Sāvitrī

Sāvitrī was the daughter of King Aśvapati of Madra. She chose the forest-dwelling Satyavān as her husband, although the ṛṣi Nārada told her that he had only one year to live. By the power of her unbroken pativratā-dharma (the dharma of a wife devoted to her husband), she followed Yama, the lord of death, into his own realm and brought her husband back to life.

Sāvitrī is the great example of pativratā-dharma in the Purāṇas. She is also the source of the Sāvitrī vrata (a vow kept by women for the long life of their husbands). Her account is told in the Bhaviṣya Purāṇa, the Mahābhārata and the Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa.

Birth and family

The Bhaviṣya Purāṇa says that Sāvitrī was born to King Aśvapati of Madra, the region of the Punjab, and his queen. The royal couple had no children for many years. Aśvapati kept a long and hard vrata (vow). He worshipped Devī Sāvitrī, who is Sarasvatī, with japa (repeating a mantra), dhyāna (meditation) and pūjā. Devī Sāvitrī appeared to him. She gave him a vara (a boon): she herself would be born as his daughter. In time a radiant daughter was born. The king named her Sāvitrī, a name made holy by the promise of the devī.

Sāvitrī grew up keeping the Sāvitrī vrata under the guidance of Bhṛgu Maharṣi. She grew in spiritual discipline, beauty and inner strength. Her father raised her with great love and let her choose her own path.

The Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 293–299, is told by Mārkaṇḍeya to Yudhiṣṭhira. It says that Aśvapati kept the Puṃsavana vrata for eighteen years and offered one oblation each evening. Devī Sāvitrī herself appeared from the fire of the yajña (fire ritual) and gave him a daughter. So Sāvitrī was born directly from the sacred flame, as a portion of the devī.

The Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa says that Aśvapati of Madra was a righteous king. He did long and hard tapas (austerity) to Devī Sāvitrī, who is a form of Gāyatrī, so that he might have a daughter. The devī was moved by his devotion. She appeared and gave him this vara, and Sāvitrī herself came down as his daughter. She was of partly divine birth, bright in form, very wise, and had an inner depth that set her apart from other women.

The choice of Satyavān

The Bhaviṣya Purāṇa. When Sāvitrī was old enough to marry, her father looked for a worthy husband and found none. He sent her out with trusted ministers and relatives to find her own choice. She visited āśramas, tīrthas (holy places) and royal courts across the land.

When she came back she said that she had chosen Satyavān. He was the son of the blind king Dyumatsena of Śālvadeśa, who had lost his kingdom and lived in the forest. Satyavān was a young man living in the forest and was well known for his goodness and truthfulness. Nārada happened to be there. He warned her gently that Satyavān was good, but that he was fated to die in exactly one year.

Sāvitrī’s reply is famous. She said:

A king’s command is spoken once. A scholar’s resolve is stated once. A maiden’s choice is made once. These three happen only once. Whether Satyavān has a long or a short life, whether he has virtues or not, I have chosen. I cannot think of any other as my husband.

Nārada was moved by her firmness and blessed the marriage. It was held at the proper time.

The Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa. When the time came for Sāvitrī’s svayaṃvara (choosing her own husband), Aśvapati gave her full freedom. He sent her on a journey through many kingdoms with a group of wise elders, so that she could choose the husband she thought most worthy. She went through royal courts and forest āśramas. At last she came to the āśrama of Dyumatsena, a blind former king who lived in the forest by his own choice. There she met his son Satyavān. His truthfulness, his love for his parents, his skill and his inner light won her completely. She chose him.

She went back to her father. The ṛṣi Nārada told them that Satyavān was fated to die within the year. Sāvitrī did not waver. She answered clearly that a pativratā makes her choice only once, and that having chosen, she would not change it because destiny was hard. Her father saw how deep her resolve was. He gave his blessing and arranged the wedding.

Life in the forest āśrama

The Bhaviṣya Purāṇa. Sāvitrī went to live in the forest āśrama with her husband and his blind parents. She wore bark-cloth and took up the full discipline of life in the tapovana (forest of austerity). She served her husband’s parents with complete devotion. Nārada’s words stayed with her through the whole year. She kept them quietly in mind, and they made her practice of dharma sharper.

As the last days came near, she kept the trairātrika vrata. This is three nights of fasting, meditation and prayer to Devī Sāvitrī. On the fourth day she received the blessings of her husband’s parents and went with Satyavān into the forest while he gathered firewood.

The Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa. After the marriage, Sāvitrī put aside her royal ornaments and silk clothes and took up bark-cloth and the plain life of the āśrama. She served her blind father-in-law Dyumatsena and her mother-in-law with complete care. She ran the household, gathered food and looked after her husband. She did all this with so much love and care that the ṛṣis of the forest saw in her the ideal of a woman who keeps dharma.

