Svarāṣṭra

Svarāṣṭra was a king of great virtue and fame. The deva Sūrya gave him a very long life. He outlived all one hundred of his queens, his ministers and his friends. Another king, Vimarda, then took his kingdom. Svarāṣṭra went to the banks of the river Vitastā and did hard tapas (austerity). There he found his queen Utpalāvatī again, and through their tapas together he became the fourth Manu, Tāmasa Manu.

His long life

Sūrya gave Svarāṣṭra a vara (a boon) of a very long life, far longer than that of ordinary people. At first this was a mark of favour. As the centuries passed, Svarāṣṭra saw all one hundred of his queens leave the world, one after another. His ministers, his advisers, his companions and his friends all followed. Time broke every tie. The gift became a burden. He was alone, in a world that kept renewing itself while he stayed the same.

Loss of the kingdom and renunciation

The last blow came from a rival. King Vimarda attacked Svarāṣṭra and took his kingdom. Svarāṣṭra lost his throne, his court and everything that had made up his life as a king. He turned away from the world. He went to the sacred banks of the Vitastā, gave up all attachment, and began deep and hard tapas. The river and the forests became his kingdom and the earth became his seat.

The flood and the doe

In the monsoon season the rains were violent and the Vitastā rose beyond its banks. Svarāṣṭra, lost in tapas, was swept away by the flood. In the dark he reached out and caught the tail of a doe that was also caught in the current. Holding on, he was carried along by the water. In that darkness the two came close to each other.

Utpalāvatī is recognised

Then the doe spoke. She told Svarāṣṭra that she was his own queen Utpalāvatī, born again as a deer because of a śāpa (a curse) she had received in childhood. As a young girl she had seen two deer mating and had laughed. A ṛṣi who saw her laugh cursed her to be born as a deer. She had kept that form through her whole later life and could not return to a human birth.

Svarāṣṭra heard her voice and her words and knew her fully. Her way of speaking and her memories of their life together all agreed with what she said. Joy and grief rose in him together. Utpalāvatī wept too, with sorrow for the long parting and happiness at the meeting. A king who had lost his throne and a doe clung together in a flooded river in the dark, and they had found each other.

Becoming the fourth Manu

After they knew each other, Svarāṣṭra and Utpalāvatī stayed together on the banks of the Vitastā and took up tapas as one. Their joint austerities, their devotion, and the puṇya (merit) of his long life of dharma brought the highest reward. Svarāṣṭra was raised to be a Manu, the fourth Manu of the present cycle. The era over which he rules is the Tāmasa Manvantara, which has its own Indra, its own saptarṣis (seven ṛṣis) and its own divine order.

Sources

• Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapter 71