Ahalya
Encyclopedia
In Hinduism
, Ahalya (Sanskrit
: अहल्या, IAST
Ahalyā, Tamil
: Akalikai, Thai
: อหลยา, Malay
: Dewi Indera), also known as Ahilya, is the wife of the sage Gautama
, primarily known for her sexual encounter with the god-king Indra
, the resultant curse by her husband and her subsequent liberation by Rama
– an avatar
of the god Vishnu
. Due to the unflinching acceptance of the curse and loyalty to her husband, Ahalya is extolled as the first of the panchakanya ("five virgins") – archetypal chaste women – the recital of whose names is believed to dispel sin. At the same time, patriarchal myth-making condemns her as a fallen woman.
Created by the god Brahma
as the most beautiful woman in the universe, Ahalya was married to the much older Gautama. In the earliest narrative, when Indra comes disguised as Gautama, Ahalya sees through his disguise but still takes the conscious decision to accept his sexual offer. Later sources however, often absolve her of all guilt, describing how she falls prey to his trickery, or is raped. In all narratives, Ahalya as well as her lover Indra, are cursed by Gautama. While the curse varies from text to text, almost all versions describe Rama as the eventual cause of her liberation. Although early texts describe how Ahalya must atone by undergoing severe penance while remaining invisible to the world and is purified by offering Rama hospitality, in the popular retelling developed over time, Ahalya is cursed to become a stone and regains her human form after she is brushed by Rama's foot.
While the Brahmana
s (9th to 6th centuries BCE) are the earliest scriptures to hint at Ahalya's relationship with Indra, the 5th to 4th century BCE Hindu epic Ramayana
– whose hero is Rama – is the first to tell the story in detail. Mediaeval story-tellers often focus on Ahalya's deliverance by Rama, which is seen as proof of the saving grace of God. While ancient stories are Rama-centred, modern writers tell the story from Ahalya's perspective. Her story has been retold numerous times in the scriptures and lives on in modern age poetry and short stories as well as is presented in dance and drama.
explains the meaning of the Sanskrit word "Ahalya" as "one without the reprehension of ugliness", or "one with an impeccable beauty"; while telling Indra how he created Ahalya by taking the special beauty of all creation and expressing it in every part of her body. Some Sanskrit dictionaries translate Ahalya as "unploughed", however, some recent authors – arguing that sexual intercourse is often likened to the ploughing of a field – interpret the word to mean "one who is not ploughed", i.e. a virgin; or "one who should not be ploughed", i.e. a motherly figure and in the context of the character Ahalya, someone beyond Indra's reach. As per the literal meaning of her name "unploughed", Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore
(1861–1941) literally Ahalya as a symbol of stone-like, infertile land that was made cultivable by Rama. Delhi University professor Jhaveri concurs with Tagore interpreting Ahalya as unploughed land, on the basis of the tribal Bhil
Ramayana.
Ahalya's sexual encounter with Indra as well as the resultant curse and redemption form the central narrative of Ahalya's story in all scriptural texts describing her life. The Brahmanas (9th to 6th centuries BCE) are the oldest scriptures to reveal the relationship between Ahalya and Indra but the Bala Kanda book of the Ramayana – an 5th to 4th century BCE epic which narrates Rama's life – is the first to explicitly mention her extra-marital affair. While the Bala Kanda mentions Ahalya's conscious decision to have sex, the Uttar Kanda of the Ramayana (regarded as a later addition to the epic), along with the Puranas
(compiled between 4th to 16th century CE), absolve her of all guilt. They alternately state that the jealous Indra tricks Ahalya into having sex by disguising himself as Gautama or that he rapes her.
Despite the fact that Ahalya is cursed to endure several penances to expiate her sin in the Bala Kanda, the sage Vishwamitra – Rama's guru – still describes her as a goddess-like and illustrious woman, repeatedly calling her mahabhaga (IAST mahābhāgā, commonly split as "mahā + bhāgā", translated as "most illustrious and highly distinguished"). This interpretation contrasts with that of Rambhadracharya, for whom the word mahabhaga in the context of Ahalya's story means "extremely unfortunate" (split as "mahā + abhāgā"). When Rama first meets her, the Bala Kanda describes Ahalya as glowing due to the intensity of her ascetic devotion, but hidden from the world like the sun obscured by dark clouds, the light of a full moon hidden by mist or a blazing flame masked by smoke. Ahalya is purified by offering Rama hospitality.
Later sources portray her as a condemned woman rescued by God, although there exists difference of opinion on whether the Balakanda narrative of Ahalya explicitly refers to the divinity of Rama. In the popular retelling of the legend in later works as well as in stage enactments and film and television productions, Ahalya is turned to stone by a curse and only returns to her human form after she is brushed by Rama's foot. It has been argued that this later version of the tale is result of a "male backlash" and patriarchal myth-making that condemns her as a non-entity devoid of emotions, self-respect and societal status. Tulsidas
's 16th century Ramacharitamanasa and other Bhakti era
poets use the episode as an archetypal example to demonstrate God's saving grace. The main theme of such narratives is her deliverance by Rama, which is seen as proof of his compassion.
