. Do not stop to think whether my command is right or wrong.”

Bahulā’s Departure to the Forest

The dvārapālaka, bound by duty, did not hesitate. Declaring “the king’s command must be obeyed,” he placed Bahulā upon a chariot and took her deep into the forest, where he left her and returned. When Bahulā, the queen of a great empire, was thus abandoned in the wilderness, she did not weep or protest. Remarkably, Bahulā regarded her banishment as an act of grace from King Uttama. She considered the king to have shown her favour by sending her away.

King Uttama’s Grief After Bahulā’s Banishment

After Bahulā was gone, King Uttama, the son of Uttānapāda, did not take another wife. Though burning with anguish and longing, he continued to remember Bahulā — her beautiful form, her limbs — day and night without rest. Yet despite his private torment, King Uttama did not abandon his royal duties. He continued to rule his kingdom with dharma, protecting his subjects as a father protects his own children.

The Brāhmaṇa’s Plea

During this period of King Uttama‘s solitary rule, a brāhmaṇa came before him in great distress. The brāhmaṇa reported that while he slept at night, an unknown person had forced open his doors and abducted his wife. He implored King Uttama to recover her, arguing that it is the duty of a king to protect his subjects from such suffering. King Uttama asked the brāhmaṇa to describe his wife so that she could be identified and found.

The Brāhmaṇa’s Description of His Wife

The brāhmaṇa described his wife in unflattering terms: she had harsh features, was not tall, had short arms, a large belly, a thin waist, small and drooping breasts, and an altogether unattractive appearance. Yet despite all this, the brāhmaṇa said he did not look down upon her and loved her all the same. King Uttama, upon hearing this description, suggested that the brāhmaṇa forget about such an inauspicious wife and offered to arrange a new and more beautiful bride for him. King Uttama argued that a wife of ill features brings only sorrow.

The Brāhmaṇa’s Lesson on Dharma

The brāhmaṇa firmly refused King Uttama‘s offer. He explained that the scriptures declare a wife must be protected, for by protecting one’s wife, one’s progeny is protected, and through progeny, one’s own ātmā is preserved. He warned that if a wife is not properly safeguarded, varṇasaṅkara occurs, which causes one’s ancestors to fall from svarga. The brāhmaṇa further argued that without his wife, he could not perform yajña or fulfil his gṛhastha-dharma, and that abandoning her would deprive him of both dharma and the eternal merit of the gṛhastha-āśrama. He urged King Uttama to bring back his wife, reminding him that a king who collects one-sixth of his subjects’ earnings as tax is duty-bound to provide them protection.

King Uttama’s Journey to the Ṛṣi’s Āśrama

Moved by the brāhmaṇa’s words, King Uttama reflected deeply and then mounted a great chariot equipped with all provisions. He journeyed far, searching the land, until he came upon an exalted tapas-āśrama within a great forest. Descending from his chariot, King Uttama entered the āśrama and beheld a muni seated upon a darbha-āsana, blazing with tejas like a living fire. Upon seeing King Uttama, the ṛṣi rose immediately and received him with great respect, instructing his śiṣya to bring arghya for the guest. The śiṣya, however, quietly suggested that they first deliberate whether King Uttama was truly worthy of arghya, and requested permission to consider the matter. The ṛṣi, who possessed knowledge of past, present, and future through his tapas, already understood the full circumstances of King Uttama’s visit and seated him with honour.

The Ṛṣi’s Rebuke

The ṛṣi addressed King Uttama directly, revealing that he already knew King Uttama was the son of Uttānapāda and the purpose of his visit. The ṛṣi then delivered a pointed rebuke. He told King Uttama that by abandoning Bahulā to the forest, King Uttama had not merely cast away his wife but had also abandoned all the dharma associated with married life. The ṛṣi explained that when a man’s nityakarma is disrupted even for a single day by some failing, that man becomes unfit even to be touched by others in society. He pointed out that because of Bahulā’s absence, King Uttama’s nityakarma had been destroyed every single day for an extended period, making him profoundly unfit. This, the ṛṣi said, was the reason the śiṣya had hesitated to offer arghya, and it was also the reason King Uttama was not truly deserving of the honour. The ṛṣi reminded King Uttama that although he was born in the lineage of Svāyambhuva Manu and was therefore worthy of arghya by birth, his actions had rendered him otherwise. He further admonished King Uttama: how could a king who has himself strayed from svadharma set right others who have deviated from theirs?

