King Ila

King Ila was a great king of the solar dynasty and an ancestor of the Ikshvāku line. The Uttara Kāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells how he entered a grove where Bhagavān Śiva and Devī Pārvatī were at private play, and became a woman. Later he lived one month as a man and the next month as a woman. The account is told in the Uttara Kāṇḍa as part of Rāma’s court talk about kings of the past.

The grove of Śiva

King Ila was in the forest when he came to a secret, sacred grove. Bhagavān Śiva and Devī Pārvatī were there, at private play (krīḍā). Bhagavān Śiva had set a special rule for the grove: any being who entered it would at once become a woman, whatever it had been before. He had made this arrangement for the privacy and enjoyment of the place.

Ila went in without knowing this. The change came at once, and King Ila became a woman. (Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 56)

Budha and the new form

In this woman’s form Ila wandered in the forest and met Budha, the gandharva king and son of Soma (the deva of the Moon). Budha was very beautiful and wise. He was drawn to Ila’s beauty, and the two became companions. From their union was born Purūrava, who became one of the most famous kings of ancient Bhārata. He is known above all for his bond with the apsarā Urvaśī. The line of Purūrava became the lunar dynasty (Chandra-vaṃśa). (Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 56)

The vara of alternate months

Ila’s companions had become women with him when they entered the grove, and they also looked for a remedy. In time the devas were asked to help Ila. An arrangement was made, through the grace of Bhagavān Śiva, that Ila would live in alternate months. One month he would be a man, with full memory of his life as a man. The next month he would be a woman, with the memories that belong to that life.

This alternate life stayed with Ila to the end of his days. In his months as a man he ruled his kingdom. In his months as a woman he lived as a woman. His descendants came through both the male and the female forms of his life. (Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 56)

Ila in two dynasties

Through Purūrava, who was born of Ila in the woman’s form and of Budha the gandharva, Ila is the source of the lunar dynasty (Chandra-vaṃśa). In this way Ila is an ancestor of both the solar and the lunar dynasties, each in a different way.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 56