Dadhīci, Suvarcā and the Birth of Pippalāda

Chapter 155 of the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa tells of the ṛshi Dadhīci Bhārgava on the Śābhramatī. He drank the weapons of the devas to keep them safe. Later he gave up his body so that his bones could be made into the weapon Brahmaśiras.

His faithful wife Suvarcā then cursed the devas to have no children. She cut open her own belly at the root of an aśvattha tree and gave birth to the ṛshi Pippalāda, an aṃśāvatāra (partial avatāra) of Rudra. The place where the milk of Surabhi fell on the earth became the Dugdheśvara liṅga.

Dadhīci’s āśrama

The great ṛshi Dadhīci Bhārgava had his āśrama at the meeting of the rivers Candrabhāgā and Śābhramatī. His wife was the virtuous Suvarcā. The āśrama was a place of very great spiritual power.

The weapons of the devas

The devas were beaten and driven out by the asuras. They ran to Dadhīci’s āśrama for shelter, and they left their divine weapons with him before they fled.

Dadhīci did not just keep the weapons in water. He put them in water and then drank that water. In this way the power of all the divine weapons entered his own body, and he kept them safe in the most secure place, his own divine person.

The devas return and ask for his bones

The devas came back, led by Bṛhaspati, to take their weapons. Dadhīci told them what he had done. He had drunk the weapons, and they now lived inside his body. He could not give them back as they were, for they had become one with him.

The devas then said they needed his bones, and especially his backbone, to make the weapon Brahmaśiras and beat the asuras. Dadhīci agreed at once and gladly. He gathered his yogic power, left his body through meditation, and died.

Surabhi and the Brahmaśiras

The divine cow Surabhi was called to the place. She licked the ṛshi’s body clean. From Dadhīci’s backbone Indra made the great weapon called Brahmaśiras, and with it the asuras were beaten.

Surabhi poured her milk on the spot where Dadhīci had died. By the power of the ṛshi’s stored tapas (austerity), this milk turned hard and became a Śivaliṅga, the Dugdheśvara, which means “lord of milk”.

Suvarcā’s grief and curse

Suvarcā learned what had happened. The devas had taken her husband’s life and even his bones. She was full of grief and just anger. She gave a śāpa (a curse) to the devas: they would never have children.

After this curse Suvarcā chose to follow her husband to the other world. She did a very hard last act. She cut open her own belly at the root of an aśvattha tree and laid her unborn child at that root.

The birth of Pippalāda

The child Pippalāda was born from Suvarcā’s womb at the root of the aśvattha. This was no ordinary human birth. Pippalāda was an aṃśāvatāra of Rudra himself.

Suvarcā told the newborn child to live near the aśvattha tree and to live on its fruit. The name Pippalāda means “one who eats the pippala (aśvattha) fruit”. Then she went into meditation and joined her husband Dadhīci in the higher worlds. The child Pippalāda grew up in the forest as a ṛshi who was an avatāra.

What remains

• The Dugdheśvara liṅga marks the spot where the milk of Surabhi turned to stone.
• The Pippalādatīrtha, told of in Chapter 157, lies near by and is named after the ṛshi born here.
• Pippalāda’s son Kahoda later carried on the family line and brought forth the Kṛtyā who killed the asura Kolāsura.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 155
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 157 (the Pippalādatīrtha, named in passing)