Turu
Turu was the eldest son of Yayāti, in the account of the Bhūmi Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa. Some passages call him Ruru. Yayāti was weighed down by jarā (old age) and asked each of his sons in turn to take it on for a time, so that he could go to Aśrubindumati. Turu was the first to refuse. Yayāti then gave him a wide-ranging śāpa (a curse). It took away every mark of a life of dharma. It also doomed his descendants to become mlecchas.
Names and place among the sons
Chapter 64 first lists Yayāti’s sons. There the eldest is called Ruru. The order is Ruru (Turu) as the eldest, Pūru as the second, Kuru as the third and Yadu as the fourth. In Chapter 78, Yayāti goes to his sons one after another to ask for the exchange of youth. There the eldest son speaks under the name Turu.
The refusal
Yayāti’s body was overtaken by jarā. He had taken part in the Manmatha-nāṭaka and had not washed his hands afterward. He wished to go to Aśrubindumati as a young husband. For this he needed one of his sons to take his old age in exchange for their own youth.
He went to Turu first. Turu refused to take his father’s jarā. The account does not give his reasons. The refusal alone was enough to bring on Yayāti’s anger. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 78)
The śāpa
Yayāti took away all of Turu’s standing in dharma. The śāpa was:
- Loss of the śikhā (the tuft of hair that marks a brāhmaṇa’s ritual identity).
- Loss of Vedic study and recitation.
- Loss of ācāra (religious conduct and observance).
- Brahmahatyā-pāpa (the sin of killing a brāhmaṇa).
- Kuṣṭha-vyādhi (leprosy, or a severe skin disease).
- His descendants would become mlecchas, outside the varṇa-āśrama order and without the Vedic inheritance.
This śāpa did not touch Turu alone. It changed the future of his whole line and set them outside the order of dharma. (Chapter 78)
Turu and Pūru
Turu refused. His younger brother Pūru, the son of Śarmiṣṭhā, took his father’s jarā at once and gladly, and gave his own youth in exchange. The narrative treats Pūru’s acceptance as the act of an ideal son. He was rewarded with the return of his own youth in time, and also with the inheritance of Yayāti’s kingdom. (Chapter 78)
Sources
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 64, 78