Kalki and Padmāvatī: The Marriage at Siṃhala Dvīpa

This account is from the Dvithīyāmśa of the Kalki Purāṇa. It tells how Bhagavān Kalki travels to Siṃhala Dvīpa, meets Padmāvatī at the sacred lake of the city of Kārumatī, and marries her with her father Bṛhadratha giving her away. It also tells how the kings who had been turned into women are made men again and sing the Daśāvatāra stotra (hymn of praise), and how Kalki returns in triumph to Śambhala, where Viśvakarmā has built a celestial palace on Indra’s command.

The Śuka returns with the summons

The divine Śuka (parrot) had already visited Siṃhala Dvīpa. It had seen Padmāvatī’s devotion and longing, and had told Kalki about her. The Dvithīyāmśa continues the talk between the Śuka and Padmāvatī.

Padmāvatī had taught the Śuka how to do the pūjā of Bhagavān Vishṇu. She taught it from pādādi-keśa dhyāna (meditation from the feet to the hair), through mūlamantra-japa, sāshṭāṅga-namaskāra (bowing with the whole body) and harinārtha-kīrtana. The Śuka was moved by her teaching and by her matchless beauty. It called her the very image of Lakshmī. The Śuka then told Padmāvatī what it had seen across the ocean. It had seen a being whose body shone beyond the power of Brahmā to make, who looked just like Vāsudeva in meditation, and who had every auspicious mark. This was Bhagavān Kalki himself.

The Śuka told Padmāvatī the story of Kalki. Śrī Hari had come down in Śambhala, in the house of Vishṇuyaśas, to stop the excess of Kali. Kalki had learned the four Vedas with their six Vedāṅgas, the Dhanur-veda and the Gāndharva-veda under Paraśurāma. From Mahādeva he had received the divine horse, the khaḍga (sword) and the kavaca (armour). He had then taught dharma to King Viśākhayūpa.

Hearing this, Padmāvatī decked the Śuka with golden ornaments and jewels. She folded her hands and sent it back to Kalki with a message: come, and come quickly. A Śiva-vara (a boon) protected her. By it, any man who looked at her with desire was changed at once into a woman. If this stopped Kalki, she would understand. But she begged the Śuka to tell him that this vara had become a śāpa (a curse) in her life.

The Śuka flew to Śambhala, found Kalki and told him everything. Kalki embraced the Śuka and stroked it, and listened with great joy to the news of Padmāvatī. Without delay he mounted Bhagavān Śiva’s divine horse and set out for Siṃhala Dvīpa.

Arrival at Kārumatī and the lake

Siṃhala Dvīpa shone with many-storeyed palaces, banners and toraṇas (festival arches). The ocean ringed it round, and it blazed with gold and jewels. Kalki came to its great city, Kārumatī. He saw its lovely lake, full of blooming lotuses, sweet with their pollen, and alive with haṃsas (swans), kāraṇḍavas and other water-birds. He got down at the crystal steps, set with jewels, where water was drawn from the lake. He sat in the shade of a kadamba tree near the bank and sent the Śuka ahead to tell Padmāvatī he had come.

The Śuka flew to the palace and perched on the nāgakeśara tree at the gate. It saw Padmāvatī on her bed, with her sakhīs (friends) around her. Her face was drawn with the pain of separation. She refused even the scented lotuses her attendants offered, and she could take no pleasure in the breeze from the river Revā that crossed the island. The Śuka comforted her: “O devī! Your wish is about to be fulfilled. Bhagavān Kalki has come with me. He waits at the lake nearby.”

Padmāvatī was filled with joy. She looked at the Śuka face to face, eye to eye, and laughed with delight. Her eight chief sakhīs were Vimalā, Māriṇī, Lolā, Kamalā, Kāmakandala, Vilāsinī, Cārumatī and Kumudā. She said to them: “Come, let us go and play at the lake.”

She got into a palanquin and set out. As she went through Kārumatī, every man in the streets ran away in fear of the Śiva-vara. Even shopkeepers quickly handed their shops to their wives and fled. Only women were left to carry her palanquin. Padmāvatī and her eight sakhīs reached the lake, heavy with lotuses.

They went into the water and played. They laughed, sang, danced, clapped and teased one another in jala-krīḍā (water-play). Then Padmāvatī, struck again by the memory of the Śuka’s words, came out of the water, changed her clothes, sat under the kadamba tree and put on her ornaments.

Then she saw Kalki. He lay at ease on a maṇivedī (a jewelled platform), his body brighter than the sun and decked with many jewels. His colour was that of the tamāla tree, a deep dark blue (nīla-varṇa). He wore yellow silk (pītāmbara). His eyes were lotus petals and his arms reached to his knees. His broad chest bore the śrīvatsa mark and the Kaustubha jewel. Padmāvatī stood still in awe. She even forgot the duties of hospitality owed to a guest. When the Śuka moved to wake him, she held it back: “If this hero sees me and becomes a woman, what good has Śiva’s vara done me?”

But Kalki, the ātmā of the whole moving and unmoving world, knew her thoughts and rose of his own accord. Padmāvatī stood before him as Lakshmī stands beside Vishṇu. He looked at her among her sakhīs, and she bowed her head in shyness. He welcomed her with very sweet words. He said that the moon of her face had soothed the burning of Manmatha’s arrows, and that her lotus face with its restless eyes was the medicine for the wound the deva of love had given him.

The marriage

Padmāvatī now knew for certain that this was Bhagavān Śrī Hari. She praised Kalki in words of devotion, touched his feet and went home to tell her father. Bṛhadratha heard that the avatāra of Śrī Hari had come in person to marry his daughter, and he was overjoyed. He came out in a great procession, with purohitas, brāhmaṇas, ministers, friends, sumaṅgala women (married women who bring good fortune), musicians, dancers and all the things for pūjā. He decorated the city of Kārumatī with banners and toraṇas.

