Suprabhā (wife of Bhara)

Suprabhā · su-prabhā

Suprabha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Suprabha.

Suprabhā was the beautiful and famed wife of Bhara, the son of King Ārshṭisheṇa and Queen Jayā. She is named in the account of Devatīrtha on the northern bank of the Gautamī. She is not Suprabhā, the daughter of Vadānya.

In the account of Devatīrtha

Brahmā tells Nārada of Devatīrtha, on the northern bank of the Gaṅgā (the Gautamī), which destroys all pāpas. King Ārshṭisheṇa, endowed with every good quality, had a wife named Jayā, like a second Lakshmī. Their son Bhara was intelligent, dear to his father and learned in the Vedas and in dhanurveda (the science of archery). Bhara’s wife was the beautiful, famed Suprabhā.

Ārshṭisheṇa placed the kingdom in Bhara’s charge and took dīkshā (initiation) for an aśvamedha. In the presence of the brāhmaṇas and the sacred fires, Mithu, the mighty king of the dānavas, destroyed the yajña and carried off the king, his wife Jayā and the purohita Upamanyu to the netherworlds. Bhara ruled the earth, and the boy Devāpi, the purohita’s son, set out with Bhara’s leave to bring them back. By the grace of Bhagavān Śiva, Nandin slew Mithu, the captives were brought back, and the aśvamedha was completed on the Gautamī.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 57

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 57