Madayantī
Madayantī was the queen of Kalmāṣapāda. She stayed faithful to her husband through the whole twelve years of his affliction, when a rākṣasa possessed him. The Mahābhārata remembers her for the twelve-year pregnancy that followed the niyoga (a lawful union to give an heir to a line with none) performed with Vasiṣṭha. The ṛṣi agreed to it and the king consented. She is remembered too for the birth of her son Aśmaka, who came out only when she struck her womb with a stone after twelve years.
Her part in the Nārada Purāṇa account
In the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa version of Kalmāṣapāda’s story, Madayantī held her husband back. Vasiṣṭha put a śāpa (a curse) on the king, and Kalmāṣapāda got ready to curse the ṛṣi in return. Madayantī stopped him. She warned him that cursing one’s own guru leads to everlasting darkness. Kalmāṣapāda could not let go of his curse-water anywhere else, so he poured it on his own feet. This gave him the name Kalmāṣapāda, “spotted feet”.
The twelve-year pregnancy
In the Ādi Parva account, Vasiṣṭha freed Kalmāṣapāda from the rākṣasa. The king had no heir. He could not go to Madayantī himself because of the śāpa of a brāhmaṇa woman. Vasiṣṭha agreed to perform niyoga, the allowed practice of getting children for a line without an heir, and went to Madayantī on the king’s behalf. The Ādi Parva names the queen in this episode Adṛśyantī.
Madayantī conceived. But the child did not come out for twelve years, far beyond the normal time.
Birth of Aśmaka
After twelve years of pregnancy, Madayantī herself struck her womb with a stone (aśman) to bring out the child. The son who came out was named Aśmaka, in memory of this unusual birth. He grew up to carry on the line of Kalmāṣapāda.
The maṇi-kuṇḍalas in the Aśvamedhika Parva
The Aśvamedhika Parva (Chapters 57–58) records that Madayantī owned a pair of divine maṇi-kuṇḍalas (jewelled earrings) of great power. They shone by themselves and fitted any wearer. They kept off hunger, thirst, poison, fire and fierce beasts.
Uttaṅka came on behalf of Ahalyā, wife of his guru Gautama. He was seeking these earrings as guru-dakṣiṇā (a gift owed to a teacher). He went to Saudāsa, who is also called Kalmāṣapāda or Mitrasaha. Saudāsa sent him to Madayantī. Uttaṅka could meet her only at a forest stream, because the king, in his rākṣasa state, could not be approached by her at his fixed hour of eating.
Madayantī agreed to give up the earrings. She asked Uttaṅka first to bring her a pramāṇa (token). She explained in detail the dangers that made devas, yakṣas and nāgas guard the earrings so closely. Saudāsa gave the token as a śloka (verse) describing his own hopeless state as a rākṣasa. When she heard it, Madayantī gave the earrings to Uttaṅka. She had also told him to carry them wrapped in a deer-skin for safety. This advice nearly cost Uttaṅka the earrings, because a nāga stole them from the deer-skin bundle on his way back.
This episode in the Mahābhārata is a further place where Kalmāṣapāda’s queen is called Madayantī, as in the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa. The Ādi Parva calls the queen in the niyoga and Aśmaka episode Adṛśyantī.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva
- Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapters 57–58
- Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, the story of Kalmāṣapāda