While historic narratives are Rama-centric, contemporary writers make Ahalya the focus of the story. Her tale has also gained "widespread attention" from modern writers who revisit the classic narrative from various perspectives (most commonly through the short story genre or through poetry) and try to imagine Ahalya's life after the curse and redemption, a denouement which remains undisclosed in the ancient scriptures. Alternatively, such writers try to imagine Ahalya's tale occurring in the modern era, rather than in its traditional ancient setting. While Ahalya is a minor character in all ancient sources, "stigmatized and despised by those around her" for violating gender norms, the kind of attention that she has received from modern South Indian writers suggests that she is no longer an insignificant figure.
A similar tale of divine seduction appears in Greek mythology
, where the god-king Zeus
-a god akin to Indra- seduces Alcmene
in the form of her husband resulting in the birth of the legendary hero Heracles
. Like Ahalya, Alceme falls victim to Zeus's trickery in some versions or knows his true identity and still goes ahead with the intercourse in others. The major distinction in the tales is that the raison-d'etre of Alceme's seduction is the justification of Heracles's divine parentage and thus Alceme is never condemned as an adulteress or punished, in contrast Ahalya's adventure is purely erotic, not resulting to procreation and thus Ahalya faces the ire of the scriptures.
as well as the Vishnudharmottara Purana
also records her creation by Brahma. The Mahari temple dancer tradition of Orissa
which celebrates the panchakanya tells that Brahma created Ahalya - as the most beautiful human woman - out of water to break the pride of Urvashi, the foremost of the celestial nymphs
. By contrast, the Bhagavata Purana
and Harivamsa
both regard Ahalya as a princess of the Puru dynasty
, the daughter of King Mudgala and brother of King Divodasa.
The Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana – considered a later addition to the epic relates one version of the story of Ahalya's creation and marriage. In this text, Brahma crafts the most beautiful woman in the world and then places her in the care of the sage Gautama until she reaches puberty. When that time arrives, the sage returns Ahalya to Brahma, who, impressed by the sage's sexual restraint, bestows her upon him. Meanwhile, Indra, the god-king of heaven, who believes that the best examples of women are meant for him, resents Ahalya's marriage to the forest-dwelling ascetic.
The Brahma Purana gives a similar account of Ahalya's birth and initial custody with Gautama. It further tells the question of Ahalya's marriage was determined through an open contest. Brahma declares that the first being to go around the three worlds (heaven
, earth
, and the underworld
) would win Ahalya. Indra uses his magical powers to complete the challenge, finally reaching Brahma to take the hand of Ahalya. However, the divine sage Narada
mentions to Brahma that Gautama went around the three worlds before Indra, explaining that as part of his daily puja (ritual offering), Gautama went around the wish-bearing cow Surabhi
at his hermitage. One day, as the sage carried out his puja, the cow gave birth to a calf, which according to the Vedas, made the cow equal to three worlds, hence Ahalya must be given to Gautama and not to Indra. Brahma agrees and Ahalya marries Gautama, leaving Indra envious and infuriated. A similar shorter version of Ahalya's early life also appears in the Padma Purana
.
In all versions of the tale, after her marriage with Gautama, Ahalya settles into his ashram
(hermitage), which generally becomes the site of her epic curse. The Ramayana records that Gautama's ashram is located in a forest (Mithila-upavana) near Mithila
, where the couple practise ascetics together for several years. In other scriptures, the ashram is usually near the river bank. The Brahma Purana says that it is near river Godavari, while Skanda Purana
places it near river Narmada
. The Padma Purana and Brahma Vaivarta Purana
describe the ashram to be near the holy city of Pushkar
.
tradition, the Shatapatha Brahmana
and the Taittiriya Brahmana from the Yajurveda
tradition, and two Shrautasutras (Latyayana and Drahyayana) invoke Indra, the "lover of Ahalya ... O Kaushika, Brahman (Brahmin), who calls himself Gautama". The Samaveda tradition identifies her as Maitreyi, who the commentator Sayana
explains is "the daughter of the god Mitra
".
In the subrahmanya formula, Ahalya does not have a husband. In the Sadvimsha Brahmana, it is not explicitly stated that Ahalya has a husband, although Kaushika is present in the story and his relationship to her can be inferred through Indra's adoption of the Brahmin's form to "visit" Ahalya. The scholar Söhnen-Thieme feels that the Kaushika of the Sadvismha Brahmana is the same individual described as cursing Indra in the Mahabharata
(discussed below). The Shatapatha Brahmanas commentator, Kumarila Bhatta
, reasons that the Ahalya-Indra myth is an allegory for the Sun – symbolized by Indra – taking away the shade of night, personified as Ahalya.
The American scholar Edward Washburn Hopkins
interpreted the Ahalya of the subrahmanya formula not as a woman, but as "yet unploughed land", which Indra makes fertile.
The Bala Kanda of the Ramayana is the earliest text to describe the encounter between Ahalya and Indra in detail. Enamoured by Ahalya's beauty and learning of her husband's absence, Indra comes to the ashram disguised as Gautama and requests sexual intercourse with Ahalya, praising her as a shapely and slim-waisted woman. She sees through his disguise, but consents due to "curiosity". According to another interpretation, Ahalya's pride in her beauty compels her to make this decision. Having satiated his sexual lust, Ahalya requests Indra–her "lover" and "best of gods"–to flee and protect both of them from Gautama's wrath. However, Gautama spots Indra, who is still in disguise, and curses him to lose his testicles. Gautama then curses Ahalya to remain invisible to all beings for thousands of years, to fast by subsisting only on air, to suffer and sleep in ashes, and to be tormented by guilt. Nevertheless, he assures her that her sin will be expiated once she extends her hospitality to Rama, who will then visit the ashram. Thereafter, Gautama abandons the ashram and goes to the Himalayas
to do penance.
