Ugrajanman

Ugrajanman was a brāhmaṇa devoted to Vedic study and to all the duties set for him. On the evening after the yearly śrāddha (rite for the ancestors), he heard a bull and a female dog in his own house speak of their sufferings. He understood that they were his own parents, reborn in these animal forms.

At dawn he went to the ṛshi Vasishṭha. Vasishṭha told him why his parents had fallen into this state and gave him the Ṛshipañcamī vow. Ugrajanman kept the vow, and his parents were freed and went on the path of moksha (liberation).

Character and setting

Ugrajanman was a brāhmaṇa of great learning and devotion. He was devoted to Vedic studies, skilled in Vedic rites and careful in all sacred duties. He kept the sacred fire and followed the six duties proper to a brāhmaṇa. All the varṇas respected him.

He was a householder. Every year he performed the śrāddha for his ancestors with full care. He fed brāhmaṇas with food of eighteen flavours, gave piṇḍas (rice balls offered to the ancestors), presented tāmbūla (betel), gifts and garments, and fed all his relatives in proper order.

The Padma Mahā Purāṇa tells his account in the Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 77.

The discovery

On the evening after one such śrāddha, Ugrajanman sat at the door of his house. He heard a bull and a female dog in his household speak to each other.

• The female dog said her back was broken from a beating. She had received it after drinking milk that a serpent had poisoned. She had drunk it to save the brāhmaṇas from being killed by the spoiled milk.
• The bull said that his son had fed the brāhmaṇas but had given him neither water nor grass.

The word “son” struck Ugrajanman. He realised: “This is truly my father, reborn as an animal in my house, and this is my mother.” He could not sleep that night. He thought: “I have done many righteous acts. How shall I find a good remedy?”

Consultation with Vasishṭha

At dawn Ugrajanman went to the assembly of ṛshis. Vasishṭha received him and asked why he had come. Ugrajanman told him the whole event. Vasishṭha called him by name and explained the former birth.

In a previous life, Ugrajanman’s father was an eminent brāhmaṇa in the city of Kuṇḍanagara. The day of his father’s śrāddha fell on the bright fifth of Bhādrapada. On that day his wife was in her monthly period. In that state a woman has the standing of a cāṇḍāla woman on the first day, of a killer of a brāhmaṇa on the second, and of a washerwoman on the third. She is purified only on the fourth day.

On that day the father let his wife cook and serve all the food to the brāhmaṇas at the śrāddha. This was a grave ritual impurity. The same day was also Ṛshipañcamī, the vow dedicated to the seven ṛshis, and he neglected that vow as well. Because of this pāpa (sin), his wife was reborn as the female dog and he was reborn as the bull.

The remedy and liberation

Vasishṭha gave Ugrajanman the Ṛshipañcamī vow as the remedy for this pāpa. It is the pūjā of the seven ṛshis on the fifth day of the bright fortnight of Bhādrapada. It is the cure for making a śrāddha impure through a woman’s monthly period.

Ugrajanman kept the vow exactly as taught. By the power of the vow, his parents, the bull and the female dog, were freed from their animal births. They went on the path of moksha, and they meant to give Ugrajanman their blessings as they left.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 77