Pulomā Rākshasa

Pulomā Rākshasa was the rākshasa who carried off Pulomā, the wife of Bhṛgu. He was burned to ash at the moment her son Cyavana was born. He had desired Pulomā before her Vedic marriage to Bhṛgu, and had seized her hand in an informal act without Vedic rites. That act gave him no standing in dharma against a proper fire-marriage. Because he took the wife of a brahmaṛshi, the tejas (radiance) of the newborn Cyavana burned him up at once.

Earlier desire

Before Maharshi Bhṛgu performed his Vedic marriage rites with Pulomā, this rākshasa had come to desire her. He had seized her hand in an informal claiming, a non-Vedic act, without Agni, without the proper mantras, and without the fire as witness that makes a Vedic marriage whole and binding. His claim on her was therefore not valid and had no standing in dharma. Even so, the rākshasa kept his desire in his heart. The Mahābhārata tells this in the Ādi Parva, Pauloma Upākhyāna.

Entry into the āśrama

When Bhṛgu left the āśrama (hermitage), the rākshasa went in. He found Pulomā there, devoted, beautiful and faithful to her husband, tending the sacred fire. He met Agni, who was present in that fire. The rākshasa asked Agni directly: “Is this woman Bhṛgu’s wife?”

Agni cannot speak a falsehood. He said that she was Bhṛgu’s wife, married by proper Vedic fire rites. Truth needs completeness, so Agni also said that the rākshasa had once held her hand in an earlier informal act. The Mahābhārata tells this in the Ādi Parva, Pauloma Upākhyāna.

The rākshasa took hold of this partial answer as a pretext. He set aside the first place of the Vedic marriage altogether. He lifted Pulomā and carried her away by force. This act, the abduction of the wife of a brahmaṛshi, began consequences he could not foresee.

Destruction

As the rākshasa fled with Pulomā, the child in her womb, Cyavana, was born before his time. Cyavana did not come into the world gently. He came blazing, his body shining with a tejas as fierce as the sun. The moment that blazing tejas fell on the rākshasa, he was reduced wholly to ash. A being of great power and evil desire was destroyed in an instant by the divine brilliance of the newborn child of a brahmaṛshi. The Mahābhārata tells this in the Ādi Parva, Pauloma Upākhyāna.

Agni’s part and what followed

Agni had told the truth about Pulomā, yet his words made the abduction possible. When Bhṛgu came back and learned what had happened, he pronounced a śāpa (a curse) on Agni for this telling. Bhṛgu’s śāpa on Agni, and the later easing of it by Brahmā, are told in the Pauloma Upākhyāna.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Pauloma Upākhyāna, Chapters 5–9