The Bala Kanda mentions that Ayodhyan princes Rama and his brother Lakshmana
and their guru Vishwamitra pass Gautama's desolate ashram in the forest while travelling to King Janaka's court in Mithila. As they near the ashram, Vishwamitra recounts the tale of Ahalya's curse and instructs Rama to save Ahalya. Following Vishwamitra, the princes enter the ashram to see a glowing Ahalya, who up till then has been hidden from the universe. At the behest of Vishwamitra, Rama considers Ahalya guiltless and pure. He and Lakshamana touch her feet in salutation, an act that restores her status in society. She greets them warmly, remembering Gautama's words that Rama would be her redemption. She extends her warmest hospitality, making a "welcome offering" of forest fruits and washing their feet as per the rites of that era. Then, the gods and other celestial beings shower Rama and Ahalya with flowers and bow to Ahalya, who was now purified through the penance she had practised in solitude. Gautama returns to his ashram and accepts her back.
By contrast, the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana recasts the tale as Indra's rape of Ahalya. Indra is cursed to suffer imprisonment, loss of his peace of mind and to bear half the sin of every rape ever committed, while the innocent Ahalya is cursed to lose her unique quality of being the most beautiful woman, as this was the cause of Indra's seduction. Ahalya claims her innocence (this part is not found in all manuscripts), but Gautama agrees to accept her back only when she is sanctified by offering Rama hospitality.
Mahabharata
In the Mahabharata, there are three allusions to the Ahalya episode; however, the Ramopakhyana– the condensed narrative of the Ramayana in the Mahabharata–does not mention Ahalya's violation and her redemption by Rama. In one instance, Indra is said to be have been cursed to have a golden beard as he seduces Ahalya, while a curse by Kaushika is described as the reason for his castration. In another instance, where details of the sexual adventure are absent, an agitated Gautama orders his son Chirakari to behead his "polluted" mother and leaves the ashram. However, Chirakari does not follow the order at once and, as is his habit, thinks it over for a long time, before arriving at the conclusion that Ahalya is innocent. Gautama returns and repents his hasty decision, realising that Indra is the guilty party. In another allusion, Nahusha
reminds Indra's preceptor Brihaspati
how Indra "violated" the "renowned" rishi-patni (wife of a sage) Ahalya. Professor Söhnen-Thieme considers the words "violated" and "renowned" indicate that Ahalya is not considered an adulteress here.
The Padma Purana tells that after Gautama leaves for his ritual bath, Indra masquerades as Gautama and asks Ahalya to satisfy him. Ahalya, engrossed in worshipping the gods, rejects him and says it would be inappropriate to have sex at the cost of neglecting the gods. Her fake husband reminds her that her first duty is serve him. Finally Ahalya gives in, but Gautama learns of Indra's deception through his supernatural powers and returns to the ashram. As Indra attempts to flee in the form of a cat, Gautama curses him to lose his manhood and carry his shame in the form of a thousand vulvae on his body for all to see. Then Gautama turns to Ahalya, who declares herself blameless, but Gautama considers her impure and curses her to be reduced to a mere skeleton of skin and bones. He decrees that she will regain her beautiful form when Rama comes with the sage Vashishtha and will laugh at her seeing her so afflicted – dried out, without a body and lying on the path. When Rama comes, he learns of Ahalya's tale and proclaims her innocence and Indra's guilt, whereupon Ahalya returns to her heavenly abode, where she is recorded as dwelling with Gautama.
According to the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Indra becomes infatuated with Ahalya's beauty when he sees her come to bathe in the Svarnadi (heavenly river), near Pushkar. Assuming Gautama's form, Indra has sex with her, until they sink to the river bed in exhaustion. Gautama interrupts them and curses Indra to bear a thousand vulvae, which will turn to eyes when he worships the sun-god. Ahalya, though innocent, is turned to stone for sixty thousand years and destined only to be redeemed by Rama's touch. Ahalya accepts the verdict without debate. Another version in the same Purana focuses more on the issue of how the chaste Ahalya was seduced by Indra. In this version, Indra approaches Ahalya on the banks of the Mandakini
river – near Pushkar – in his own form to ask for a sexual favour, which is flatly refused by Ahalya. Then, Indra poses as Gautama and returns to fulfill his objective. Gautama catches Indra fleeing as a cat and curses him with castration. Ahalya's plea of innocence is acknowledged by Gautama, who declares that her mind is pure and she has kept the vow of chastity and fidelity, but the presence of another man's seed in her body has defiled it. Gautama orders her to go to the forest and become a stone until rescued by the touch of Rama's feet.
The Skanda Purana tells that the divine sage Narada praises Ahalya's beauty in front of Indra, who goes to her disguised as Gautama, and commands her to have sex with him or face his wrath. When Indra embraces and kisses her and "so forth" (probably indicating the sexual act), she smells his celestial fragrance and realizes her folly. She threatens him with a curse and compels him to reveal his true form. When Gautama arrives home, she tells the whole tale truthfully and in return is cursed by Gautama to become a stone, as she acted as a rolling stone unable to recognize the difference between Indra's and Gautama's gestures and movements. The touch of Rama's feet is prophesied to be her saviour. The terrified Indra escapes as a cat and is cursed to be castrated.
