Manoramā (Wife of Kārtavīrya)

Manoramā · manas-ramā, “she who delights the mind”

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

Manoramā was the queen of King Kārtavīryārjuna, a supreme pativratā (a wife wholly devoted to her husband) born of an aṃśa of Lakshmī Devī. The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa tells that when Paraśurāma called Kārtavīrya to battle on the bank of the Narmadā, Manoramā begged him to give up the war, remember his guru Dattātreya and take refuge with Paraśurāma. When he would not, she left her body by the path of yoga, and a voice from the sky declared that she had gone to Vaikuṇṭha. Kārtavīrya said that all his learning, valour, fortune and tapas lasted only as long as she lived: she was his partner in every yajña, like a mother in her love, and at his side from his childhood in rest, at meals and in battle.

Her counsel to Kārtavīrya

Nārāyaṇa Maharshi tells Nārada that when Paraśurāma‘s messenger had challenged the king, Manoramā saw her husband going to war, made him sit beside her and tried to stop his preparations. Kārtavīrya told her the long night of evil dreams he had seen and asked what he should do. Her mind in pain, weeping, she said:

• “Bhārgava Rāma, son of Jamadagni, is born of an aṃśa of Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, of great strength, a disciple of Paramaśiva, and has vowed to rid the earth of kings twenty-one times. Give up battle with him.”
• “You think yourself a hero because you conquered Rāvaṇa, but his own pāpa-karmas defeated him, not your strength.”
• “No one can protect those who do not protect dharma; such a one perishes of himself and is as dead while alive. Dharma-devatā, the witness of all good and bad karma, dwells in the ātmā, and you have not heeded him. Those who rule by dharma know that sons, wife and wealth are like bubbles on water and saṃsāra like a dream, and they do tapas with bhakti.”
• “You have forgotten the jñāna that Dattātreya gave you, or you would not have harmed a brāhmaṇa. You went hunting, ate a wonderful meal at a brāhmaṇa’s āśrama, and for nothing killed that brāhmaṇa. Even one’s ishṭa-devatā turns away from one who insults the guru, brāhmaṇas and devatās.”
• “So meditate on your guru Dattātreya, for guru-bhakti removes all obstacles; worship him, and take refuge with Bhārgava Rāma. The king is the servant of the brāhmaṇa. To take refuge with a kshatriya brings ill-fame, but refuge with gurus, devatās and brāhmaṇas brings good fame. When a brāhmaṇa is pleased, all the devatās are pleased.”

Then she took him into her lap, gazed at his face and grieved deeply, and pleaded: “O Mahārāja, stay a moment. Bathe and come; I will anoint you with sandal, aguru, musk, camphor and kuṅkuma; rest on my breast, on a bed of flowers. Śrīman Nārāyaṇa has declared in the Vedas that satīs love their husband more than a hundred sons.”

Kārtavīrya answered with a teaching on Kāla: Śrī Kṛshṇa is the Kāla of Kāla, and all things happen by his command; Paraśurāma, born of Nārāyaṇa’s aṃśa, would surely slay him, but for one who has fame, ill-fame is worse than death. Hearing him, Manoramā grew calm. As he went out with bow and arrows, she took him to the pleasure-house, held him to her heart, gazed at his face and kissed him again and again.

Source: Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapter 34

Her passing by yoga

Manoramā Devī held her husband on her breast for a moment, kept in mind what he had told her of what was to come, and called her sons, servants and relatives. Holding the feet of Śrī Hari in her mind, she was sure that her husband’s words would come true. Then, by the path of yoga, she passed beyond the six cakras beginning with the Mūlādhāra, held the vital air in her head, and in the thousand-petalled lotus of the brahmarandhra withdrew her mind from the objects of the senses and fixed it firmly on the spotless Parabrahman. Leaving behind the two kinds of karma, she gave up her prāṇas; but in her mind she did not let go of her husband, dearer to her than her own life.

Kārtavīrya wept, left his preparations for war and embraced her, crying: “O Manoramā, if you rise I will not go to battle,” and recalled how they had roamed on Śrīśaila, played in the waters of the Godāvarī, wandered in Nandanavana by the Pushpabhadrā, and delighted in the sandal forests of Malaya.

Then a voice from the sky said: “O Mahārāja, be patient. By Dattātreya‘s grace you gained great jñāna; do not grieve. Your wife Manoramā was a supreme pativratā. She was born of an aṃśa of Lakshmī Devī, and so she has gone to Vaikuṇṭha, where Lakshmī Devī dwells. You too, giving up your life on the battlefield, will go to Vaikuṇṭha.”

Kārtavīrya gave up his grief, had a divine pyre of sandal logs made for her, had the last rites done through his son, and gave gems, garments and all the wealth of his treasury to the brāhmaṇas. Through Manoramā’s puṇya, wherever one looked in his house, only the cries “Eat, eat!” and “Give, give!” were heard.

Source: Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapter 35

Kārtavīrya’s words of her

Before his last battle Kārtavīrya told Paraśurāma: “My buddhi, tejas, valour, my arts of war, my fortune and lordship, jñāna, power of giving, right conduct, humility, learning, standing and tapas lasted only as long as my wife Manoramā lived. When she passed away, everything I had was gone.” She was equal to his life, a pativratā born of an aṃśa of Lakshmī, his sahadharmacāriṇī (partner in dharma) in the yajñas, like a mother in her love, and from his childhood at his side in rest, at meals and in battle. “Without such a wife I am like a snake without venom.”

Source: Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapter 40

Sources

• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Gaṇeśa Khaṇḍa, Chapters 34–35, 40