16 - The    Anecdote of a chasle Lady

Vasishtha said:

1. On hearing the words of Dharmangada, Rukmangada became delighted and said: it is true, O son, your new mother has been obtained by me on the Mandara mountain.

2. She is the daughter of Vedashraya (support of the Vedas i.e. Brahma). Formerly, O dear son, she had been performing a terrible penance on the divine mountain Mandara, with the determination of attaining me.

3. Some fifteen days before I started from here, riding on the horse I reached the Mandara, the most excellent of the mountains, containing many metals and minerals.

4. This damsel of comely appearance was seen by me seated on the top of the mountain, propitiating Maheshvara and engaged in singing.

5. Hit by the arrows of Ananga (the God of Love), I became unconscious and fell on the ground like the deer hit by a hunter.

6. Thereafter, I had been shaken (and revived into) consciousness) by this gentle lady of charming eyes; with some importunity I have been chosen as her husband.

7. I too have taken the pledge with offering of my right hand. This lady of large eyes has been made my wife by me on the top of the mountain.

8. Descending to the ground level (at that foot of the mountain), we got up on to the horse. Hurried (travelling therefrom) we have come to you within three days.

9-11. On my way I had the pleasure of seeing mountains, different lands, lakes and rivers. O son, she is your mother. She would heighten your pleasure. Make obeisance to this lady of charming limbs as though to your own natural mother. On hearing the words of his father, the son, the suppressor of his enemies, bent down his head as far as the ground level and spoke these words: - O gentle lady, O dear mother, favour me. I am your son, servant and slave.

12-13. Accompanied by many kings I make obeisance to my mother. On seeing the son prostrating on the ground and thanks to the chivalry of her husband, the king, Mohini got down from the horse, raised up the son and embraced him with her hands.

14-16a. Embraced by his mother, he saluted her once again. He adorned her with nice clothes and charming ornaments. Dharmngada, the son with eyes like lotus, requested her to place her legs on his back and mount the horse. In the same manner, he made his father too mount the horse.

16b-17a. He himself walked on foot surrounded by the vassal kings. On looking at his step-mother he was delighted and had his hair standing on their ends. Praising himself in a resonant voice like the rumbling sound of the cloud he said.

17b-21a. Blessed is the son who has many mothers in the world, new, fresh and charming beloved wives of his father. If one has only one mother, one’s father is miserable. If the father is miserable what happiness can the son have in the heart? By saluting one mother the son has only the merit of bowing to one earth. By saluting many mothers, I will have greater benefit day by day.

21b-22. Saying thus he entered the city surrounded by the vassal kings. He entered the beautiful city of Vaidisha endowed with (i.e. abounding in) all prosperity. Seated on the horse alongwith Mohini the king too followed instantaneously.

23. Then he entered the excellent mansion. On being greeted and honoured by the people, the king got down from the horse and spoke these words to Mohini.

24. O charming one, go to the house of Dharmangada our son. In accordance with his attributes, he will render service to you as befitting an elderly person.

25. Neither a chaperon nor a servant can render such a willing service! On being thus ad vised by her husband, she started for the mansion of their son.

26-27. She was seen entering the mansion by Dharmngada, at the instance of her husband’s words. He thereupon left the vassal kings saying- “All of you stay here. At the behest of my father, I shall render personal service unto her. On saying this he entered the mansion an grasped the. hands of his step-mother. After walking fifteen steps, they reached the cot. He made Mohini sit there.

28-29. It was n1ade of gold with silk cloth spread over. It was soft  and firm. A soft bed-sheet was spread over it. It was bedecked in gems and jewels. Many jewelled lamps having the refulgence of the sun, were fitted on to it. Thereafter, the prince       who  had virtue as his ornament (i.e. Dharmangada) offered water for washing the feet of Mohini.

30-31. The prince considered her even elderly to Sandhyavali. His mind did not have any ignoble feelings towards Mohini. Though he was beautiful and graceful and she a charming lady with plump and stout thighs, buttocks and breasts, he considered her a lady ten thousand years old and himself a boy of three years.

32. After washing her feet, he applied (sprinkled) that water on his head. With the head bent down in humility he said: Mother, I am meritorious (with you as my mother).