Most of the fifth chapter of the Bala Kanda Book of the Adhyatma Ramayana
(embedded in the Brahmanda Purana
) is dedicated to the Ahalya episode. Like most other versions of the story, when Indra seduces the unsuspecting Ahalya, he is cursed to bear a thousand eye-shaped holes, while Ahalya is turned into stone and advised to engross herself in meditation and penance to Rama, the Supreme Lord. When Rama touches the stone with his foot on Vishwamitra's advice, Ahalya rises as a beautiful maiden and sings a long panegyric
dedicated to Rama. Ahalya describes his iconographic form and exalts Rama as an incarnation of Vishnu and source of the universe to whom many divinities pay their respects. After worshipping him, she returns to Gautama. At the end of the narrative Ahalya's hymn is prescribed as an ideal benediction for a devotee to gain Rama's favour.
Besides these scriptural examples, the story also appears in the Matsya Purana
, the Ganesha Purana
, the Harivamsa (a supplement of the Mahabharata) and the Markandeya Purana
, of which the last uses the tale to denigrate Indra and glorify Vishnu.
of Kalidasa
notes that the wife of Gautama (unnamed here) momentarily became the wife of Indra. Without explicitly mentioning the curse, it relates further that she regains her beautiful form again and casts away her stony appearance, due to the grace of the dust on Rama's feet that removes her sins.
The Kathasaritsagara
tells that Indra arrives undisguised and requests sexual intercourse. As in the earliest telling of the encounter in the Bala Khanda, Ahalya makes a conscious decision to accept the offer. After the act, when Gautama arrives Indra tries to flee as a cat and is cursed to bear the marks of a thousand vulvae. When asked by Gautama about her visitor, Ahalya wittily answers that it was a majjara a word meaning either "cat" or when split as ma-jara, "my lover". Gautama laughs and curses her to be turned into stone, but decrees that she will be released by Rama since she at least spoke the truth.
The well-known treatise on sexual behaviour, the Kamasutra also mentions how lust destroys men, giving the example of Ahalya and Indra as well as Sita and Ravana. However, it also urges men to seduce women by telling the romantic tales of Ahalya, Bhasa
's Avimaraka and Shakuntala
.
adaptation of the Ramayana – the Ramavataram – portrays Ahalya as deceived by Indra's Gautama disguise and agrees to have sex with him as she has craved affection from her ascetic husband for a long time. However, after some time she realizes that her lover is an imposter, but continues to enjoy the dalliance. As in other versions of the tale, Ahalya is turned to stone, only to be liberated by Rama, and Indra runs away as a cat but is cursed to bear the mark of a thousand vulvae. In this version, Rama does not have to physically touch Ahalya with his foot: the mere touch of dust from his feet is enough to bring Ahalya to life. Kamban's telling is an example of Bhakti-era poets who exalt Rama as the saviour.
The Awadhi
Ramacharitamanasa drops the narrative of Indra's visit to Ahalya. In this epic Vishvamitra tells Rama that the cursed Ahalya has assumed the form of a rock and is patiently awaiting the dust from Rama's feet. Ahalya tells Rama that Gautama did well in pronouncing a curse on her, and she deems it as the greatest favour, for as a result of the curse she feasted her eyes on Rama which liberated her from her worldly existence. As in the Adhyatma Ramayana, Ahalya lauds Rama as the great Lord served by other divinities, asks for the boon of eternal engrossment in his devotion, and afterward leaves for her husband's abode. The narrative ends with praise for Rama's compassion. Tulsidas alludes to this episode numerous times in the Ramacharitamanasa while highlighting the significance Rama's benevolence. Commenting on this narrative in the Ramacharitamanasa, Rambhadracharya says that Rama did three things – he destroyed the sin of Ahalya by his sight, he destroyed the curse of Ahalya by the dust of his feet, and he destroyed the affliction of Ahalya by the touch of his feet. Rambhadracharya states this to be the reason behind the use of the Tribhangi (meaning "destroyer of the three") metre
used by Tulsidas in the verses which form Ahalya's praise of Rama — this being the only use of the Tribhangi metre in the entire epic.
In an 18th century Telugu
rendition of the tale, Ahalya is depicted as a romantic adulteress. When Brahma creates Ahalya as the most beautiful being, she falls in love with Indra and longs for him, but her father grants her to Gautama. The lovers continue to meet after Ahalya's marriage. In Gautama's absence, Indra visits Ahalya and flirts with her. At one point Ahalya receives a visit from Indra's female messenger who mocks husbands who avoid sex by citing such excuses as "Today is not the right day for pleasure." Ahalya protests, saying that whenever he agrees to make love to her, she imagines he is Indra and that a woman should be a stone forgoing all thought of pleasure. That night, when Ahalya longs for conjugal pleasure, Gautama refuses her, saying that she is in not in her fertile period. Agitated, she wishes that Indra was there to satisfy her. Indra understands her wish and takes the form of a rooster who crows to dispatch Gautama for his morning ablutions. Indra comes in Gautama's disguise, but is revealed by his seductive speech. Ahalya recognizes him and makes love to him joyously. When Indra reluctantly leaves, Gautama arrives and curses Ahalya to become a stone, to be later purified by Rama's feet. After she is freed from the curse. Gautama and Ahalya are reconciled and they spend their days in bed, inventing various ways to obtain sexual satisfaction.
