Puranas – Shilavati and Anasuya – {Ep.258}

Today’s episode is about a devoted wife, Shilavati, who stopped the entire world to protect her husband from Rishi Mandavya’s terrible curse. Can Anasuya save the world?

Namaskar and welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

The story today is from the Mahabharata. But it’s not from the main storyline, so you need not have heard any of the previous episodes. Like most of the ton this show, today’s episode stands alone.

We’ll start with a bunch of thieves and a rishi. All of them were praying. But in the case of the thieves, I mean preying in the sense that they were hurting or deceiving a bunch of innocent villagers.

While the Rishi, Mandavya, was praying as in making a solemn address to the Gods. You might wonder what Mandavya wanted from the gods. Let’s just say he was praying for the welfare of the village. It’s a well known fact that Rishis spent all the time that they could in praying. And they would do this in the extreme cold of the Himalayas or the extreme heat of anywhere else in the country, and they would do it for decades at a time without eating or drinking, and without speaking a single word.

So there we were in this ancient Indian village with the thieves preying on innocent villagers, while Mandavya stood outside his hut, praying for the same innocent villagers. The thieves were being chased in a classic OJ-Simpson-style low speed chase. Except this was done on unpaved roads and on bullock carts and horses instead of cars.

The leader of the thieves, or the Chief Thief, as he called himself, could see the chase was not going in their favor. He ordered his henchmen to hop out of the cart at the next turn and make a dash for the huts in the distance. Maybe they could escape there. It was not a bad plan considering the Chief Thief had to think on his feet. But it wasn’t a very good plan either.

They made it out of the cart and rushed to the very first hut. Quickly they dumped the loot into the empty hut and were about to rush out, when the police arrived.

The Police Chief Inspector picked up his megaphone and screamed into it. “We have you surrounded. Throw down your swords, raise your hands and come outside. Or come outside and then throw down your swords and raise your hands. There are four other ways to do it. Just remember the three key elements here. One, swords to be thrown down, two hands to be raised, and three everyone to come outside”

The thieves threw down their swords, came outside with their hands up, and were promptly arrested. 

At this point the story would have simply ended here, if it hadn’t been for the fact that one of the police officers thought they might be missing something.

Why had the thieves made for this particular hut? He wondered. There was another hut at about the same distance from where the thieves had abandoned their bullock cart. And that other hut didn’t have a Rishi standing outside it. Could the Rishi be mixed up in this racket. Could he be Don Kolayan, the elusive and fearsome boss of the Ancient Indian Mafia?

He walked up to Mandavya who was standing on one leg, and had remained so throughout all these events. “Excuse me, Mr. Rishi, sir, can I see some identification here?”

Mandavya said nothing. He had taken a vow of silence and he intended to stick to it.

The cop tried another, sterner tactic. “We’ve got you now finally, Don Kolayan! Your days of organized crime are over! You’re going to be hung to death along with all your thieving friends.”

Mandavya still said nothing.

The cop sighed and began reading Mandavya his rights. “You have the right to remain silent,” he began. But he needn’t have bothered. If there’s anyone who understood that it was Mandavya.

Mandavya still said nothing, even when they took him away, when they locked him up, and when they put him through a trial. He was found mentally competent to stand trial, so there was no question of an insanity defense. Justice was swift. A lot swifter than one might expect. Mandavya, The Chief Thief and all the henchmen were put to death. No one heard the Chief Thief’s confession that he was the top boss, not Mandavya. 

The judges did nothing really? They had strict judgment quotas, and a certain number of cases to get to before they could earn a healthy Diwali bonus.

All the sentenced folks were marched to the edge of town. There, the executioners impaled all of them on spears. The thieves didn’t survive of course. But Mandavya did! He was a Rishi and over the years he had acquired superpowers, as well as goodwill from the Gods. And yet, what kind of an existence was this? Where he was impaled on the spear, unable to free himself. And he didn’t die, but he definitely felt pain. Things were about to get worse for this unfortunate Rishi.