King Uttama Learns Where the Brāhmaṇa’s Wife Is

Humbled and ashamed by the ṛṣi’s words, King Uttama accepted the rebuke and asked the ṛṣi about the brāhmaṇa’s abducted wife. The ṛṣi revealed that a rākṣasa named Balāka had carried away the brāhmaṇa’s wife. He told King Uttama that the woman could be found at that very moment in the Utpalavata forest and instructed King Uttama to go there, reunite the brāhmaṇa with his wife, and not allow the brāhmaṇa to accumulate pāpa day after day on account of King Uttama’s failure.

King Uttama Finds the Brāhmaṇa’s Wife and Confronts the Rākṣasa

King Uttama took leave of the ṛṣi, mounted his chariot, and travelled to Utpalavata forest. There he found the brāhmaṇa’s wife, exactly matching the description given, eating the fruits of the śephālī tree. King Uttama asked her to confirm her identity, and she acknowledged that she was indeed the wife of the brāhmaṇa named Viśāla, and that a cruel rākṣasa had abducted her from her home at night, separating her from her mother, siblings, and family. She said the rākṣasa had left her in this desolate forest without explanation — neither harming her nor consuming her, for reasons unknown to her.

When King Uttama asked about the rākṣasa’s whereabouts, the brāhmaṇa’s wife pointed him deeper into the forest. King Uttama proceeded and found the rākṣasa surrounded by his attendants. Upon seeing King Uttama, the rākṣasa immediately rose, approached from a distance, fell at King Uttama’s feet, and touched King Uttama’s feet with his head. The rākṣasa declared that King Uttama’s arrival was a great blessing, offered arghya and āsana, and proclaimed himself King Uttama’s servant, ready to obey any command.

The Rākṣasa’s Explanation

King Uttama asked the rākṣasa why he had abducted a brāhmaṇa’s wife when she was neither beautiful enough to desire nor useful as food. The rākṣasa explained that he was not a man-eating rākṣasa in the ordinary sense. Rather, he fed upon the svabhāva, the inherent qualities and natures, of human beings. He explained that he consumed both good and bad qualities indiscriminately, and that he already had wives as beautiful as apsaras and had no interest in human women.

The rākṣasa then revealed the true reason for the abduction. The brāhmaṇa was a learned man who knew powerful mantras and served as an ṛtvij in many yajña-s. During these rituals, the brāhmaṇa regularly recited rākṣaghna-mantras that tormented and drove away the rākṣasa. To disrupt this, the rākṣasa had stolen the brāhmaṇa’s wife, knowing that without a patnī, a brāhmaṇa becomes ineligible to perform yajña-karma. This way, the rākṣasa ensured his own peace by creating vikalatvam, a state of ritual incompleteness, in the brāhmaṇa’s life.

King Uttama’s Realization

Hearing this, King Uttama was struck with deep sorrow. Both the ṛṣi and the rākṣasa had now, from entirely different vantage points, pointed to the same truth: that King Uttama himself had inflicted vikalatvam upon the brāhmaṇa by first abandoning his own wife, Bahulā, thereby failing in his rāja-dharma of protecting his subjects, which in turn allowed the rākṣasa to exploit the brāhmaṇa’s vulnerability. The ṛṣi had declared King Uttama unworthy of arghya for this very reason, and the rākṣasa had now confirmed the same failing. King Uttama realized that he had placed himself in a terrible saṅkaṭa by having abandoned Bahulā.

Resolution of the Brāhmaṇa’s Crisis

King Uttama then commanded the rākṣasa to consume the duśśīlatva, the bad character and ill disposition, of the brāhmaṇa’s wife, since the rākṣasa had declared that he fed on svabhāva. By doing so, the woman would be purified and restored to virtue. The rākṣasa, using his māyā-bala, entered the inner consciousness of the brāhmaṇa’s wife and, on King Uttama’s command, devoured her duśśīlatva with his full power.