The tribal Bhil
Ramayana of Gujarat begins with the tale of Ahalya-Gautama-Indra. Ahalya is created from the ashes of the sacrificial fire
by the seven great sages and gifted to Gautama. The jealous Indra seduces Ahalya with the moon-god Chandra
's help. In this version, Gautama attacks and imprisons Indra, who is freed when he as the rain god promises to shower rains on crops and the one fourth of all crop is dedicated to Gautama. Here, Ahalya is interpreted as dry and burnt land, eager for the rains by Indra, who is tamed by the wild cyclonic Gautama.
(1861–1941) – in Bengali
and English, P. T. Narasimhachar (1940 poetic drama called Ahalya in the Kannada
language) and
Sanskrit scholar and poet Chandra Rajan, who wrote the following verse:
R. K. Narayan
(1906–2001) focuses on the psychological details of the story, reusing the old tale of Indra's disguise as Gautama, his flight as a cat and Ahalya's being turned to stone. Dr. Pratibha Ray
's Oriya language
novel Mahamoha (1998) deals with Ahalya's tale. Pudhumaipithan
's Tamil story (1943) translated as "Deliverance from the Curse" and K. B. Sreedevi's Malayalam language work (1990) translated as "Woman of Stone" also focus on Rama's "double standards". They ask if Rama frees Ahalya from being cursed for adultery, why does he punish his wife Sita
over false accusations of adultery with her kidnapper Ravana
?. While in Pudhumaipithan's tale, Ahalya turns back into stone after hearing that Sita had to undergo a trial by fire to prove her chastity, Sreedevi portrays her turning into stone upon learning that Sita is banished from the kingdom on charges of adultery even after proving her chastity. Pudhumaipithan also narrates how after the redemption, Ahalya suffers from "post-trauma repetition syndrome
", re-experiencing Indra's seduction and Gautama's fury again and again. Gautama also suffers from self-recrimination at his hasty decision to curse Ahalya. S.Sivasekaram's 1980 Tamil poem Ahalikai questions Ahalya's life with regard to the stone metaphor that appears in the story; she marries a husband who is no more interested in her than a stone and briefly tastes a more exciting life with Indra, only to end up cursed to become a stone with no life herself. The poet asks if it was better for Ahalya to remain physically a stone and maintain her dignity rather than return to a stony marriage. N. S. Madhavan
's Malayalam story (April 2006) retells Ahalya's tale in a modern setting, where Ahalya – accused of adultery – is beaten by her husband, leaving her in a coma, but the neurologist Rama revives her from her sleep.
of Mithila. In this version of the story, Shatananda asks Vishwamitra anxiously about the well-being of his mother. By contrast, the Mahabharata mentions two sons: Sharadvan, who is born with arrows in his hand, and Chirakari, who ponders on all his actions so much that he delays them. Besides these, an unnamed daughter is also alluded to in the narrative. The Vamana Purana mentions three daughters: Jaya, Jayanti and Aparaji.
Another legend tells that Aruna
, once the charioteer of the sun-god Surya
, became a woman named Aruni and entered an assembly of celestial dancers, where no man except Indra was allowed. Indra fell in love with Aruni and fathered a son named Vali
. The next day, at Surya's request, Aruna again assumed her female form, with whom Surya fathered Sugriva
. Both children were handed over to Ahalya to be reared, but Gautama cursed them to become monkeys as he did not like them. In the Thai version of the Ramayana, Ramakien
, Vali and Sugriva are described as Ahalya's children born from her liaisons with Indra and Sugriva. She passes them off as sons of Gautama; however, her daughter by Gautama, named Anjani
, reveals her mother's secret to Gautama. He consequently drives the sons away and curses them to become monkeys. Enraged, Ahalya curses Anjani to become a monkey too. Anjani later gives birth to Hanuman
, the monkey-god and helper of Rama.
The Shiva Purana
does not mention Ahalya's encounter with Indra, but tells how she and Gautama are victimized by other sages. Once, during a hundred year drought, the god of the waters, Varuna
, was pleased with Gautama's penance and so gave him an inexhaustible well as a reward. Gautama's well became a refuge for all beings tormented by the drought. The wives of the Saptarishi – the seven sages – also came to fetch water from the well, demanding priority and abusing Gautama's disciples. When Ahalya intervened, she was abused too. The wives of the Saptarishi lied to their husbands about what had happened. The agitated sages compelled Ganesha
– the god of obstacles – to turn into a illusory cow, which fell dead when touched by Gautama. Proclaiming Gautama guilty of the heinous sin of cow slaughter, the sages stoned Gautama and Ahalya, driving them out of their ashram. Thereafter, the god Shiva
punished the Saptarishi and their wives by stripping them of Vedic knowledge.
