Varāṅgī
Varāṅgī was the wife of Vajrāṅga, the son of Diti, and the mother of Tārakāsura. She was not born of a human mother or of a dānava mother. Brahmā created her himself and gave her to Vajrāṅga as his wife. Her name means “one of beautiful limbs”, and it points to the perfection of her form.
Varāṅgī stayed on the shore of a lake in silent tapas (austerity) while her husband stood in the water. For years Indra tormented her. She did not break her silence and she did not give way to anger. When Vajrāṅga came out of his tapas, she asked him for a son who would free her from her sorrow. That son was Tārakāsura.
The Skanda Mahā Purāṇa spells her name Vārāṅgī. The Matsya Mahā Purāṇa spells it Varāṅgī.
Origin
In the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa
Vajrāṅga had defeated Indra and then set him free at the request of Brahmā. He said that his only wish was to do tapas and follow dharma. Brahmā was deeply moved by the nature of this unusual daitya. From his own power he made a beautiful young woman and gave her to Vajrāṅga as his wife. Brahmā himself named her Vārāṅgī.
She was radiant, good by nature and very devoted to Vajrāṅga. She went with him to the forest when he began his tapas. She sat beside the same mountain lake and did her own austerity. (Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 14)
In the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa
Vajrāṅga let Indra go at the words of Brahmā and Kaśyapa. Brahmā then made Varāṅgī from his own creative will. She was a woman with wide lotus eyes and a beautiful form. He gave her to Vajrāṅga as his wife.
She is not a dānava by birth. She is a being made directly by Brahmā, who shows beauty, strength and steady loyalty. (Chapter 145)
Tapas and the torments of Indra
In the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa
The account in the Kaumārika Khaṇḍa says Vajrāṅga did four thousand years of tapas in a mountain lake. He stood in the lake in complete samādhi. Varāṅgī sat on the shore in silent tapas and kept a strict vow of silence (mauna-vrata).
Indra feared the power growing from Vajrāṅga’s focus and wanted to break it. He turned to Vārāṅgī, who had no one to guard her. Through the years of Vajrāṅga’s tapas, Indra came to her again and again in one form after another.
- As a monkey, he came to her dwelling, scattered filth and dung, and disturbed her clothes and her focus.
- As a goat, he troubled her more and made the āśrama (hermitage) unclean for worship.
- As a serpent, he coiled round both her feet and dragged her some distance from the āśrama.
- As fearful animals, a lion, a wolf and others, he came and went and filled the āśrama with terror.
- As Agni (fire), he burned down the āśrama itself.
- As Vāyu (wind), he lashed her with gales and threw her about.
The Kaumārika Khaṇḍa records with deep respect that Vārāṅgī did not get angry, not even by an atom.
“aṇumātram api na krodha”
Her kṣamā (patience) and the strength of her tapas held through every attack. She never broke her silence, never gave up her tapas and never answered with anger.
Once she came close to cursing the mountain nearby, because she thought it had a part in one of Indra’s disguised visits. The mountain took human form itself and told her it was not to blame. It pointed to Indra as the one who did it. (Chapter 15)
In the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa
Vajrāṅga went to the forest to do his great austerities, and Varāṅgī went with him. He did tapas in water, under the surface of a lake, for a thousand years. She stayed on the bank, kept her own vow of silence and austerity, and bore hunger and heat.
Indra was alarmed by the power gathering in the dānava couple, and he used the chance to torment Varāṅgī. He took the form of a monkey and came into the āśrama again and again. He smashed her water jars and clay pots, destroyed her tools, scared her with threatening gestures and beat her. He treated her with every kind of insult and cruelty.
She bore all this alone. She had taken a vow of silence and could do nothing but weep, while the lake hid her husband deep inside it. (Chapters 145–146)
The prayer for a son
In the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa
Vajrāṅga came out of his tapas and received his vara (boon) from Brahmā. He went to look for his wife. He found Vārāṅgī hiding behind a tree in the āśrama, weeping quietly with her face covered. He went to her very gently and said:
“Beloved! Who has harmed you during your tapas? I am alive and here — why do you weep? Tell me quickly what boon you need. Whatever you desire, I will fulfill it.”
Vārāṅgī answered through her tears:
“Orphaned and helpless as I was, the enraged Indra attacked, frightened, and tormented me — in various forms, again and again. I was beaten and terrified. Seeing no way out, I was on the verge of giving up my life. If you have any compassion — please give me a son who will protect me and cross this deep ocean of sorrow.”
Vajrāṅga was moved by her pain and bound by the dharma of a householder (gṛhastha-dharma). He decided at once to seek a son for her. He thought: “A wife who is the gṛheśvarī (mistress of the house) must be cared for. Even a man who does great dharma is incomplete without caring for her properly. A husband who does not protect a grieving wife who depends on him is no man at all.”
Brahmā felt that Vajrāṅga was beginning new tapas. He appeared at once and gave the vara without asking for the full austerity.
“Your son will be born — a great warrior named Tāraka — who will undo the hair-adornment of the deva-wives.”
So Tārakāsura was born to Vārāṅgī. (Chapter 15)
In the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa
Vajrāṅga came out of the water after a thousand years of tapas. He found Varāṅgī weeping under a tree, with untidy hair and broken in spirit. He asked what had happened. In pain and sorrow Varāṅgī told him all of Indra’s torments. Then she set before him a clear purpose and not only a cry of grief.
“The raudra deva-rāja, finding you absent, tormented me thus. Give me a son who will make Svarga tremble — a son who will be our tāraka (deliverer) from this ocean of grief and humiliation.”
The Matsya Mahā Purāṇa gives this as the meaning of the name Tāraka. He is the son born from the prayer of Varāṅgī that her family be delivered (tārita) from sorrow.
Vajrāṅga was moved by her suffering. He went to Brahmā and obtained the vara that such a son would be born. Varāṅgī then carried the child for a thousand years in water, and gave birth to Tārakāsura. (Chapter 146)
The birth of Tārakāsura
In the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vārāṅgī carried Tārakāsura in her womb for a full thousand years. At the end of the thousand years she gave birth. At his birth all three worlds shook. The earth trembled, the seas rose, the mountains moved from their places, the ṛṣis ran away in fear and the sun grew dim. Tārakāsura was born in the full glory of an asura. (Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 15)
Her place in the account
In the Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Varāṅgī does nothing outwardly. She does silent tapas and bears every attack without reply. She never fights back, never curses and never runs away. Yet her suffering and her one request for a son were the direct cause of Tārakāsura’s birth. From his birth followed:
- the war between the devas and the asuras
- the defeat of the devas
- the need for Pārvatī to be born and for Bhagavān Śiva to rise from samādhi
- the birth of Kumārasvāmi
In the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, she is a woman of great inner strength. She was made by Brahmā and was tormented by Indra with no one to protect her. She did not break her vow of silence. When she spoke at last, she spoke with a purpose. Her prayer to Vajrāṅga, “give me a deliverer”, is the first cause of the whole account of Tārakāsura and, through it, of the plan that brought forth Kārttikeya.
Sources
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapters 14–15
- Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 145–146