English Padmapuran-13

Glorification of Chapter XIII

Durachari & Tiger

(Chapter 187, Padma Purana, Part-IX)

 The goddess said:
You told me the greatness of the twelfth chapter. Tell me the very beautiful greatness of the thirteenth chapter. (1)

 The lord said:
O Parvati, listen to the greatness - a treasure - of the thirteenth chapter, by merely hearing which you will get great joy. In the southern country there is the great river Tungabhadra. On her bank is a charming city named Harihara, where, O goddess, revered god Harihara himself dwells. By seeing him (a man) gets great happiness. In that city lived a brahmana named Hari Diksita. He was engrossed in penance and sacred study. He was learned and had mastered the Vedas. His wife was Durachari (literally 'of bad conduct') both in name and deeds. She who used abusive language, never slept with her husband. She, wandering wantonly, did not remain in her house even for a moment. At the door of the brahmana she drank liquor (filling her belly up) to her throat (i.e. too much). She repeatedly threatened her husband's relatives. Always intoxicated, she constantly dallied with her paramours. Sometime seeing the city full of citizens here and there, she herself made a rendezvous in a forest. The clever one, proud of her youth, passed a long time there only dallying with her paramours. When she was (thus) living in the city wantonly, the spring season, the friend of Cupid, set in. It was full of foliage from roots (of trees); it had brought back to life Cupid by means of the cooings of the cuckoos in the fifth note (of the Indian gamut) due to the mango tree liable to change(?). It had tossed the forest-trees with breezes coming from the Malaya (mountain) carrying the fragrance of champaka flowers and blowing very gently. It was beautified all around by sound due to hummings of the swarms of bees breaking their fast with the fragrant spirituous liquor of the blooming jasmine flowers. It was smiling with the pleasing, charming, fragrant lakes. It was manifested by lakes with hosts of swans collected (there). In it the earth was beautified with trees having dense foliage and having (under them) young ones of deer seated comfortably in their dense shade. In that spring season that lady going to meet her lover (Abhisarika), being delighted, saw, at night the moonlight, giving joy to the world. It had thin drops of nectar dropping from the ends of the beaks of the moving chakoras. It was full of springs of nectar oozing from the melting moon-stone. In it the mass of hail was clustering together in the expanding middle parts of the flowers ; the billows of the mass of water that were flashing, embraced the sky. It was a knife cutting the throats of unchaste women of the great lion of Cupid. It was clever in tearing off the mass of dense darkness. It was full of snow (or coolness) for others like the Himalaya mountain that had whitened Sati. It gave joy to the young people, due to the closing of withered lotuses. It was the witness to the piteous wailings of the female chakravakas. It had brightened the atmosphere with pure rays like a row of pearls. (2-22)

 When the moonlight became profuse and filled the ten quarters, the lustful woman became blind with passion, and she, amusing herself in the high mansion, not seeing her paramours on the way at night, and breaking the bolt of (the door of) the house, went out of the city, to the place of appointment. She, with her mind deluded by passion of love, looking for one of her lovers, did not see any (lover) in any bower or under any tree. At every step she heard the gentle words of her lover. Then she playfully went to that place where there was a destructive sound. Having heard the notes of the chakravakas, she, misunderstanding them for the words of her lover, again and again moved to all lakes. Through error (that it was) her lover, she awakened the flocks of deer asleep at the root of a tree, saying, with encouragement, 'I have come'. Taking a branchless trunk for the lord of her life she embraced it, and kissed a blooming lotus mistaking it for his face. Everywhere her exertion was futile. She did not see her lover. Swooning, she lamented in the grove with various words. 'O you of a charming fortune, O you treasure of fortune and handsomeness, O you having a face like the full moon, O you having eyes like lotuses, O dear one, O you full of virtues, O you who are a celestial tree where fulness relaxes, if, through anger, you are remaining somewhere in disguise, I propitiate you, O dear one, even by offering my dear life.' Thus through separation (from her lover) she lamented in all directions. (23-33)

 Having heard her words, a tiger, who was asleep, awoke. He growled, and angrily looked in every direction along the path. Striking the ground with his nails and roaring in the sky-cavern, he speedily raised his tail suspended from the back. The tiger jumped and went where the abhisarika was. She too, mistaking him, who was coming (to her), for her lord (i.e. paramour) went with her mind full of love to stand by him. Then blinded by the cruel sport of his nails, she gave up the idea of his being her lover on hearing his loud roar. Even though the woman was (reduced to a condition) like that, she quickly gave up her wrong notion (and said): "O tiger, for what purpose have you come here to kill me? Tell me all this for which you wish to kill me." Hearing these words of her, the tiger of violent strides, for a moment left the food (in the form) of her, laughed and said : "In the southern country there is a river named Malapaha. On her bank is a city called Muniparna. There Mahesvara Panchalinga actually dwells. In that city, I, being the son of a brahmana, lived. I acted as a priest for those not entitled to performing a sacrifice. On the bank of the river I ate (food) at a sraddha performed for one definite individual. With a desire for (obtaining) wealth, I always sold the fruit of the recital of the Veda. Through greed I condemned other mendicants with bad words. I always accepted wealth not fit to be given and that was not given. Through the desire to seize the opportunity, I deceived all people. Then after some time I became old. I had wrinkles (on my body), grey hair, and being blind, stumbled and fell. My teeth had fallen, (but) again I was absorbed in accepting gifts. Through greed of getting wealth, I, wandering on the parvan days, and with darbhas in my hands, went near a holy place. Then I, with my limbs having become loose, went to the house of a brahmana to ask for food, but in the middle (i.e. while on my way) I was bitten on my leg by a dog. Fainting I fell on the ground in a moment. Then losing my life, I went to the stock of a tiger. (34-49)

