Aśarīravāṇī
Aśarīravāṇī · a-śarīra-vāṇī, “the voice without a body”
Grammar: feminine noun; a compound of a-śarīra (without a body) and vāṇī (voice, speech): “the voice without a body”.
Meaning: a voice heard from the sky, with no speaker seen. The Vāmana Purāṇa also calls it nabhovāṇī, “the voice from the sky”.
In the scriptures: Pulastya Maharshi tells Nārada of the Maruts of the Svāyambhuva manvantara. Savana, son of Priyavrata, died without a son. His wife Sudevā, stricken with grief, would not let his body be burned; she held it and cried, “Nātha! Nātha!” Then a bodiless voice spoke from the sky: “O Kalyāṇī! Do not weep. If your devotion to your husband is true, fall into the fire with your husband.”
Sudevā turned towards the voice and said, “I am not weeping for myself. I grieve because my husband is without a son.” The voice from the sky spoke again: “O Viśālākshī! 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.”
At once she placed her husband’s body on the pyre, sat on it meditating on him, and was burned. Within a muhūrta the king rose up with his wife and flew into the sky. The account goes on: his seed fell to the earth into a lotus, the wives of the seven ṛshis drank it, and they bore seven sons, whom Brahmā named the Maruts, the first Maruts of the Svāyambhuva manvantara (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 46).
Related terms: Nabhovāṇī · Vāṇī · Pativratā · Marut
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 46