Aniruddha and Ushā
The narrative of Aniruddha and Ushā is told in the Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 12. Ushā, the daughter of the asura king Bāṇāsura, sees a handsome man in a dream. Her friend Citralekhā finds him and brings him to her. Bāṇāsura jails the young man. Then Bhagavān Kṛshṇa comes to Śoṇitapura, defeats Bāṇāsura’s army and Bhagavān Śiva, and declares that he and Śiva are not different.
Aniruddha is the son of Pradyumna and the grandson of Kṛshṇa. The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa also tells this episode, at much greater length. Its account is given at the end.
Ushā’s dream
Bāṇāsura, the powerful son of the great Bali, ruled the city of Śoṇitapura. By his great tapas (austerity) he had become, in effect, like a son to Bhagavān Śiva. Śiva was pleased with Bāṇa’s devotion and told him: “O Bāṇa, when your banner of the peacock (mayūra-dhvaja) falls, you will find a worthy battle.”
Bāṇāsura’s daughter was Ushā, a young woman of rare beauty.
On the dvādaśī (twelfth day) of the month of Vaiśākha, devī Gaurī and Bhagavān Śiva were at play together, and Ushā watched them. In her heart she felt a deep wish for a husband of her own. Gaurī saw her wish and told her: “On that dvādaśī of Vaiśākha, the man who appears to you in a dream will become your husband.”
Ushā took Gaurī’s words to heart, went home and slept. That night she saw a man in her dream, handsome beyond compare, and felt herself united with him in deep closeness. When she woke, she was full of love and longing for this unknown man. She told her friend (sakhī) Citralekhā everything she had seen.
Citralekhā’s task
Citralekhā was the daughter of Kumbhāṇḍa, the minister of Bāṇāsura. She had great skill in drawing. When she heard Ushā’s account of the man in the dream, she began to draw portraits of many beings: devas, gandharvas, yakshas and men. She showed them to Ushā one by one and asked her to say which was the man she had seen.
Then Citralekhā drew the portrait of Aniruddha, the son of Pradyumna and grandson of Kṛshṇa, a man of generous nature, who was to be Ushā’s husband. Ushā knew him at once, with a flush of joy and certainty.
By her power of yoga, Citralekhā travelled unseen through the air to Dvārakā. While Aniruddha slept, she lifted him from his bed and carried him through the sky to Śoṇitapura. She placed him before Ushā in her inner rooms.
Aniruddha in Śoṇitapura
Aniruddha, grandson of Bhagavān Vishṇu and son of Pradyumna, found himself in the rooms of the beautiful Ushā. They knew each other through the bond of the dream and of Citralekhā’s task. Aniruddha stayed with Ushā in joy in the inner chambers of Śoṇitapura.
Bāṇāsura jails Aniruddha
Bāṇāsura’s guards found the young man in Ushā’s rooms and went to tell Bāṇa. At the same moment the peacock banner (mayūra-dhvaja) of Bāṇāsura fell by itself. This was the sign that the battle Bhagavān Śiva had promised had come.
A fierce fight began between Aniruddha and Bāṇāsura’s soldiers. Aniruddha was alone, but he fought with great courage and strength. In the end the soldiers were too many for him, and he was taken. Bāṇāsura bound Aniruddha in chains and put him in prison.
Kṛshṇa’s campaign: the battle with Bāṇāsura and Śiva
The ṛshi Nārada brought the news of Aniruddha’s capture to Kṛshṇa. At once Kṛshṇa mounted Garuḍa and rode to Śoṇitapura, with Pradyumna and Balarāma. Kṛshṇa’s forces met their enemies and defeated them by their joint strength. They also defeated the fearsome Māheśvara-jvara, the fever of Śiva.
Then a great battle began between Hari and Śaṅkara, that is, between Kṛshṇa’s forces and Śiva’s forces. Tārkshya (Garuḍa) and the other commanders on Kṛshṇa’s side defeated Nandī, Vināyaka, Skanda and the other leaders of Śiva’s army.
Vishṇu subdues Śiva and declares their unity
At the height of the battle, Kṛshṇa used the Jṛmbhaṇāstra, the Yawning Weapon. It made Śiva himself yawn without control and fall into deep sleep. By the supreme power of Bhagavān Vishṇu, Śiva was for a time set aside. Śiva could not now protect Bāṇāsura, so Vishṇu cut off the arms of Bāṇāsura. He had one thousand arms, and only two were left to him.
