Śākala
Śākala
Śākala was a famous city in the Madra country. In the Vāmana Purāṇa it is the city of Mahārāja Indradyumna, the son of Manu and brother of Ikshvāku. It was also the home of the merchant Sudharma, of the brāhmaṇa Somaśarmā and of his neighbour Somaśrava, and it was here that Purūravas, in his earlier births, gained wealth and a beautiful form.
Indradyumna, lord of Śākala
King Daṇḍa told this account to Arajā, the daughter of Śukra. Ṛtadhvaja Ṛshi, his son Jābāli and Śakuni had searched the earth for many years for the lost maiden Nandayantī. After a thousand years, with Jābāli worn out by the weight of his jaṭās, they gave up hope and went to Śākala. Mahārāja Indradyumna, the lord of the city, went out to meet them with the arghya vessel. He honoured the ṛshis and greeted Śakuni, his brother’s son.
Indradyumna had performed a thousand yajñas, and Brahmā had blessed the maiden Vedavatī to become his chief queen. He too was searching for her: drawn by the words of the siddhas, he had cut through a tree, huge as a mountain, that was falling from the sky with her, but he did not know where she had fallen. In three chariots they searched the four quarters of the earth. At the Badarī āśrama they found a young tapasvī in severe tapas, Suratha, the son of Sudeva, and Indradyumna knew him as his brother’s son. All of them went on to the Sapta-Godāvarī. There, with Gālava Muni as ṛtvij, four weddings took place, and Indradyumna took the hand of Vedavatī.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 39
Sudharma of Śākala and the preta Somaśarmā
On his yātrā Prahlāda came to the Irāvatī and worshipped Parameśvara. Pulastya Maharshi then said that formerly, in Śākala, Purūravas obtained wealth and beauty that are hard to gain. Nārada Maharshi asked how, and Pulastya answered that the account of Purūravas removes pāpa (sin). It happened at the beginning of the Tretā yuga.
Sudharma, a merchant of Śākala, was wealthy, virtuous, learned in many śāstras and a great enjoyer. On the way to Surāshṭra robbers took everything he had in a desert. Under a lone śamī tree he met a preta leader. In his past life this preta had been Somaśarmā, a brāhmaṇa of Śākala, son of Bahulā Devī. He was a great miser. Once, on the Dvādaśī parva of Bhādrapada, the people of the city went to bathe at the confluence of the Irāvatī and the Naḍvalā. Somaśarmā went with his neighbour, the Vishṇu-bhakta Somaśrava, and fasted on Ekādaśī. He gave a worthy brāhmaṇa a water pot covered with cloth, an umbrella, sandals and a pot of curd-rice. It was the only dāna (gift) of his seventy years. Now the two pots came to him every day at midday, the umbrella had become the shade of the śamī tree, and the sandals had become the pretas who carried him.
At his word Sudharma offered piṇḍa at Gayāśira, and all the pretas went to Brahmaloka. Sudharma kept the Śravaṇa Dvādaśī vrata (Bhādrapada śukla dvādaśī joined with Budha and Śravaṇa nakshatra) through many births. Later he was born a brāhmaṇa of Śākala, master of all śāstras but ugly in form, and his beautiful wife scorned him. On the bank of the Irāvatī he worshipped Vishṇu Deva, and with the Nakshatra Purusha vrata he gained a beautiful form as a vara. By the grace of Bhagavān Vishṇu he became like Manmatha, and after death he was born as Purūravas.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 53
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 39, 53