33. After saying this, he dispelled her fatigue by his own efforts and by those of men and women (servants). With great joy he placed all means of pleasures at her disposal.

34-35a. At the time of the churning of the milk ocean two earrings were produced. They used to emit nectarine juice. These were acquired by Dharmamurti.¹ After conquering Danavas in the Patala (nether worlds). Vrushangada (i.e. Dharmangada) himself put these in the ears of Mohini.

1. VV. 34-46 contain reference to the history of some rare ornaments acquired by Dharmangada and gifted to Mohini. I could not trace it in other puranas.

35b-36a. A necklace of a thousand and eight auspicious white pearls each like the fruit of the embylic myrobalan was put on the bosom of the gentle lady.

36b-37. Then the prince offered her a subsidiary light necklace of gold coins of a hundred Palas inset with ten thousand diamonds to his mothers. He gave her twice eight Bangles (i.e. sixteen) studded with diamonds    for both the hands.

38-43a. They were made by men who knew their value. For each of the hands, a crore of gold coins was spent. The prince gave invaluable armlets and anklets to the beloved wife of his father as ornament. They had the refulgence of the sun. The girdle of fiery refulgence that Sharvani (Parvati) had, fell off as she was extremely terrified in the course of the fight called Tarakamaya (pertaining to the demon Taraka) while Kalanemi was ruling         over the   kingdom. It then fell into Mulapachana (original fire). Thereafter,it was picked up by the demon Maya who wielded his power of illusion over the whole world. Dharmangada had killed that Daitya on Mount Malaya although he had been surrounded by a crore of Daityas. At the instance of his father, he had killed him in the course of a terrible war that lasted for a year (on the mountain Malaya). He got the girdle that the beloved of the king of the Daityas had on her person. The king gave that to his father’s beloved great queen with his hair standing on their ends out of delight.

43b-46. Formerly, Hiranyakashipu’s queen who was an outstanding beauty in the world, had a crest jewel that had the refulgence of lightning. She immolated herself in her husband’s funeral pyre. Before dying, the extremely distressed lady had cast her crest-jewel into the sea. The sea collected the excellent jewel and presented it to Dharmangada on being delighted at his prowess. The delighted prince now gave that jewel which had the brilliance of a crore of suns to his step-mother.

47. He gave Mohini two auspicious clothes sanctified in fire and two charming bodices, a thousand crores in value.

48-49. Dharmangada then gave the gentle lady Mohini, the divine garland and the sweet-smelling divine unguent that was very rare and had been acquired from the accomplished hands of the preceptor of all the Devas by the heroic Dharmangada in the course of his conquest of all the continents. He gave her the unguent that enhanced her love.  

50. After embellishing her with great devotion, he fed her with meals consisting of dishes of six tastes and brought by his natural mother herself. 

 51. Even before this, he had addressed his natural mother and enlightened her by means of many words. There is no doubt about this that the behest of the king must be carried out by me as well as by you.

52-53a. O gentle lady, she who is the king’s beloved is a highly respectable woman for us. The wife who acts wickedly against the lady-love of the king, her husband, falls into hell and stays there till fourteen lndras reign.

53b-54. She who nurses feelings of enmity against the lady-love of her husband and tries to separate them in their love, is fried in Tamrabhrashta hell (the frying pan made of copper.) Everything that is conducive to the happiness of her husband, should be done by the wife.

55. O fair-complexioned lady, she must view her as she views her husband. She must do what is favourable and beneficent to the lady-love of her husband.

56a. Even if she (the husband’s lady-love) happens to be of a lower caste, the wife who renders service to her, goes to heaven.

56b. Afterwards she will occupy the same loving place in the mind of her husband.

57. After acceding to the wish of her husband she derives all worldly pleasures. By eschewing the feelings of malice and jealousy, she attains the region of the Lord of every one.

58. On seeing a cowife to be the most beloved of her husband, if a woman renders service to her, she will attain an eternal place in heaven.

