Stamba and Kāntimatī
Stamba was a brāhmaṇa of the Śrīvatsa gotra (family line) who lived in the city of Śākala. He left his wife Kāntimatī and his dharma for a courtesan. Kāntimatī stayed faithful to him. Her gift of a cooling drink to the ṛshi Devala in the month of Vaiśākha became the turning point of the account. It led Stamba, reborn as a hunter, through many births to the family of Valmīka, and to the birth of Vālmīki, who composed the Rāmāyaṇa. The Vaiśākha Māsa Māhātmya of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa tells this in chapters 18 to 21.
Stamba leaves his dharma
Stamba was a brāhmaṇa of the Śrīvatsa gotra, and he lived in Śākala. His wife was Kāntimatī. She was beautiful, chaste and devoted to dharma.
Stamba fell in love with a courtesan. Little by little he moved his whole home life to her house. He left Kāntimatī and spent his wealth. He lost his standing and lived against every rule of a brāhmaṇa.
Kāntimatī did not leave. She stayed in her husband’s house and did her household duties. She kept all the vratas (vows) of a faithful wife, including the Vaiśākha observances, without ever failing. (Chapter 18)
Devala’s visit and Kāntimatī’s gift
In the month of Vaiśākha, when the midday sun burned at its fiercest, the ṛshi Devala came to their house as a guest. Stamba had nothing in the house to offer, because he had spent everything on his courtesan. But Kāntimatī had a pot of panaka, a sweet cooling drink made with jaggery or sugar, which she had made herself.
Kāntimatī went to her husband and asked: “A ṛshi has come in this Vaiśākha heat. He is tired and thirsty. May I give him this panaka?” Stamba gave his permission: “Give it if you want.”
Kāntimatī gave the panaka to Devala with full respect and care. The ṛshi was refreshed and blessed the household.
This was an act of dāna (giving). A woman used the little she still had to serve a guest in the heat of Vaiśākha, with her husband’s permission. It was the turning point of the account. (Chapter 18)
What happened to each of them
When Stamba died, his last thought was of his courtesan, to whom he had given his life. In the Purāṇas the state of mind at the moment of death decides the next birth. Stamba was reborn as a hunter.
Kāntimatī was left alone after Stamba’s death. She entered her husband’s funeral pyre. She had kept dharma through years of abandonment, and her last gift had been to a ṛshi in Vaiśākha. She went straight to Bhagavān Vishṇu’s abode, Vaikuṇṭha, without passing through any of the worlds between death and the next birth. (Chapter 18)
The hunter’s births and Vālmīki
Stamba, reborn as a hunter, carried the result of Kāntimatī’s gift of panaka. That one act of puṇya (merit) in Vaiśākha had been done with his permission. It gave its fruit slowly over several births as a hunter.
In one of these births the ṛshi Śrutadeva met the hunter. Śrutadeva is the one who tells the Vaiśākha Māhātmya. He taught the hunter the Vaiśākha dharma. Śaṅkha gave him the Rāma mantra. Śrutadeva told the hunter: “By keeping the Vaiśākha rites and by giving footwear as gifts to travellers, you will be born in the family of the ṛshi Valmīka. You will be known as Vālmīki.”
The hunter kept the Vaiśākha rites. He gave footwear, water and shade to travellers on the road and chanted the Rāma mantra every day. He was then reborn as promised.
There was a ṛshi named Kruṇu who did hard tapas (austerity) beside a forest lake. In time an anthill (valmīka) covered his body, and he came to be called Valmīka. When Kruṇu finally rose from his tapas, worldly thoughts came to him, and he had a seminal discharge. A woman dancer who happened to be there received it and bore a son. This son became Vālmīki, the ṛshi who composed the Rāmāyaṇa and made the account of Rāma live for ever.
This is the Skanda Purāṇa’s own account of how Vālmīki was born. The Bhavishya Purāṇa gives another account. (Chapters 18 to 21)
Sources
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Vaiśākha Māsa Māhātmya, chapters 18 to 21