Sudevā, Wife of Savana

Sudevā · su-devā

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

Sudevā was the wife of King Savana, the son of Priyavrata and grandson of Svāyambhuva Manu, and the daughter of Sunābha. The Vāmana Purāṇa honours her as a wife wholly devoted to her husband (pati-parāyaṇā). When Savana died without a son, she would not let his body be burned and sat holding it, crying for him. A voice from the sky told her to enter the fire with her husband if her pati-bhakti (devotion to her husband) was true, and promised her seven sons by him. Meditating on her husband, she sat on his pyre and was burned. Within a muhūrta (a short span of time) the king rose up alive with her and flew into the sky, and from there the two went to Brahmaloka, the world of Brahmā.

Sudevā at Savana’s pyre

Nārada Maharshi asked Pulastya Maharshi who the Maruts were in the earlier manvantaras (the ages of the Manus), and Pulastya began with the first Maruts, of the age of Svāyambhuva Manu. The son of Svāyambhuva Manu was Priyavrata, and his son was Savana, honoured in the three worlds. Savana died without a son. His wife Sudevā, stricken with grief, would not let his body be burned. She embraced it and sat holding it, crying “Nātha! Nātha!” (my lord).

Then a bodiless voice spoke from the sky: “O Kalyāṇī (auspicious one)! Do not weep. If your devotion to your husband is true, fall into the fire with your husband.” The princess turned towards the voice and answered: “I am not weeping for myself. I grieve because my husband is without a son.” The voice spoke again: “O Viśālākshī (wide-eyed one)! Do not weep. Climb the pyre at once. You will have seven sons by your husband. This is true. Trust my word and enter the fire at once.”

As soon as she heard it, the young woman placed her husband’s sacred body on the pyre, sat on it meditating on her husband, and was burned.

Rising to Brahmaloka

Within a muhūrta the king rose up with his wife and flew into the sky. There, as he moved about at will with Sudevā, the daughter of Sunābha, her season came. By his divine power the king stayed in the sky with his wife for five days. On the sixth day, after her bath at the end of the season, knowing that the season should not go to waste, he united with her, and his seed fell down to the earth. As soon as the seed had fallen, the king and his wife went by divine motion to Brahmaloka.

That seed, of the colour of the sky, fell into a lotus. The wives of the seven ṛshis, Samānā, Naḷinī, Vapushmatī, Citrā, Viśālā, Haritā and Aḷinī, took it for amṛta (the nectar of the devas) and, with their husbands’ leave, drank it. They lost their brahma-tejas and their husbands left them. The seven bore seven sons, whose crying filled the world, until Brahmā (Pitāmaha) came and said: “Do not cry. You will be sky-goers by the name Maruts.” These were the first Maruts, of the Svāyambhuva manvantara.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 46

Sources

• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 46