A variant of this prayer replaces Sita with Kunti. Orthodox Hindus, especially Hindu wives, remember the panchakanya – the five virgins or maidens in this daily prayer. While one view considers them as "exemplary chaste women" or mahasatis ("great chaste wives") as per the Mahari dance tradition, another view states that none of them is considered an ideal woman who could be emulated. Bhattacharya, author of Panch-Kanya: The Five Virgins of Indian Epics contrasts the panchakanya with the five satis enlisted in another traditional prayer: Sati
, Sita, Savitri
, Damayanti
, and Arundhati and rhetorically asks: "Are then Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara, and Mandodari not chaste wives because each has "known" a man, or more than one, other than her husband?" Due to the "nobility of her character, her extraordinary beauty and that she is chronologically the first kanya", Ahalya is often regarded as the head of the panchkanya. Although Ahalya's "moral slip" has blemished her and denied her the high status and reverence accorded to women like Sita and Savitri, this very action has made her immortal in legend. In the Devi-Bhagavata Purana
, Ahalya is enlisted in a list of secondary goddesses, who are "auspicious, glorious and much praiseworthy", along Arundhati, Tara, Mandodari, Damanyati et al. She is also considered the "epitome of the chaste wife, unjustly accused of adultery", while her "proverbial loyalty to her husband" makes her venerable.
Bhattacharya says Ahalya is unique in her daring act and its dire consequences. For Bhattacharya, Ahalya is the eternal woman who responds to her inner urges and the advances of the divine ruler, a direct contrast to her ascetic husband, who did not satisfy her womanly desires. The author regards Ahalya as an independent woman who makes her own decisions, takes risks, and is driven by curiosity to experiment with the extraordinary and then accept the curse pronounced on her by patriarchal society. It is this "unflinching acceptance" of the curse that makes the Ramayana praise her and venerate her. V.R. Devika, author of Ahalya : Scarlet letter, asks questions based on Ahalya's example: "So is it right to condemn adultery and physical encounters as modern afflictions and against our (Indian/Hindu) culture? Or do we learn from Ahalya who made a conscious choice to fulfill her need and yet has been extolled?"
Like Bhattacharya, Kelkar, author of Subordination of woman: a new perspective, feels that Ahalya was made venerable due to her acceptance of the norms of conduct for women and ungrudgingly accepted the curse while acknowledging that she needed to be punished. However, Kelkar adds, another reason for making Ahalya immoral in scripture could be that Ahalya's punishment acts as a warning and deterrent to women as patriarchal society always condemns Ahalya as a fallen woman. Jaya Srinivasan, whose discourses on tales from the epics says that though Ahalya's action was "unpardonable", she was redeemed by the divine touch of dust particles from Rama's feet. Jaya adds that Ahalya's actions and the resultant curse are a warning that such immoral behaviour leads to doom, although sincere penitence and complete surrender to God can erase the gravest sins. In Hindu weddings in Sri Lanka
, Ahalya appears as a symbolic black stone, which the bride touches with her foot while promising not to be like Ahalya.
The right-wing Hindu women's organization Rashtra Sevika Samiti considers Ahalya as the symbol of "Hindu woman's (and Hindu society's) rape by the outsider", especially the British colonizers and Muslim invaders, but also Hindu men.
The place where Ahalya practised penance and was redeemed - has been celebrated in scriptures as a sacred place called Ahalya-tirtha. A tirtha
is a sacred place with a water body, where pilgrims generally bathe to purify themselves. The location of the Ahalya-tirtha is disputed, according to some scriptures it is on river Godavari, while some place it on river Narmada. An Ahalya-tirtha is located near the Ahalyeshvara temple in Bhalod on the banks of the Narmada. Another Ahalya-tirtha is located in Darbhanga district
, Bihar
.
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
, Ahalya (Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
: अहल्या, IAST
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is a transliteration scheme that allows a lossless romanization of Indic scripts as employed by the Sanskrit language.-Popularity:...
Ahalyā, Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
: Akalikai, Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
: อหลยา, Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
: Dewi Indera), also known as Ahilya, is the wife of the sage Gautama
Gautama Maharishi
Gautama Maharishi is one of the Saptarishis Gautama Maharishi is one of the Saptarishis Gautama Maharishi is one of the Saptarishis (Seven Great Sages Rishi of the current Manvantara (seventh). He was one of the Maharishis of Vedic times, known to have been the discoverer of Mantras --...
, primarily known for her sexual encounter with the god-king Indra
Indra
' or is the King of the demi-gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hindu mythology. He is also the God of War, Storms, and Rainfall.Indra is one of the chief deities in the Rigveda...
, the resultant curse by her husband and her subsequent liberation by Rama
Rama
Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...
– an avatar
Avatar
In Hinduism, an avatar is a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation," but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation"....
of the god Vishnu
Vishnu
Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....
. Due to the unflinching acceptance of the curse and loyalty to her husband, Ahalya is extolled as the first of the panchakanya ("five virgins") – archetypal chaste women – the recital of whose names is believed to dispel sin. At the same time, patriarchal myth-making condemns her as a fallen woman.
Created by the god Brahma
Brahma
Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...
as the most beautiful woman in the universe, Ahalya was married to the much older Gautama. In the earliest narrative, when Indra comes disguised as Gautama, Ahalya sees through his disguise but still takes the conscious decision to accept his sexual offer. Later sources however, often absolve her of all guilt, describing how she falls prey to his trickery, or is raped. In all narratives, Ahalya as well as her lover Indra, are cursed by Gautama. While the curse varies from text to text, almost all versions describe Rama as the eventual cause of her liberation. Although early texts describe how Ahalya must atone by undergoing severe penance while remaining invisible to the world and is purified by offering Rama hospitality, in the popular retelling developed over time, Ahalya is cursed to become a stone and regains her human form after she is brushed by Rama's foot.