Let’s cut the scene over back to a nearby village. There was a couple who lived there. The husband, Kaushika, had several ailments, including leprosy and was unable to walk too much. His devoted wife, Shilavati, took care of him through all of his troubles.

Kaushika was an ungrateful wretch. Because despite Shilavati’s love and care, his heart was only reserved for his mistress. Kaushika often went to visit this other lady on the other side of the village.

The mistress would only meet Kaushika if he brought her expensive gifts. And that still didn’t knock any sense into Kaushika. He spent all his savings on the mistress, or rather Shilavati’s savings, since she was the breadwinner. When he ran out of money, the mistress promptly turned Kaushika out. He had no choice but to go back to Shilavati, who out of the kindness of her heart took him in again.

A few days passed. And I’ll explain why I called Kaushika an ungrateful wretch. He told Shilavati that he couldn’t really walk anymore, and could she please carry him to his mistress’s house that night? And to give him all her earnings so that he could buy her a new handbag. Unfortunately for Shilavati the two hers in the previous sentence referred to two different people. Kaushika wanted to take Shilavati’s money and buy his mistress the handbag. What was worse, Shilavati agreed.

Shilavati found a large enough basket that her husband could sit in. Then she carried it on her head. She had to endure his grumblings about how the basket lacked a reading light and a cup holder. Shilavati resisted the urge to do what 99.99% of women in her situation might have done, which would be hurl the basket, with contents, into the nearest pile of fertilizer. But Shilavati was driven by what she considered a strong sense of duty.

“Oooh there was an execution there today! Go closer,” Kaushika called out. He was right. Despite the low evening light, he had spotted the place where the thieves and Mandavya were impaled.

Shilavati went closer. In his comfortable perch, Kaushika swung a leg and kicked out at the bodies. He was an absolutely terrible human being.

Well, the very first corpse that Kaushika kicked at was not a corpse at all. It was Mandavya. The Rishi had remained silent through everything – a heist, a chase, a false accusation, imprisonment, sentencing, and impalement. But now, Kaushika’s kick was the straw that broke Mandavya’s back. Not literally, but it caused the Rishi to erupt in anger. Not only because of the physical discomfort that Kaushika greatly increased, but because the Rishi had immediately gleaned what a terrible person Kaushika was, and how unfair he was being to Shilavati.

“I curse you, Kaushika,” Mandavya’s voice thundered. “You will not live to see tomorrow’s sunrise,”

Shilavati intervened “No. Stop! You can’t do that to him!”

She was still suffering from her delusion of being duty bound to that pile of garbage.

But her pleas were completely ignored by Mandavya who had now taken up a new vow of silence. This time he was determined nothing would break his silence.

Shilavati knew a lost cause when she saw one. So she gave up on getting Mandavya to reverse his curse. But she did not give up on saving her husband.

She pondered over the problem all the way back home. She almost ignored his protests that if this were his last night on earth, he totally wanted to spend it with his mistress and not with his wife.

Shilavati concentrated hard. So, at sunrise tomorrow her husband would die, would he? Well what if there were no sunrise tomorrow? And she wasn’t just contemplating a very cloudy day enough to obscure the sun. That might not be enough since she realized behind all those clouds the sun would still rise. She meant total darkness. The Sun itself would not appear or rise over the horizon at all. There was only one way to stop the sunrise. She would pray to the Sun.

She was just an ordinary woman and not a board-certified Rishi, she knew that. But she also knew that the more good deeds someone had done in their lives, the more potent their prayers became. She had done nothing but good deeds all her life, and tolerated all kinds of ill-treatment with a smile.

Now it was going to come in handy. And it did. Surya, the Sun God, responded immediately to her prayer. He was careful not to appear before her. Because if he did, that would be the appearance of the Sun, wouldn’t it? Instead he spoke to her in her mind directly. Sort of like a telepathic connection. And he promised not to rise.