 Remembering my former sin I live in this forest. I do not eat religious sages and good men and chaste women. But I devour sinners, wicked ones, and unchaste women. Therefore, I shall really eat you, O unchaste woman." Saying so, he, cutting her limbs into pieces with his cruel nails, devoured her who had resorted to a sinful body. Yama's servants took her to Yama's city, and there by Yama's order quickly dropped her many times into the fierce yellow pools full of faeces, urine and blood for crores of kalpas; and again and again bringing her from there, they put her into Raurava hell for a period of hundreds of periods of Manu. Even after dragging her from there, they threw her, fully helpless, weeping, with her hair loose, limbs broken, into fire. Thus, having experienced the fierce torment in the hell, wholly sinful, she was again born on the earth in the stock of chandala. Then, in the chandala-house also, she growing day by day, was as before due to (the effect of) her former deeds. Then after some time she went to her house, where, goddess Jrmbhaka of Shiva, the goddess of the city, was. There she saw a pure brahmana, Vasudeva by name, constantly reciting the thirteenth chapter of the Gita. Then merely on hearing it, she was free from the body of chandala, and getting a divine body, she went to heaven. (50-61)
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SUMMARY

 After reciting the Glories of Twelfth chapter Lord Shiva then invited Parvati to enjoy hearing the glories of the thirteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita.

 Once in Hari-hara-pura, a town where the deity of Lord Shiva (Hari-hara) is worshiped, there lived a brahmana named Hari-dikshita. He was learned and led a simple austere life. His wife, however, was called by people Durachara (“Bad Behavior”) because of her low-class activities. She was addicted to intoxicants. She always spoke to her husband in abusive language and had never slept with him. Moreover, she kept the company of other men to satisfy her desires, and she had constructed a small hut in the forest to meet with lovers.

 One night she went to this hut because she wanted a lover to satisfy her. But no one was present, so she wandered in the forest hoping to find someone. Then, agitated and frustrated, she sat down and cried. Hearing her sobbing, a hungry tiger ran in her direction. She heard someone coming and thought it was someone who would satisfy her lust. Suddenly the tiger appeared, about to rip her apart. The woman said, “Why have you come here to kill me? First tell me this, and then you may kill me.” 

 The tiger laughed and told a story: “Previously I was born in a brahmana’s family. Still, I was greedy and had no control over my senses. I used to sit on the riverbanks and perform sacrifices for persons unqualified to take part in them. I also accepted food from materialistic persons, and for my sense gratification I collected more funds than necessary, and under false pretenses. I would criticize brahmanas who strictly followed regulative principles, and I would never give charity to anyone. Even when I became old and weak, I collected and hoarded funds. 

 One day some cruel brahmanas set some dogs upon me, one of which bit my leg. I fell over and quickly died. After that, I attained this body of a tiger? but I was able lo remember my former birth. Therefore in this birth I do not attack any devotees, renunciants or chaste ladies. I eat only sinful persons and unchaste women. Since you are the most unchaste and sinful woman, you will definitely become my meal.” After being devoured by the tiger, the woman was taken by the Yamadutas to the hell known as Puyoda, a lake full of stool, urine and blood. She had to stay there for ten million kalpas (one kalpa is 4,320,000,000 years). Later she was thrown into the hell known as Raurava, where she remained for one hundred manvantaras (one manvantaras equals 306,720,000 years). Finally she took birth again on earth, this time as a female candala (dog-eater). Then she continued her sinful way of life, and consequently she contracted serious diseases.

 By good fortune, however, she went to the holy place Hari-hara-pura, where she had once lived, and there she heard the great saint Vasudeva recite the thirteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita. She became attracted and wanted to hear it again and again, and by that hearing she became completely free from the reactions of her past sinful activities, attained a four-armed form, and was taken to Vaikuntha.

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 Online Sources:
1a) Padma Purana, Uttarkhandam : West Bengal Public Library Network
1b) Padma Purana, Uttarkhandam : Digital Library of India
1c) Padma Purana, Uttarkhandam : Derived from 1a,b

Hard Copy Source: (scanned "PDF"s from Online Source#1a,b)
"The Padma-Purana (English)" by Veda Vyasa, 1954 & 1956. Translated by Sri N.A. Deshpande, Indian Translation Series of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works, jointly sponsored by UNESCO & Government of India. Part VIII & IX, First Edition. 2906-2970p. Published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt.Ltd., Bungalow Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi-1110007. Printed by Jainendra Prakash Jain at Jainendra Press, A-45 Naraina Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi-110028.

Online References:
संस्कृत श्लोक - Sanskrit Padmapuran-13

বাংলা অনুবাদ - Bengali Padmapuran-13
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Typed, OCR-ed, edited and uploaded by rk

Acknowledges Keshav Srinivasan for citing the Online Sources#1a,b of Padma Purana.

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