Śiva and Pārvatī’s Dice Game

This account is from the Kedāra Khaṇḍa of the Māheśvara Khaṇḍa of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa. Śiva and Pārvatī play dyūta (dice) on Kailāsa with Nārada as witness. They quarrel over who won. Pārvatī places a śāpa (a curse) on Bhṛṅgī, and Śiva leaves Kailāsa for the forest. Pārvatī then takes the form of a Śabarī, a huntress of the forest, and wins him back. Bṛhaspati gives Śiva the royal abhisheka (anointing) at Gandhamādana.

The dice game begins

Nārada came to Kailāsa to visit Śiva. He found everything doubled. The palace, the rivers and the trees all seemed to appear twice, and even Nārada himself seemed to be reflected everywhere. This was the work of Viśvakarman, who had made divine illusions all through the home of Śiva.

Nārada went inside, past door-guards that were made but looked alive. At last he saw Śiva in his full glory. Śiva was golden, adorned with serpents, with the crescent moon on his forehead, and Pārvatī shone beside him. Together they lit up all three worlds. Nārada bowed and praised them.

Pārvatī, in a playful and confident mood, told Nārada that she wished to play dyūta with Śiva and wanted Nārada as witness. Nārada said he knew nothing of dice and was only a tapasvin (one who does tapas). Pārvatī laughed at his modest words and insisted. She took the dice, named Nārada formally as witness, and began the game against her husband.

The game and the dispute

At first Pārvatī lost. She paid her losses willingly. She gave Nārada her crescent-moon ornament (ardhacandra) and her best head-jewels (śiromaṇi). Then the game turned and she won. She said, laughing: “You have lost! Give me what you staked!”

Śiva would not agree. He said with a smile: “I have not lost. No living being can conquer me. You speak as if this were not known. Play again and I will show you.”

Pārvatī was angry and argued hard. She had plainly won, Nārada the witness was there, and how could Śiva deny the result? Śiva kept his position calmly.

Nārada takes Śiva’s side

Nārada did not give an even-handed account as witness. He sided fully with Śiva. He said it was impossible that the unbeatable Mahādeva could have lost to anyone. Pārvatī was already hot from the quarrel, and she turned her anger on Nārada. She scolded him sharply for taking sides and warned him of what would follow. Nārada fell silent.

Bhṛṅgī speaks, and Pārvatī’s śāpa

Bhṛṅgī is one of Śiva’s most zealous gaṇas. He worships only Śiva and refuses to include Pārvatī in his worship. He now spoke up for Śiva. He told Pārvatī that she was wrong, because Śiva could not lose. He reminded her, in a way that was somewhat proud, that she had first come near Śiva through the help of Manmatha. He said she had done tapas only because Śiva had burned Manmatha and withdrawn from her. He told her to remember how hard it had been to win Śiva at all, and so to be humbler before him.

Pārvatī’s anger at his words was complete. She looked at him and spoke a śāpa: “You think Śiva can be parted from me. You worship only the liṅga and ignore the pīṭhikā (its base). You will lose all the flesh from your body. You will be only bones.”

Bhṛṅgī was turned at once into a skeleton, with only bones, no flesh and no blood. He was so thin that he could hardly stand. Śiva took pity and later gave him a third leg so that he could balance his bony frame.

Pārvatī takes Śiva’s ornaments

In her anger Pārvatī went further. She took Śiva’s ornaments from his body. She took the serpent Vāsuki from his neck, the serpent earrings Kambala and Aśvatara, the crescent moon from his head, and his other ornaments. The gaṇas and Bhṛṅgī were frozen with shame. Śiva himself was stripped of his usual glory by his wife’s anger.

Śiva opens his third eye and leaves

Śiva rose in anger and opened his third eye. All the devas and gaṇas ran away in fear. This was the eye that had burned Manmatha, Kāla and Tripura, and now it blazed in a quarrel at home.

But Pārvatī was not moved. She looked at the third eye with calm amusement and said: “What will you do with that? I am not Manmatha. I am not Tripura. I am not Andhaka. Whom exactly will you burn with this eye? You have only made yourself look like Virūpāksha (the odd-eyed one) for no reason.”

Śiva was a little ashamed and still angry, and he made his choice. He said that the forest, where one lives alone and free of all ties, was better. He left Kailāsa. The whole host of gaṇas, Vīrabhadra, Bhṛṅgī, Nandī and all the others who lived on Kailāsa, followed him out. Pārvatī was left alone in the antahpura (inner rooms).

Pārvatī’s grief and Vijayā’s advice

In the inner rooms Pārvatī’s anger quickly turned to longing. Her friend Vijayā urged her to go and ask Śiva’s forgiveness, and not to let pride keep her from her husband. Pārvatī first answered proudly. She had won, Śiva had been shamed, and she would not be the one to go begging. But as the hours passed and Kailāsa felt empty, her will grew soft.

Pārvatī as the Śabarī

Pārvatī decided to win Śiva back, not by apology but by her own power. She would use the same tapas and devotion that had won him in the first place, now shown as divine play (vinoda). She took the form of a Śabarī, a forest huntress, lovely and wild. She had red lips and heavy braids, a bow and a quiver of arrows, peacock feathers in her hair, and the bold bearing of a woman of the forest. In this form she went to find Śiva in the forest where he meditated.

Śiva was seated at the siddha-vaṭa tree in perfect samādhi. Śesha was his yoga-paṭṭa (yoga band), and Vāsuki was at his waist. His eyes were closed, and he was lost in the ātmā. The Śabarī’s approach, her beauty, her bow and the hum of bees around her reached even Śiva’s deep meditation. He opened his eyes and was at once struck with desire for this woman of the forest.

The play of recognition

What followed was a long divine play. Śiva, who had burned Manmatha, now felt exactly what Manmatha’s arrow had once been aimed to bring about. He chased the Śabarī, who kept appearing and vanishing. He tried to take her hand, and she vanished. He wandered through the forest, sick with love. Śiva, who had burned the deva of love, was now helplessly in love.

At last she appeared and spoke with him. He said that he was the right husband for her. She laughed and said: “You? You are a great tapasvin, a nirākāra (one without form), a virāgī (one without desire). You even burned Manmatha. How could any woman win you? And more than that, you left behind a great devotee of yours who did huge tapas to win you. Why should I believe you would stay?”

After much divine talk, the Śabarī told him: “Ask my father for my hand.” She brought Śiva to Himavān. Śiva, the supreme master of all worlds, stood before Himavān and said with full humility: “Girivara (best of mountains), give me this lovely daughter of yours. I ask you.” Himavān was overcome and broke into praise.

Bṛhaspati’s abhisheka and Śiva’s return

Nārada arrived with a company of ṛshis. He reminded Śiva, with his usual wit, that being with women always leads good men to embarrassment. Śiva laughed and agreed it was true, and the spell of the play broke. All the mountain ranges bowed to Śiva together.

Bṛhaspati, the great guru of the devas, gave Śiva the royal abhisheka at Gandhamādana mountain. Dundubhi drums sounded and the devas rained flowers. Śiva was crowned again before all in his sovereignty over the worlds. He returned to Kailāsa, where Pārvatī welcomed him. Their quarrel was healed.

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 34 (the dice game, the dispute, Bhṛṅgī’s śāpa, Śiva leaving Kailāsa)
• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 35 (Vijayā’s advice, the Śabarī, Bṛhaspati’s abhisheka)