While the Brahmana
Brahmana
The Brāhmaṇas are part of the Hindu śruti literature. They are commentaries on the four Vedas, detailing the proper performance of rituals....
s (9th to 6th centuries BCE) are the earliest scriptures to hint at Ahalya's relationship with Indra, the 5th to 4th century BCE Hindu epic Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
– whose hero is Rama – is the first to tell the story in detail. Mediaeval story-tellers often focus on Ahalya's deliverance by Rama, which is seen as proof of the saving grace of God. While ancient stories are Rama-centred, modern writers tell the story from Ahalya's perspective. Her story has been retold numerous times in the scriptures and lives on in modern age poetry and short stories as well as is presented in dance and drama.
Name and literary development
The word "Ahalya" is broken up as "a" (a prefix indicating negation) and "halya". Sanskrit dictionaries define the meaning of halya as arable, ploughed or ploughing and ugliness or deformity. In the Uttar Kanda book of the Ramayana, the god BrahmaBrahma
Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...
explains the meaning of the Sanskrit word "Ahalya" as "one without the reprehension of ugliness", or "one with an impeccable beauty"; while telling Indra how he created Ahalya by taking the special beauty of all creation and expressing it in every part of her body. Some Sanskrit dictionaries translate Ahalya as "unploughed", however, some recent authors – arguing that sexual intercourse is often likened to the ploughing of a field – interpret the word to mean "one who is not ploughed", i.e. a virgin; or "one who should not be ploughed", i.e. a motherly figure and in the context of the character Ahalya, someone beyond Indra's reach. As per the literal meaning of her name "unploughed", Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
(1861–1941) literally Ahalya as a symbol of stone-like, infertile land that was made cultivable by Rama. Delhi University professor Jhaveri concurs with Tagore interpreting Ahalya as unploughed land, on the basis of the tribal Bhil
Bhil
Bhils are primarily an Adivasi people of Central India. Bhils are also settled in the Tharparkar District of Sindh, Pakistan. They speak the Bhil languages, a subgroup of the Western Zone of the Indo-Aryan languages....
Ramayana.
Ahalya's sexual encounter with Indra as well as the resultant curse and redemption form the central narrative of Ahalya's story in all scriptural texts describing her life. The Brahmanas (9th to 6th centuries BCE) are the oldest scriptures to reveal the relationship between Ahalya and Indra but the Bala Kanda book of the Ramayana – an 5th to 4th century BCE epic which narrates Rama's life – is the first to explicitly mention her extra-marital affair. While the Bala Kanda mentions Ahalya's conscious decision to have sex, the Uttar Kanda of the Ramayana (regarded as a later addition to the epic), along with the Puranas
Puranas
The Puranas are a genre of important Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography.Puranas...
(compiled between 4th to 16th century CE), absolve her of all guilt. They alternately state that the jealous Indra tricks Ahalya into having sex by disguising himself as Gautama or that he rapes her.
Despite the fact that Ahalya is cursed to endure several penances to expiate her sin in the Bala Kanda, the sage Vishwamitra – Rama's guru – still describes her as a goddess-like and illustrious woman, repeatedly calling her mahabhaga (IAST mahābhāgā, commonly split as "mahā + bhāgā", translated as "most illustrious and highly distinguished"). This interpretation contrasts with that of Rambhadracharya, for whom the word mahabhaga in the context of Ahalya's story means "extremely unfortunate" (split as "mahā + abhāgā"). When Rama first meets her, the Bala Kanda describes Ahalya as glowing due to the intensity of her ascetic devotion, but hidden from the world like the sun obscured by dark clouds, the light of a full moon hidden by mist or a blazing flame masked by smoke. Ahalya is purified by offering Rama hospitality.
Later sources portray her as a condemned woman rescued by God, although there exists difference of opinion on whether the Balakanda narrative of Ahalya explicitly refers to the divinity of Rama. In the popular retelling of the legend in later works as well as in stage enactments and film and television productions, Ahalya is turned to stone by a curse and only returns to her human form after she is brushed by Rama's foot. It has been argued that this later version of the tale is result of a "male backlash" and patriarchal myth-making that condemns her as a non-entity devoid of emotions, self-respect and societal status. Tulsidas
Tulsidas
Tulsidas , was a Hindu poet-saint, reformer and philosopher renowned for his devotion for the god Rama...
's 16th century Ramacharitamanasa and other Bhakti era
Bhakti movement
The Bhakti movement is a Hindu religious movement in which the main spiritual practice is loving devotion among the Shaivite and Vaishnava saints. The Bhakti movement originated in ancient Tamil Nadu and began to spread to the north during the late medieval ages when north India was under Islamic...
poets use the episode as an archetypal example to demonstrate God's saving grace. The main theme of such narratives is her deliverance by Rama, which is seen as proof of his compassion.
