Dharma Darśana

In the Bhūmi Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa, inside the account called the Suvrata Upākhyāna, the ṛshis Dattātreya and Durvāsa do tapas (austerity) for ten thousand years. They wish to see Dharma in his own person. At last Dharma comes to them with his whole retinue. Durvāsa is angry that Dharma took so long, and he pronounces three śāpas (curses) on Dharma: “Become a king!”, “Become the son of a dāsī!” and “Become a caṇḍāla!” Dharma accepts all three, and is born three times in human history.

Ten thousand years of tapas

The account sits inside the larger Suvrata Upākhyāna. In it, the brāhmaṇa Somaśarma, at the Revā tīrtha, asks about the nature of dharma.

The ṛshi Durvāsa and the great ṛshi Dattātreya did tapas together in the forest for ten thousand years. Both wished to see Dharma in his own person. They wanted the darśana (sight) of the very principle that holds up all creation and all conduct. Their joint power was so great that Dharma was bound to appear. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Ch. 12)

Dharma comes with his retinue

Dharma did not come alone. He came with his whole retinue. Each member is a quality in person, and together they make up Dharma in his living form.

  • Satya (truth)
  • Tapas (austerity)
  • Dama (restraint of the senses)
  • Niyama (keeping the rules)
  • Śauca (purity)
  • Śuśrūshā (devoted service)
  • Dhātrī (nourishment, the quality that sustains)
  • Kshamā (forbearance)
  • Śānti (peace)
  • Lajjā (modesty)
  • Ahiṃsā (non-violence)
  • Śraddhā (faith)
  • Medha (the highest kind of intelligence)
  • Dayā (compassion)

Many others came as well. Each was a divine being in their own right, and each stood for one part of what Dharma includes. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Ch. 13)

Durvāsa’s anger

Durvāsa had the darśana he had sought, yet anger filled him. He felt that Dharma had not appeared soon enough. Ten thousand years of tapas had passed before Dharma chose to show himself. To Durvāsa this delay was an insult. His tapas was of the highest kind, and the lateness seemed to show too little respect for a ṛshi of his rank.

Dharma tried to explain. His coming, he said, was not ruled by his own wish or by any disregard for the ṛshi’s tapas. It was ruled by the conditions of cosmic time and by what was right at that moment. The answer did not calm Durvāsa. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Ch. 13)

The three śāpas

In his anger, Durvāsa pronounced three śāpas on Dharma, one after the other.

  1. “Become a rājā!” Dharma would be born as a mortal king.
  2. “Become a dāsī-putra!” Dharma would be born as the son of a dāsī (a servant woman).
  3. “Become a caṇḍāla!” Dharma would be born as a caṇḍāla, in the lowest of conditions, in the midst of Hariścandra’s torment.

Dharma accepted all three śāpas and did not resist. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Ch. 14)

Dharma’s three births

The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa names the three births into which Durvāsa’s śāpas carried Dharma.

As Dharmarāja Yudhishṭhira

The first śāpa, “Become a rājā!”, was fulfilled when Dharma was born as Dharmarāja Yudhishṭhira, the eldest of the Pāṇḍavas, in the great Bharata line. The name Yudhishṭhira means “firm in dharma”. He lived his whole life as a king, bound by rāja-dharma (the duty of a king). He went through the war of the Mahābhārata and the loss of everything, and through it all he kept to dharma. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Ch. 14)

As Vidura

The second śāpa, “Become a dāsī-putra!”, was fulfilled in the birth of Vidura. He was born to the ṛshi Vyāsa and a dāsī, the servant woman of Ambikā. By the standards of the Kuru line this made him a dāsī-putra.

Vidura grew up in the Kuru household without the protection of a prince’s birth. Yet he became the most steadily dharmic voice in the whole Mahābhārata. The tradition describes him as Dharma himself in human form. He gave Dhṛtarāshṭra true advice even when no one listened, he supported the Pāṇḍavas, and he gave sound counsel through the great ruin of the family. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Ch. 14)

As a caṇḍāla in Hariścandra’s trial

The third śāpa, “Become a caṇḍāla!”, was fulfilled in the account of Hariścandra’s hard trial at the hands of Viśvāmitra. Dharma took birth in that account as a caṇḍāla, a person of the lowest standing. This was at the very time when Hariścandra himself had been brought to serve in a cremation ground. In this way Dharma stood at the centre of the hardest testing of satya and dharma in all the Purāṇas, in the suffering of one mortal king. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Ch. 14)

Sources

  • Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 12 (the tapas of Dattātreya and Durvāsa)
  • Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13 (Dharma and his retinue, Durvāsa’s anger)
  • Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 14 (the three śāpas and the three births)
  • The Suvrata Upākhyāna, in which this account is set