Once her duśśīlatva was removed, the brāhmaṇa’s wife spoke to King Uttama with clarity. She said that her separation from her husband was the fruit of her own past karma, and that neither the rākṣasa nor her noble husband bore any fault. She acknowledged that some act of causing viyoga to another in a previous birth had led to this suffering. The rākṣasa then asked King Uttama for permission to escort the now-purified woman back to her husband’s home. King Uttama granted this and told the rākṣasa to remain available whenever summoned in future times of need. The rākṣasa agreed, and with the duśśīlatva destroyed and the woman now śuddha, he returned her to her husband’s household.

King Uttama Returns to the Ṛṣi

After watching the brāhmaṇa’s wife being sent home, King Uttama let out a long sigh and fell into deep contemplation. The ṛṣi had called him unworthy of arghya because of Bahulā’s viyoga. The rākṣasa had confirmed the same vikalatvam from a different angle. King Uttama had himself abandoned Bahulā. Now, not knowing whether Bahulā was alive or dead — whether she had been devoured by lions, tigers, or rākṣasa-s in the forest — King Uttama resolved to seek the counsel of the wise ṛṣi once more.

King Uttama mounted his chariot and returned to the āśrama of the ṛṣi, the knower of all times. He prostrated before the ṛṣi and narrated everything that had transpired: his encounter with the rākṣasa, his meeting with the brāhmaṇa’s wife, the destruction of her duśśīlatva, her return to her husband’s home, and his own return. He laid bare his anguish before the ṛṣi.

The Ṛṣi Reveals Bahulā’s Whereabouts

The ṛṣi told King Uttama that he already knew everything that had happened and why King Uttama had returned, but had waited for the king to ask of his own accord. The ṛṣi then delivered his counsel. He declared that a wife is the foremost means for a man to pursue dharma, artha, and kāma, and that one who abandons his wife also abandons dharma itself. No man — whether brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, or śūdra — can properly perform his ordained duties without his wife. The ṛṣi told King Uttama plainly that abandoning Bahulā was not a good deed, and that just as a wife should not leave her husband, a husband too must not forsake his wife.

King Uttama, his heart burning, confessed that his separation from Bahulā was the fruit of his own past karma. He said he had always tried to be agreeable to Bahulā but could never succeed in pleasing her, and that was why he had finally cast her out. He expressed his anguish, saying his inner being was shattered by the viyoga, and he feared that Bahulā may have perished in the forest.

The ṛṣi assured King Uttama that no lion, tiger, or rākṣasa had harmed Bahulā. He then revealed that Bahulā was alive and residing in Rasātala. The ṛṣi explained that a nāgarāja named Kapotaka, who dwelt in Pātāla, had seen the beautiful and youthful Bahulā wandering alone in the great forest after King Uttama had abandoned her. Struck by her beauty, Kapotaka had taken Bahulā to Pātāla. In Pātāla, the nāgarāja’s wise daughter, a nāga-kanyā named Nandā, wife of a nāga called Manoramā, saw Bahulā and, treating her as her own mother’s co-wife, took Bahulā into her own home in the antaḥpura and kept her hidden there in safety.

The ṛṣi further explained that when Nāgarāja Kapotaka came to Nandā seeking the beautiful woman, Nandā refused to hand Bahulā over. Enraged, Kapotaka cursed his own daughter Nandā, declaring “may you become a mortal.” It was through Nandā, the ṛṣi said, that Bahulā had been taken into Pātāla and kept under the nāga-kanyā’s protection.

The Ṛṣi Explains the Astrological Cause of Bahulā’s Coldness

King Uttama then asked the ṛṣi a question that had long tormented him: why did Bahulā, despite being his beloved wife, show no affection toward him? The ṛṣi revealed the astrological cause. At the time of King Uttama’s vivāha, Ravi, Maṅgala, and Śanaiścara were in positions of dṛṣṭi. Bahulā’s governing planets were Śukra and Bṛhaspati. At that mahūrta, Candra governed Bahulā while Budha governed King Uttama, and these two grahas were in extreme mutual opposition. This planetary hostility at the moment of their union was the root cause of Bahulā’s perpetual coldness and aversion toward King Uttama.

King Uttama’s Return to His Kingdom

Having revealed all of this, the ṛṣi instructed King Uttama to return home, govern his kingdom in accordance with svadharma, and together with his patnī, perform all dharma-yukta-kārya-s. King Uttama, the lord of the earth, bowed to the great ṛṣi in reverence, mounted his chariot, and journeyed back to his own city.