As the fated day came near, she kept a vrata of three days of fasting. On the fourth day she went with Satyavān into the forest.

Following Yama

The Bhaviṣya Purāṇa. In the forest Satyavān was struck by a sudden, heavy headache. He lay down with his head in Sāvitrī’s lap. Yama came in person, because Sāvitrī had so much tapas that his servants could not come near Satyavān. Yama drew out Satyavān’s prāṇa (life-breath) and turned south, toward his own realm.

Sāvitrī got up and followed. Yama turned again and again and ordered her to go back. She refused, calmly, and gave him arguments from dharma about the wife’s oneness with her husband. Yama was so pleased that he offered her any vara except Satyavān’s life. She asked for five varas, and won them one by one:

1. Her father-in-law’s eyesight and his kingdom.
2. A hundred sons for her father.
3. Long life for her husband.
4. A hundred sons for herself.
5. The ability to go on living in dharma.

The last vara made it certain that Satyavān’s life must be given back. Yama kept all five promises. He gave Satyavān his life again, blessed the couple with his own hands and went back to his realm.

The Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa. Satyavān suddenly felt faint and laid his head in her lap. Sāvitrī held him gently, knowing what was coming. Yama came and drew Satyavān’s puruṣa (the person within, the ātmā) out of the body. Sāvitrī rose and followed him south, the direction of Yama’s realm.

Three times Yama ordered her to turn back and attend to the body for the proper rites. Three times she refused. Each time she stated a principle of dharma:

• Wherever a wife’s husband goes, she must follow. This is the everlasting dharma of wives.
• Those who walk with the righteous are freed from all evil.
• The wise never give up dharma, even when death forces them.

Yama was moved by her firmness. He offered her varas one by one, anything except Satyavān’s life. Sāvitrī asked with great care:

1. The first vara: Dyumatsena’s eyesight restored.
2. The second vara: Dyumatsena’s lost kingdom restored.
3. The third vara: that she herself would be the mother of a hundred sons.

The third vara decided everything. Yama had already granted it, and he saw that if Sāvitrī was to bear sons, her husband must live. He accepted her victory with grace and set Satyavān’s ātmā free. He then offered a fourth vara, the restoration of Dyumatsena’s family line.

The Mahābhārata. The Vana Parva gives the following:

• The varas Sāvitrī won from Yama were these: first, Dyumatsena’s eyesight restored; second, Dyumatsena’s kingdom restored; third, a hundred sons for Aśvapati from his Mālavī wife; fourth, a hundred sons for Sāvitrī herself. This last vara forced Yama to give Satyavān’s life back.
• The hundred sons born to Aśvapati from his Mālavī wife became the Mālavas, the Mālava people. So the Sāvitrī Upākhyāna (the narrative of Sāvitrī) is also the account of where the Mālavas came from.
• While Sāvitrī was following Yama in the forest, the enemy of Dyumatsena was killed, through Yama’s vara. On the same night that she came back, messengers reached the āśrama with this news.

The Sāvitrī vrata

The Bhaviṣya Purāṇa. Sāvitrī became the presiding devī of the Sāvitrī vrata. Women keep this vrata for the life and well-being of their husbands. The Purāṇa says that women who keep it with full devotion gain putra (sons), pautra (grandsons) and dhana (wealth). In the end they reach Brahmaloka together with their husbands.

Sāvitrī herself said that the power of pativratā-dharma was the means by which she defeated death. She did not do it through strange powers, but through truth, dharma and steady love.

Sāvitrī in the Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa

The Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa tells her account in Chapters 4–7 of the Dvitīya Khaṇḍa. Puṣkara tells it to Paraśurāma in the Rājadharma teachings, as an example of pativratā-dharma.

Puṣkara gives Sāvitrī’s account as the best example of a principle that runs through the whole Dvitīya Khaṇḍa. Dharma is not only outer practice. It is an inner quality of firm resolve (dṛḍhatā) and love, and it can overcome even the universal law of death. Her pativratā is not passive submission. It is an active spiritual force, daiva-nīti (the divine order of things) working through a human being.

The Purāṇa shows Sāvitrī as a śakti (power) whose devotion to Satyavān cannot be separated from her devotion to dharma. That in turn cannot be separated from devotion to Bhagavān Viṣṇu, who fills all dharma. She is shown as the ideal pativratā not because she accepted her fate, but because she changed it. She knew exactly what dharma asks, and she had the courage to live by it fully.

Sources

• Bhaviṣya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 102
• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 293–299
• Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Uttarārdha (Dvitīya Khaṇḍa), Chapters 4–7