Gabhastinī

Gabhastinī

Gabhastinī, also called Vāḍavā, was the wife of the great ṛshi Dadhīci. She was the sister of Lopāmudrā. In the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa, she is shown as a woman of great wisdom, foresight and pati-dharma (the duty of a wife to her husband).

She warned Dadhīci not to take the weapons of the devas into his keeping. She knew what would follow. When Dadhīci gave up his life and the devas took his bones, she took her unborn son Pippalāda out of her own womb. She placed him under the care of the pippala trees and entered the funeral fire to join her husband. This was an act of satī-dharma. Her memory lives on through Pippalāda and through the Cakreśvara tīrtha (holy place) on the Gautamī.

Identity and character

Gabhastinī was the sister of Lopāmudrā, the well-known wife of Agastya. She was the dear wife of Dadhīci and was also praised by the name Vāḍavā. She was a faithful lady of noble birth and great intelligence. With Dadhīci she practised tapas on the banks of the Gautamī. She kept the sacred fire and gave herself to the dharma of a householder.

Her husband loved her deeply. He is described as “as calm as Agastya” and as “fondly attached to his wife”.

Her warning to Dadhīci

The devas came to Dadhīci’s āśrama (hermitage) and asked to leave their weapons there. Gabhastinī at once saw what would come of it and warned her husband plainly: “What have we to do with the affairs of devas? In fact, it has an adverse effect. What avail is indulgence in other people’s affairs to those who have understood the scriptures? If the place for keeping weapons is given, the enemies of devas will hate us. If these weapons are lost or taken away, devas will become angry and turn into our enemies. The excessive affectionate attachment to other people’s objects is not proper. As long as the material kept in deposit exists there is friendship, but once it is lost they will become our enemies. My dear husband, get rid of this immediately.”

Dadhīci felt bound by his first promise. He said: “Having given consent at first to devas, saying ‘No’ to them will not give me any pleasure.” Gabhastinī fell silent and accepted it. She said: “Excepting fate, nothing else is capable of doing anything to men.”

Her act of courage and the birth of Pippalāda

Dadhīci gave his life and his bones to the devas. Gabhastinī was not there, for she had gone to do pūjā to Devī Umā. She came back carrying fruits and flowers, with a pot in her hand, and she was with child. Signs of disaster came before her. Her necklace fell, her bangle fell, and her right eye twitched. She reached the āśrama and found her husband gone. The deva of fire told her everything.

She did not pronounce a śāpa (a curse) on the devas, who do not die, for she knew it would be useless. She thought about how all life passes, and about the greatness of those who give up their lives for the devas and for brāhmaṇas. She made peace with what had happened.

Then she did something that has no equal for its calm and its love. She carried out the rites of the sacred fires with the skin and hair that were left of her husband. Then she cut open her own belly, took her unborn son out of her womb, and held him in her hand. She spoke to all the trees, plants, healing herbs and guardians of the āśrama: “This boy is bereft of his father, mother, and all relatives born of his family. May all groups of living beings, the guardians of the quarters, and medicinal herbs protect him.”

She laid the baby near the holy pippala (fig) trees, with a yajña vessel. She walked round the fire and entered it. She went up to svarga (heaven), united with her husband.

Her legacy

The trees of Dadhīci’s āśrama had been looked after by him like his own children. They wept. They said that the baby Pippalāda was both Dadhīci and his mother to them. They raised him on divine nectar that they got from the Moon. Because the pippala trees raised him, the boy was named Pippalāda.

Later he went to the Cakreśvara tīrtha on the Gautamī and asked Bhagavān Śiva to take revenge on the devas who had killed his father. His story goes on in the account of Dadhīci and Pippalāda in the Brahma Purāṇa.

The Kṛtyā that Pippalāda called up came out of his meditation as a fearsome female power in the form of Vāḍavā herself.

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 40