When Śiva woke, he spoke for his devoted Bāṇāsura. He went to Kṛshṇa and begged him to spare Bāṇa’s life. Kṛshṇa kindly accepted Śiva’s request.
Then Kṛshṇa made a great declaration to Śiva about the unity between them: “You gave Bāṇa your word of protection, and so I honour it. I will let him live. Between you and me there is no difference (bheda). The one who sees a difference between us falls into naraka (hell).”
The return to Dvārakā
Bhagavān Śiva and all the other devas honoured Vishṇu with pūjā. Vishṇu then took Ushā and the freed Aniruddha and went back to Dvārakā with his full company. There, among the happy Yādavas and the chiefs headed by Ugrasena, Kṛshṇa and all the others lived in joy once more.
The account in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa
The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa tells the same episode in much greater detail, in the Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapters 114 to 120.
Who Aniruddha is. Here Aniruddha is an aṃśa (part) of Brahmā himself. He is part of the fourfold Vyūha: Kṛshṇa (Parabrahma), Balarāma (Śesha-aṃśa), Pradyumna (Kāma-aṃśa) and Aniruddha (Brahmā-aṃśa).
Ushā in her earlier life. Ushā is Śūrpaṇakhā born again. Śūrpaṇakhā was the rākshasī of the Rāmāyaṇa who wanted Śrī Rāma. After she was shamed she did tapas, and as the fruit of that tapas she was now born as the daughter of Bāṇāsura.
The dreams. Aniruddha dreams of Ushā, sent by the will of Kṛshṇa, and Ushā dreams of Aniruddha, both at the same time. The yoginī Citralekhā, daughter of the minister Kumbhāṇḍa, uses her power of yoga to bring the sleeping Aniruddha to Śoṇitapura. Ushā becomes pregnant, and this is how the matter is found out.
Aniruddha’s reply. Bāṇāsura challenges Aniruddha and speaks with scorn of Kṛshṇa’s family, calling him a cowherd. Aniruddha answers with a long teaching. Kṛshṇa is Paramātmā. Nanda was Droṇa, a son of Brahmā, in an earlier birth. Rādhā is the eternal ruler of Goloka. All the gopikās are divine.
The great battle. The battle grows into a huge war of astras and śastras (missile and hand weapons).
- Sātyaki against Bāṇa. Bāṇa uses Añjanāstra, Āgneyāstra, Vāyubāṇa, Nārāyaṇāstra, Māheśvarāstra, Brahmāstra and Nāgāstra. Sātyaki answers with Vāruṇāstra, Parvatāstra, Vaishṇavāstra and Garuḍāstra.
- Pradyumna against Skanda. Skanda uses the Pāśupatāstra. Pradyumna answers with Nidrāstra and puts Skanda to sleep. Bhadrakālī rescues Skanda.
- Balarāma breaks Bāṇa’s chariot with his hala (plough).
- The two fevers. Kālāgnirudra releases the Māheśvara-jvara, the Great Fever. Kṛshṇa releases the Vaishṇava-jvara. The two fevers fight, and the Māheśvara-jvara surrenders to Kṛshṇa.
- Arjuna uses the Sudarśana Cakra to cut off Bāṇa’s 1,000 arms, and four are left.
Bali’s part. Bāṇa’s father Bali comes to Śiva’s court to plead for his son. He recites a great stotra (hymn of praise) to Kṛshṇa, based on the Sāmaveda. It is Bali who carries Bāṇa to Kṛshṇa’s feet, not Śiva alone.
The end and the gifts. Bāṇa is made immortal, with four arms. He gives Ushā to Kṛshṇa with a great dowry: 5 lakh elephants, four times as many horses, 1,000 dāsīs (maidservants), 1,000 kāmadhenus (wish-giving cows), and 1 crore each of maṇi, ratna, mukta, vajra, māṇikya and gold vessels. Kṛshṇa takes Ushā to Dvārakā and places her in the care of Rukmiṇī and Devakī.
Sources
- Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 12
- Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapters 114–120