Now anyone who has taken elementary science will point out that it’s the Earth that spins to face the Sun, so this wouldn’t work. But consider for a moment that while the Earth is doing all that spinning, the Sun also began going around the earth in just such a way that it was always night time in Shilavati’s location. Naturally it caused utter chaos in the rest of the solar system. But Shilavati got her wish of an eternal night.

For a short while. People and Gods alike quickly noticed how it remained dark. It began to get awfully cold. Crops began to wither and die, schools were indefinitely postponed. Demand for candles skyrocketed. And no one wanted to buy sunglasses anymore. 

People were praying to the Gods who were themselves unsure what to do. They went to my dad, Brahma for advice. Since Brahma had created the Universe, Brahma would know of a way to fix it. But Brahma knew that the only person who could undo this was Shilavati.

Many of the Devas went to Shilavati and tried to get her to change her mind, but she flat out refused to consider it. Her priority was her husband. It didn’t help that the Devas had tried to strong arm her and expressed no empathy at all.

Brahma had one suggestion: Anasuya. She is a wise woman, one of the wisest. She had married Atri, one of the Saptarishi, but she had gained much of her wisdom and knowledge independently of Atri.

Anasuya was more than willing to help. She approached Shilavati and the first thing she did was to hug the poor woman and express how sorry she was that Shilavati had been put in this situation. Mandavya’s curse had forced Shilavati to choose between the destruction of her husband, and the destruction of the world, which included her husband.

Right away, Shilavati felt like listening to this wise lady. Not like the gruff order from the Devas to order Surya back to work.

It took several hours of discussion, I won’t call it negotiation. Though at the end of it, Shilavati relented and agreed to undo her request to Surya. In return, Anasuya promised to try and find a way to stop Kaushika from being killed. And to even find a cure for his leprosy. 

While Shilavati prayed to the Sun again and undid her request, Anasuya prayed to other gods to keep her side of the bargain. She prayed to Yama who reluctantly agreed to not harvest Kaushika’s life. Yama had genuinely been looking forward to ridding the earth of the terrible human being that Kaushika was. But hey, just like her new BFF, Anasuya too had earned lots and lots of goodwill and respect through a lifetime of good deeds. So her prayers were quite powerful as well.

All of the Devas were greatly impressed with Anasuya, though to her it seemed like common sense and tact. They granted her a wish. Anasuya had something in mind. She wanted the holy trinity – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva to take birth as her children. The Devas readily agreed. It’s not like they had to do anything. That is a different story and it’s something we’ll cover another time.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

We met Anasuya and Atri briefly in the Ramayana back in Episode 64 – Sita’s first kidnapping.

Today’s story is found in the Markandeya Purana, as well as in the Mahabharata.

The names vary though the stories are similar. Shilavati is also called Sumati, and Kaushika is Ugrashravas sometimes.

You may be wondering what happened to Mandavya. Well the King of the land realized his mistake and had Mandavya released and gave him proper medical care. Mandavya took issue with the kind of suffering he had to endure. He took it up with Dharma, the God of Justice. Dharma claimed that Mandavya had suffered all this because at the age of 12 he had been evil to birds. That did not sit well with Mandavya who claimed that as a minor he had not been old enough to understand the consequences of his actions. So Mandavya cursed the God of Justice instead. Dharma was reborn as Vidhur in the Mahabharata.

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’re almost at the end of the Ramayana. But before we get to the final Ram vs Ravana showdown, one more hurdle remains. Ahiravana – the lord of the Underworld who is keen on abducting Ram and Laxman, through any means necessary.

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

Kaira, thank you for the diligent comments on the episodes. I love your enthusiasm, and yes I can certainly do a story on Gandhi. He did feature recently in the Aruna Asaf Ali episode if you want to check that one out.

Madhu – glad you liked that story, and I will cover Vikram and Betaal soon.

Hiranmayee, and Jay – glad you liked the last episode. Jay – spread the word to your colleagues about the podcast, maybe they will end up laughing too

Abhinav – I’ll continue Chandrakanta as well in the next few weeks.

Shalu – I’m glad you liked the last story. Thank you as always for your support, and meaningful feedback.

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Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!