59-60. There was a very wicked man of the Shudra caste. He had abandoned all holy rites.¹ He had a wife and also a beloved lady, a prostitute whom he kept in his house. The wife who wanted to please her husband served him as well as the prostitute. She washed the feet of both of them. She partook only of the leavings of the food of both of them.

1. VV. 59-89 give an illustration of a chaste Shudra lady who served her depraved husband and hi, keep who when he was affected by fistula left him penniless. This chaste lady borrowed money from father, gave medical treatment to him, personally nursed his wound. When he died, she immolated herself on his funeral pyre and washed off her husband’s sins by her merits; both of them went to heaven.

61. Though she was prevented from doing this by the prostitute, she continued her activities of service. She ever remained in the path of the good. She was engaged in what was beneficent for both of them; while both of them lay on the cot, she used to lie down beneath on the bare ground.

62. Thus she served her husband alongwith the prostitute for a long time, wading through the ocean of misery.

63-64. Without caring for the advice of the chaste wife the man committed many blunders in the matter of his diet etc. He drank the milk of the buffalo alongwith radish. The foolish fellow ate the winnowings (of corn) mixed with oil. As a result of this he had a terrible fistula in the anus.

65-66a. He was extremely distressed by day and night. The prostitute took everything valuable that the house contained and went over to another young man. The lustful woman gave him all the wealth.

66b-67. Now the shudra man became much ashamed. With distress evident in his face, he lamented and spoke thus to his wife: O gentle lady, save me though I had been very cruel to you and much attached to a prostitute.

68. O beautiful lady, the sinner that I am, I have never done a good thing to you. O lady of slender waist, for many years I sported about alongwith the prostitute.

69. The sinful haughty man who does not console his wife who bows down to him, attains all inauspicious things in the course of fifteen rebirths.

70. O gentle lady, since I had disrespected you, I shall attain the despicable birth in the house of a Chandala. But your mind has not been turbid despite insults.

71. On hearing these words of her husband, the wife spoke to the husband. It is the sins committed in the previous births that yield miseries. A learned man who bears them with fortitude, should be known as the most   excellent among men.

 72. I had been sinful in the previous births. Now I experienced the fruits thereof in this birth. Hence, I have neither sorrow nor misery.

73. By saying this she consoled and cautioned her husband. The fair-complexioned lady brought some money from her father and other kinsmen.

74-75. The chaste lady considered her husband a Vishnu, the resident of the milk ocean. She cleaned his anus and other private parts assiduously by day as well as by night, by means of turmeric juice and water. She scraped the germs and worms in the body of her husband, by means of her nail.

76. She fanned him with peacock feathers. O gentle lady, the fair-faced lady slept neither during the day nor at night.

77-78. Distressed by the misery of her husband, she felt that the whole universe was blazing (?). She said-If there is goddess of earth, if there are manes, if there are deities, may they make my husband free from ailments. May he be free from sins. I shall give unto Goddess Chandika blood mixed with flesh.

79. I shall offer the flesh of goats, buffaloes and even human beings for the wellbeing of my husband. With great respect I shall observe ten fasts.

80. I shall place my body on a bed of sharp-pointed thorns. I shall not take sweet things. I shall not take ghee.

81. I shall remain for days together without anointing the body externally with oil. May my husband live for a hundred years without any ailment.

82-83a. As day followed day, she blurted out like this in her agony. Within a short while, all the three humours in his system were upset. With great effort she gave her husband the three astringent medicines (black and long pepper and dry ginger).

83b-84. Once due to chilliness the man was quaking and shivering. His jaws suddenly came together and the finger of the wife was bitten off by the teeth coming together. O queen of the Lord of men, the piece of finger remained within the rigid mouth.

85. She sold off her bangle and brought a great deal of fuel. She prepared the funeral pyre. After placing her dead husband on it, she poured ghee over the pyre (fuel).

86-89. She too climbed on the funeral pyre joining her face to his face, her heart near his heart and O gentle lady, her buttocks near his buttocks. With her foot she dragged the fire. The auspicious lady of charming limbs set fire to the ailing body of the husband alongwith her body. As the fire blazed brightly, she cast off her body and went to the world of the Devas taking her husband with her after annihilating many of his sins by means of her holy rites very difficult to be performed.