Samanyu (Yaksha)
Samanyu
Samanyu was a Yaksha, the lord of the Yakshas (Yakshapati), prosperous and highly intelligent. He lived in a cave studded with many kinds of jewels on Himavat, the Himālaya, with his wife Samā, a Yakshiṇī devoted to him. When King Ila of the line of Vivasvān took his cave and killed his Yakshas, Samanyu, who knew he could not defeat the king, sent Samā in the form of a hind to draw Ila into Umāvana, the forest where any man who enters becomes a woman. So King Ila became Ilā.
Brahmā tells this to Nārada in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa, in the account of Ilātīrtha on the Gautamī.
The cave on Himavat
On that beautiful, excellent mountain, Samanyu lived in his cave. His wife Samā was a pativratā (a wife wholly devoted to her husband), eager to serve him. Together they roamed his forest as they pleased, dancing and singing. Samanyu had taken the form of a deer, yet he knew whatever happened there.
King Ila came hunting on Himavat and saw the jewelled cave. He did not know that it was the Yaksha‘s dwelling and under his protection, and he stayed in that large abode, with his army about him, as its only master.
The Yakshas fight Ila
Samanyu, in the form of a deer with his wife, was furious. He thought: “I am not strong enough to defeat Ila. If I ask him, he is not likely to give my abode back. How can I kill this arrogant one in battle?” So he sent his own heroic followers, the bow-bearing Yakshas. “Defeat King Ila in battle,” he told them, “Ila who is proud because he has elephants. Do what will make him leave my home.”
The Yakshas went to Ila and said: “Go out of this cave-home, or you will be defeated in battle and will have to run out of it.” Ila fought them, defeated them and stayed there for ten nights. With his abode taken and his servants killed, Samanyu lived in the forest as a deer, and his wife as a doe.
The plan with Samā
Troubled, Samanyu said to her: “Beloved, how shall I conquer this king, strong, invincible, proud of his glory and heroism, blind with arrogance and given to hunting?” Samā asked whether there was any means of subduing his pride, and offered to do whatever her words or deeds could do.
Samanyu told her: “Go where this foolish king is staying. Take the form of a hind, show yourself to Ila and draw him to the forest called Umāvana. Let him attain the form of a woman. This king is evil-minded and given to vices (vyasanas); he will fall into adversity through this.” And he taught her: “The kingdoms of all kings come to an end through the growth of pāpa (wrongdoing) and indulgence in vices.” He added: “If he enters there, he will without doubt become a woman. You must do this. It is not proper for me, for I am a man. You are a woman, and a Yakshiṇī besides.”
How Umāvana came to be
When Samā asked why he could not go there himself, Samanyu told her: Bhagavān Śiva once roamed on Himavat with Umā, followed by the devas and his gaṇas. When Śaṅkara stood alone in a secluded place, Devī Pārvatī asked him for a place of her own, well guarded by his command, to be known as Umāvana: whoever entered it, except Śiva himself, Gaṇeśa, Kārtikeya and Nandin, would become a woman. Bhagavān Śiva, who bears the moon on his crest, was pleased and gave that command. “What will a man not do when lovingly asked by his beloved?” said the Yaksha. “So I should not go to Umāvana.”
Ila becomes Ilā
Samā, who could take any form she wished, became a hind and drew the king alone on his horse into Umāvana. There Ila became Ilā. Samā told Ilā: “Samanyu, my husband, lord of the Yakshas, lives in an excellent cave of the Himālaya. I am his wife, a Yakshiṇī. It was his Yakshas you killed, and his cave you were staying in.” She taught Ilā the arts of women and sent her to Budha, son of Soma. Then she vanished and told her husband all that had happened, and Samanyu was happy to hear it.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 38
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 38