Ulūpī and Arjuna
During his twelve-year vanavāsa (life in the forest), Arjuna came to Gaṅgādvāra and bathed in the Gaṅgā. There the nāga princess Ulūpī, daughter of Kauravya, king of a nāga clan, drew him into the water and into the nāga realm. She asked him to be her husband for one night. Arjuna agreed, and Ulūpī gave him a vara (a boon): no creature of the water would ever have power over him.
Ulūpī’s love
Ulūpī was the daughter of Kauravya, king of a nāga clan. She had seen Arjuna and was deeply moved by love for him. When he arrived at Gaṅgādvāra and bathed in the Gaṅgā, she acted.
With her nāga power she drew him down through the water. He could not resist it. She brought him into the shining underwater realm of her father’s palace and stood before him there.
The question of the vow
Arjuna told her carefully how he stood. He was under a vow connected with his twelve years of exile. The vow included brahmacarya (self-restraint) in the arrangement the five brothers kept with Draupadī. To accept another woman would, he felt, break the spirit of that agreement.
Ulūpī answered with care. She said that his vow was about Draupadī and the arrangement the five brothers had with her. It was a vow not to intrude on one another’s time with Draupadī. It was not a vow of strict celibacy with every woman everywhere. Accepting her, she said, did not break his vow to his brothers or his agreement with his wife. She added that if he turned her away she would die of grief. As a hero who protects those in distress, he would be responsible for that death.
Her words had the weight of dharma. Arjuna was persuaded, and he accepted.
One night, and the vara
Arjuna stayed with Ulūpī for one night in the nāga realm. In the morning he returned to the upper world. Before he left, she gave him a vara:
In all bodies of water, against all creatures that live in water (fish, nāgas, sea-monsters), you shall be invincible. No being born in water shall have power over you. This is my gift.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Chapter 214