Dhundhulī, Wife of Ātmadeva of Kohala

Dhundhulī was the wife of the learned brāhmaṇa Ātmadeva of Kohala, on the Tuṅgabhadrā. Her account is told in the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa. A siddha (a perfected being) gave her husband a fruit that would bring a son. She fed the fruit to the family cow and set up a false pregnancy through her sister’s child. Two children came from her tricks. Gokarṇa was born of the cow, and Dhundhukāri was her sister’s son. They were exact opposites. Gokarṇa became the greatest ṛshi, and Dhundhukāri became the most wicked of men. At the end, her wicked son Dhundhukāri drove her into a well, and she died there.

Her character

Dhundhulī is drawn sharply. She was beautiful and born in a good family. She was skilled in the work of the house. She talked a great deal and was bold in her household role. She was also cruel and quarrelsome. She always wanted her own way, and she handled people with persuasive words and a show of affection. The Purāṇa traces her nature to her pūrva-karma (karma from past lives). (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, chapter 196)

The trick with the fruit

Ātmadeva came back from the forest with the siddha’s fruit. He told her to eat it and to keep a year of self-discipline. Dhundhulī at once began to plan how to avoid the trouble of pregnancy and still seem to obey. She told a friend and her sister of her worry.

Her sister was herself pregnant. She offered a plan. Dhundhulī would take the sister’s child as her own after the birth. In the meantime she should feed the fruit to the cow, to “test” it. Dhundhulī agreed. She fed the siddha’s fruit to the family cow and told her husband that she had eaten it. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, chapter 196)

The two children

The plan produced two children. The sister’s child was passed off as Dhundhulī’s son, and Dhundhulī named him Dhundhukāri. He grew up wicked in every way. Three months later the cow gave birth to a divine boy with ears shaped like a cow’s. He was named Gokarṇa. So Dhundhulī’s trick gave a great ṛshi through the cow and a complete villain through her sister, the reverse of all she meant. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, chapter 196)

Her death

Gokarṇa grew in wisdom and Dhundhukāri grew in wickedness. Ātmadeva’s household fell into grief. Ātmadeva left for the forest on Gokarṇa’s advice. Dhundhukāri then threatened his mother with death to make her tell where the wealth was hidden. She was terrified by his threats. She fell into a well at night and died. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, chapter 197)

What her account shows

Dhundhulī is the Purāṇa’s example of a person who receives a sacred gift and, by clever tricks, turns it aside, and then is destroyed by the results. The siddha’s fruit had one purpose. Given to the cow, it gave a great ṛshi. Passed on by putting another woman’s child in her place, it gave misery.

Sources

Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, chapters 196–197