Padmāvatī of Siṃhala Dvīpa
Padmāvatī was the daughter of King Bṛhadratha and Queen Kaumudī of Siṃhala Dvīpa. She was an avatāra (descent) of Lakṣmīdevī, born to be the wife of Bhagavān Kalki, the Kalki form of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. From childhood she was devoted to Bhagavān Śiva. His grace gave her a great vara (a boon). Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa would be her husband. Any male who looked at her with desire would at once become a woman. At her svayaṃvara (the bride’s own choice of husband), every king who came was turned into a woman.
Who she was
Padmāvatī was not only a mortal princess. Bhagavān Viṣṇu promised the devas that he would come down as Kalki to destroy adharma. He also said: “Padmā, Lakṣmīdevī herself, will be born in Siṃhala Dvīpa as the daughter of Bṛhadratha and Kaumudī, with lotus-like eyes.” The name Padmāvatī means one who has the nature of the lotus (Padmā). It marks her as Lakṣmī’s avatāra. She was born to be the wife of Bhagavān Kalki, as Sītā was born for Rāma and Rukmiṇī for Kṛṣṇa. (Kalki Purāṇa, Prathamāmśa, Chapter 1)
Family and homeland
Padmāvatī was born in Siṃhala Dvīpa. It was a rich island kingdom in the middle of the great ocean. Its ruler was the brave and powerful King Bṛhadratha, and his queen was Kaumudī. The island was known for its great palaces of gold and crystal, its groves full of waterfowl and its sweet-smelling lakes full of lotuses. Its people were many and well-off, and they belonged to all four varṇas. (Kalki Purāṇa, Prathamāmśa, Chapter 4)
Tapas and devotion
From childhood Padmāvatī was devoted to Bhagavān Śiva. She and her companions worshipped Parameśvara, as Pārvatī worships Śiva with her attendants. Her devotion was steady and sincere. It was not only ritual. She lived aware of Śiva’s presence.
Śiva knew her to be Lakṣmīdevī’s avatāra and wished to give her varas. He appeared before her with Pārvatī and said: “Ask for a boon.” Padmāvatī was shy and full of reverence. She stood with her head bowed and said nothing. She did not presume to name a wish before him. Then Śiva himself spoke the varas.
First vara: “O Padmāvatī, Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, the ruler of all worlds, will be your husband. No one else in the three worlds is worthy of you.”
Second vara: “Any male being, whether deva, asura, nāga, Gandharva, cāraṇa or human, who looks at you with desire (kāma-dṛṣṭi), whatever his age, will at once become a woman. Only Nārāyaṇa is free from this. Do not be afraid.”
Śiva added: “Give up your tapas (austerity). Go home in peace. Let your body not suffer any more.” Padmāvatī bowed to Śiva and Pārvatī and went back to her father’s palace, full of quiet faith. (Kalki Purāṇa, Prathamāmśa, Chapter 4)
The svayaṃvara
When Padmāvatī reached marriageable age, King Bṛhadratha grew anxious. He told Queen Kaumudī that he wished to find a husband of excellent family and character. Kaumudī reminded him of Śiva’s vara: Śrī Hari himself would be Padmāvatī’s husband. Even so, Bṛhadratha decided to hold a svayaṃvara. He trusted that the divine will would show itself there.
He sent invitations to all kingdoms, to princes of good family, beauty, learning and wealth. The kings came on horses, elephants and chariots, bright with golden ornaments, like Indra surrounded by the devas. The svayaṃvara maṇḍapa (hall) was a grand sight. The kings named are Rucirāśva, Sukarmā, Madirākṣa, Dhṛḍhāśuga, Kṛṣṇasāra, Pārada, Jīmūta, Kraramardana, Kāśu, Kuśamba, Vasumāna, Śaṅku, Krodhana, Sañjaya, Gurumitra, Pramadhi, Vijṛmbha, Sṛñjaya and Akṣama, and many more.
Padmāvatī entered the hall. She wore necklaces of pearl and coral and a red silk dress. Her anklets sounded like music, and hundreds of companions and maidservants followed her. She held the garland in her hand and walked as gracefully as a swan. Her smile was like a lotus in bloom. As she went from seat to seat, desire struck the heart of every king there. Their weapons fell from their hands. They fainted. When they rose, they looked at themselves and saw that they had become women, with slender waists and full forms. They were bewildered and ashamed and could not meet one another’s eyes. They followed Padmāvatī as her attendants.
The Śuka (the divine parrot) of Kalki sat on a tree in the courtyard and saw all of it. (Kalki Purāṇa, Prathamāmśa, Chapter 5)
Her grief
Padmāvatī was deeply distressed. She sat among her companions and the changed kings and cried out to her close friend Vimalā:
“O Vimalā, when fate is against us, what use are beauty, wealth or high birth? All is empty. I worshipped Śiva in my childhood, in my youth, in my girlhood. Was that worship wasted? The great kings who came here for my hand have all become women and follow me like servants. I am unlucky. I am full of pāpa (sin). If Śiva’s words were true, Śrī Hari, the ruler of all worlds, will come for me. But if they were not, if Śrī Hari does not accept me, then I will enter the fire, thinking of him. How can the master of all the devas, the ruler of all creation, want someone like me? And Śiva, has he deceived me?”
In her grief she took off all her ornaments, sat on the ground and gave herself up to meditation on Śrī Hari. (Kalki Purāṇa, Prathamāmśa, Chapters 5–6)
The Śuka as Kalki’s messenger
Kalki heard the Śuka’s full account of Padmāvatī’s state and spoke warmly: “She is my beloved. I am her husband. This is divine destiny. Through you our union will be brought about. Go to her. Praise my form and my qualities, give her my message and bring back hers.”
