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Padma Puranaपद्मपुराण · Jain Ramayana
हिन्दी

Parva 51

Rama Receives the Daughters of King Gandharva

Hanuman quenches a forest fire around two meditating monks, saving King Gandharva's three daughters, who are then married to Rama.

Part of Sita's Abduction and Hanuman's Mission

Summary

Passing over the island of Dadhimukha, Hanuman sees two Charana munis standing in meditation as a forest fire rages around them and quenches it with a downpour of ocean water. Three maidens practising a vidya nearby, the daughters of King Gandharva of Dadhimukha, explain that a sage foretold they would marry the slayer of Sahasagati and that the rejected suitor Angaraka had set the fire. Learning from Hanuman that Rama is that slayer, Gandharva brings his daughters to Kishkindhapura and gives them to Rama, who still finds the world empty without Sita.

What happens

5 points

  1. On his way Hanuman passes the island of Dadhimukha, whose city of Dadhimukha has mansions white as curd and lotus-filled stepwells; in a terrible forest far from the city two Charana munis (sky-faring monks) stand in kayotsarga (motionless meditation) for eight days, while four kos away three lovely maidens in white perform austerities. A forest fire breaks out, and as the two munis stand unmoved like trees, equal-minded to life and death, friend and foe, gold and stone, Hanuman's heart trembles to see them burning.

  2. Moved by vatsalya (loving care for fellow believers) and eager to serve the monks, Hanuman draws water from the ocean and pours down a torrential rain that floods the earth and quenches the fire, as forgiveness quenches anger, then worships the munis. The fire had threatened the three maidens too, and with the calamity removed all three perfect their vidya, bow to the munis and praise Hanuman's devotion to the Jina.

  3. The eldest explains that they are Chandrarekha, Vidyutprabha and Tarangamala, daughters of King Gandharva of Dadhimukha, sought by every prince of Vijayardha; a muni versed in the eightfold science of omens told their father that whoever slew Sahasagati in battle would be their husband, and though Sahasagati lived on the northern row of Vijayardha and seemed invincible, the whole family trusted the muni's word. The wicked Angaraka, who kept pressing for their hands and was refused, became their enemy.

  4. Longing to see Sahasagati's slayer, the sisters came to this forest to master the Manonugamini vidya, which normally takes a little over six years but, because they did not flinch before the calamity, was won in just twelve days; that day, the munis' eighth, Angaraka saw them and set the forest ablaze in anger. Without Hanuman, they say, they would have burned and the munis would have died in meditation, and Hanuman, replying that faith brings success, tells them of Rama's coming to Kishkindhapura and his own mission to Lanka.

  5. Hearing that the fire was quenched and the munis' ordeal ended, King Gandharva comes to Hanuman, learns that Rama, the slayer of Sahasagati, is at Kishkindhapura, and brings his daughters there to marry them to Rama with great splendour. Yet Rama, wise and devoted, sees all ten directions empty and even a city like a dense forest without Sita, and the chapter teaches that beings reap joy and sorrow from past karma and that liberation comes only through the Jina's path.