He came to the lakeshore and saw Kalki seated on the maṇivedī. Bhagavān Kalki, dark as a rain-cloud, blazed like lightning in the clouds. His yellow silk was like a golden flame, and his divine form made Manmatha himself look pale. Bṛhadratha wept tears of bhakti. He did the pūjā. He recalled how Śrī Kṛshṇa had once appeared in a forest to the son of Māndhātā. Then he led Kalki with great honour to his palace. There he gave his daughter, lotus-eyed Padmāvatī, to lotus-eyed Padmanābha in vivāha (marriage).

Padmāvatī wore dark blue cloth and Kalki wore yellow silk, so that together they made a bright contrast of deep blue and gold.

The kings are made men again, and the Daśāvatāra stotra

The kings who had been turned into women at Padmāvatī’s svayaṃvara had stayed in Siṃhala Dvīpa in that form, as Padmāvatī’s companions. They heard that Jagadīśvara Kalki had come. They came eagerly to see him and touched his feet in devotion. At Kalki’s command they bathed in the river Revā, and at once their own male forms were given back to them.

The kings were astonished by this wonder and by the great grace Kalki had shown them. They knew his divine nature and offered him a Daśāvatāra stotra. They praised him in these forms:

As Matsya, who kept the Vedas safe when the three worlds drowned in the waters of pralaya.
As Varāha, who killed the mighty Hiraṇyāksha and lifted up the earth.
As Kūrma, who carried Mount Mandara on his back for the devas and asuras.
As Narasiṃha, who tore open Hiraṇyakaśipu, going against every term of Brahmā’s vara.
As Vāmana, who tricked Bali into giving three steps of earth, then took a cosmic form that filled sky and earth, and then chose to stand as Bali’s doorkeeper in thanks for the king’s unshaken dāna (giving).
As Paraśurāma, born in the line of Bhṛgu to Jamadagni, who cleared the earth of wicked kshatriyas twenty-one times.
As Rāma, born to Daśaratha, who after fourteen years in the forest built a bridge with the monkey warriors and killed Rāvaṇa.
As Kṛshṇa, born in the line of Yadu to Vasudeva, who destroyed countless rākshasas and lightened the burden of the earth.
As Buddha, who taught right conduct to those who had twisted the Vedas for their own gain, and who preached against desire and slavery to the senses.
And now as Kalki, the destroyer of the Kali dynasty, the Buddhist pāshaṇḍas and the mleccha hordes, the restorer of veda-dharma, who had taken away the sorrow of their unwanted womanhood and lifted them up.

Kalki then taught the kings the varṇa-dharmas and the pravṛtti-dharma and nivṛtti-dharma (the ways of action and of turning away from action). After hearing his teaching the kings were made pure. They bowed to Kalki with sāshṭāṅga-namaskāra. Later the kings took up the muni-vrata (the vow of a muni) and reached the path of moksha.

Return to Śambhala and Viśvakarmā’s palace

After living for some time in Siṃhala Dvīpa, Kalki decided to leave for Śambhala with Padmāvatī. Indra heard of this and at once called Viśvakarmā. He commanded: “Go to the village of Śambhala at once and build a palace. Use jewels, crystal and vaidūrya. Make it many-storeyed, and show all your art.”

Viśvakarmā went and built a city of splendour. The palaces were in the shape of the svastika. Their fronts bore haṃsa-mukhas, siṃha-mukhas and garuḍa-mukhas (faces of swans, lions and Garuḍa). The tall buildings had many windows to cool the summer heat. The whole city of Śambhala shone like Indra’s Amarāvatī.

Bṛhadratha and Kaumudī sent Kalki and Padmāvatī off with a rich dowry: ten thousand elephants, two thousand chariots, one lakh horses, two hundred maidservants, fine cloths and many jewels. Their eyes were full of the sorrow of parting from their daughter, and they went back to Kārumatī.

Kalki sent the divine Śuka ahead to Śambhala to tell of his coming. The Śuka flew over the city, which was seven yojanas wide and full of brāhmaṇas, kshatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras, and bright with many palaces. It found the home of Vishṇuyaśas and gave him the news. Vishṇuyaśas quickly carried it to King Viśākhayūpa and to the citizens. Viśākhayūpa ordered the whole city to be decorated. Golden kalaśas (pots) of scented water, kālāguru incense, lamps, fresh flowers, aṅkuras, akshatas and every other auspicious article were set along every street. When Kalki entered Śambhala with his army, the city blazed with festive beauty. Kalki and Padmāvatī touched the feet of Vishṇuyaśas and Sumatī. When Sumatī saw Padmāvatī, she felt that all her wishes had come true. The city shone like a beautiful woman in the presence of her lord.

Kalki lived happily with Padmāvatī in Śambhala for many years. In that time the household of Śambhala grew:

Kavi’s wife Kāmakalā bore Bṛhatkīrti and Bṛhadbāhu.
Prājña’s wife Sannati bore Yajña and Vijña.
Sumantraka’s wife Mālinī bore Śāsana and Vegavat.
Padmāvatī bore Kalki two sons, Jaya and Vijaya, both of great strength.

Sources

Kalki Purāṇa, Dvithīyāmśa, Chapter 1 (the Śuka’s message, Kalki sets out)
Kalki Purāṇa, Dvithīyāmśa, Chapter 2 (Kārumatī and the lake, the meeting)
Kalki Purāṇa, Dvithīyāmśa, Chapter 3 (the marriage, the Daśāvatāra stotra)
Kalki Purāṇa, Dvithīyāmśa, Chapter 6 (the return to Śambhala)