The Śuka flew back to Siṃhala Dvīpa and entered the palace garden. It settled on a nāgasampige tree near the inner rooms. It spoke to Padmāvatī and praised her as Lakṣmīdevī shown on earth, with a face like the full moon, hands like lotuses and a body as sweet-smelling as the lotus flower. Padmāvatī was startled and asked the parrot: “Who are you? Are you a deva or a dānava? How did you get this parrot form?” The Śuka told her what it was and asked her to share her grief.
Padmāvatī then told the whole story from the beginning: Śiva’s vara, her father’s decision, the svayaṃvara, the change in the kings and her present sorrow. She added: “All those changed kings now live with me. They meditate on Śrī Hari and worship him in their new forms.” The Śuka comforted her. It asked her to share the method of Viṣṇu-pūjā (worship of Bhagavān Viṣṇu) that Śiva had taught her. (Kalki Purāṇa, Prathamāmśa, Chapter 6)
Teacher of Viṣṇu-bhakti
Padmāvatī was a tapasvinī (a woman who practises austerity) and a princess. She also held the highest Vaiṣṇava teaching. Śiva himself had taught her the method of Viṣṇu-pūjā and a dhyāna (meditation) of sixteen ślokas on the form of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. She told the Śuka that this teaching destroys even the gravest pāpa. She told it:
- The whole daily pūjā: bathing, ācamana (sipping water), āsana (seat), kara-nyāsa, aṅga-nyāsa, bhūta-śuddhi, arghya, Keśava-nyāsa, inviting Bhagavān Viṣṇu into the lotus of the heart, the full ṣoḍaśopacāra (sixteen offerings), and dhyāna with the great mantra:
Oṃ namo Nārāyaṇāya svāhā
- The dhyāna-stotra (hymn of praise) of sixteen ślokas, which meditates on the form of Bhagavān Viṣṇu from the lotus feet to the crown.
She also spoke a prayer of her own, from the heart: “O Vāsudeva, I am full of pāpa and I do not know the Vedic path. My body is heavy with faults, pāpa and sorrows. Hope and delusion have made me their slave. Save me with the mercy of your glance.” (Kalki Purāṇa, Prathamāmśa, Chapter 7)
Meeting and marriage
The Dvithīyāmśa opens with Padmāvatī and the Śuka still in talk. Padmāvatī taught the Śuka the method of Bhagavān Viṣṇu’s pūjā. The Śuka was moved by her great beauty and devotion and called her Lakṣmī herself. Padmāvatī sent the Śuka back to Kalki with a message. She told of her viraha (pain of parting) and the burden of Śiva’s vara.
The Śuka returned and told her that Kalki had come to the lake of Kārumatī. Padmāvatī was filled with joy. She called her eight chief sakhīs (friends): Vimalā, Māriṇī, Lolā, Kamalā, Kāmakandala, Vilāsinī, Cārumatī and Kumudā. She went to the lake in a palanquin. All the men of Kārumatī fled as she passed. After playing in the water with her sakhīs, she saw Kalki resting on the maṇivedi (jewelled platform). She saw his dark-blue colour, his yellow garment, the Śrīvatsa and Kaustubha, and his long arms, just as she had meditated on him. She stood still, struck with awe and recognition. She even forgot the duties of a hostess. Kalki knew she was there. He woke and spoke to her tenderly.
Padmāvatī praised Kalki in words of devotion and touched his feet. She went back to tell Bṛhadratha. Bṛhadratha held the marriage at his palace in Kārumatī. Padmāvatī wore dark-blue cloth and Kalki wore yellow, a bright match of deep blue and gold. After some time in Siṃhala Dvīpa, Kalki and Padmāvatī left for Śambhala with a great dowry. When they arrived, Sumatī saw Padmāvatī and felt that all her wishes were fulfilled. Padmāvatī bore Kalki two sons of great strength, known as Jayavijaya. (Kalki Purāṇa, Dvithīyāmśa, Chapters 1–3, 6)
Life in Śambhala and her last journey
The Tritīyāmśa of the Kalki Purāṇa tells the last part of her life. Kalki completed his digvijaya (conquest of the quarters) and returned to Śambhala. Padmāvatī lived with him and with his third wife Ramā in the grand palace built by Viśvakarmā. Their sons, the Jayavijayas of the Dvithīyāmśa, were among Kalki’s heirs in the Kṛtayuga.
Brahmā and the devas came to Śambhala at the end of the thousand-year Kṛtayuga reign to call Kalki back to Vaikuṇṭha. Kalki agreed to go. Padmāvatī and Ramā went with him to the Himālaya and to the sacred bank of the Gaṅgā. There Kalki took his four-armed Viṣṇu form and rose into Vaikuṇṭha, shining like a thousand suns. Padmāvatī and Ramā both entered the sacred fire (agni-praveśa) to follow Bhagavān Viṣṇu to his divine realm. The two wives had come into the world for the avatāra’s work, and they returned with him. (Kalki Purāṇa, Tritīyāmśa, Chapter 19)
Sources
- Kalki Purāṇa, Prathamāmśa, Chapters 1, 4, 5, 6, 7
- Kalki Purāṇa, Dvithīyāmśa, Chapters 1–3, 6
- Kalki Purāṇa, Tritīyāmśa, Chapters 14–19