While historic narratives are Rama-centric, contemporary writers make Ahalya the focus of the story. Her tale has also gained "widespread attention" from modern writers who revisit the classic narrative from various perspectives (most commonly through the short story genre or through poetry) and try to imagine Ahalya's life after the curse and redemption, a denouement which remains undisclosed in the ancient scriptures. Alternatively, such writers try to imagine Ahalya's tale occurring in the modern era, rather than in its traditional ancient setting. While Ahalya is a minor character in all ancient sources, "stigmatized and despised by those around her" for violating gender norms, the kind of attention that she has received from modern South Indian writers suggests that she is no longer an insignificant figure.
A similar tale of divine seduction appears in Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, where the god-king Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
-a god akin to Indra- seduces Alcmene
Alcmene
In Greek mythology, Alcmene or Alcmena was the mother of Heracles.-Background:Alcmene was born to Electryon, the son of Perseus and Andromeda, and king of Tiryns and Mycenae or Medea in Argolis. Her mother was Anaxo, daughter of Alcaeus and Astydamia, daughter of Pelops and Hippodameia...
in the form of her husband resulting in the birth of the legendary hero Heracles
Heracles
Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
. Like Ahalya, Alceme falls victim to Zeus's trickery in some versions or knows his true identity and still goes ahead with the intercourse in others. The major distinction in the tales is that the raison-d'etre of Alceme's seduction is the justification of Heracles's divine parentage and thus Alceme is never condemned as an adulteress or punished, in contrast Ahalya's adventure is purely erotic, not resulting to procreation and thus Ahalya faces the ire of the scriptures.
Creation and marriage
Ahalya is often described as an ayonijasambhava – one not born of a woman. The Bala Kanda of the Ramayana mentions how the Creator moulds her "with great effort out of pure creative energy". The Brahma PuranaBrahma Purana
The Brahma Purana is one of the major eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of Hindu religious texts. The extant text comprises 246 chapters. It is divided into two parts, namely the Purvabhaga and the Uttarabhaga . The first part narrates the story behind the creation of the cosmos, details the life and...
as well as the Vishnudharmottara Purana
Vishnudharmottara Purana
The Vishnudharmottara Purana is a Hindu text, encyclopedic in nature. Along with the narratives, it also deals with cosmology, cosmogony, geography, astronomy, astrology, division of time, pacification of unfavourbale planets and stars, genealogies , manners and customs, penances, duties of...
also records her creation by Brahma. The Mahari temple dancer tradition of Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
which celebrates the panchakanya tells that Brahma created Ahalya - as the most beautiful human woman - out of water to break the pride of Urvashi, the foremost of the celestial nymphs
Apsara
An Apsara , also known as Vidhya Dhari or Tep Apsar in Khmer, Accharā or A Bố Sa La Tư , Bidadari , Biradali , Widodari and Apson , is a female spirit of the clouds and waters in...
. By contrast, the Bhagavata Purana
Bhagavata purana
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...
and Harivamsa
Harivamsa
The Harivamsha is an important work of Sanskrit literature, containing 16,374 verses, mostly in metre. The text is also known as . This text is believed as a khila to the Mahabharata and is traditionally ascribed to Krishna Dvaipayana Veda Vyasa...
both regard Ahalya as a princess of the Puru dynasty
Lunar Dynasty
In Hindu mythology, the Lunar Dynasty is one of the three principal houses of the Kshatriya varna, or warrior–ruling caste...
, the daughter of King Mudgala and brother of King Divodasa.
The Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana – considered a later addition to the epic relates one version of the story of Ahalya's creation and marriage. In this text, Brahma crafts the most beautiful woman in the world and then places her in the care of the sage Gautama until she reaches puberty. When that time arrives, the sage returns Ahalya to Brahma, who, impressed by the sage's sexual restraint, bestows her upon him. Meanwhile, Indra, the god-king of heaven, who believes that the best examples of women are meant for him, resents Ahalya's marriage to the forest-dwelling ascetic.
The Brahma Purana gives a similar account of Ahalya's birth and initial custody with Gautama. It further tells the question of Ahalya's marriage was determined through an open contest. Brahma declares that the first being to go around the three worlds (heaven
Svarga
In Hinduism, Svarga is a set of heavenly worlds located on and above Mt. Meru. It is a heaven where the righteous live in a paradise before their next reincarnation...
, earth
Prithvi
Prithvi is the sanskrit name for earth and its essence Prithivi Tattwa, in the form of a mother goddess or godmother. Prithvi is also called Dhra, Dharti, Dhrithri, meaning that which holds everything. As Prithvi Devi, she is one of two wives of Lord Vishnu. His other wife is Lakshmi. Prithvi is...
, and the underworld
Patala
Patala is a town and a nagar panchayat in Ghaziabad district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.-Demographics: India census, Patala had a population of 9730. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Patala has an average literacy rate of 61%, higher than the national average of...
) would win Ahalya. Indra uses his magical powers to complete the challenge, finally reaching Brahma to take the hand of Ahalya. However, the divine sage Narada
Narada
Narada or Narada Muni is a divine sage from the Vaisnava tradition, who plays a prominent role in a number of the Puranic texts, especially in the Bhagavata Purana, and in the Ramayana...
mentions to Brahma that Gautama went around the three worlds before Indra, explaining that as part of his daily puja (ritual offering), Gautama went around the wish-bearing cow Surabhi
Surabhi
Surabhi may mean:* Kamadhenu, the divine cow in Hindu mythology.* The word 'Surabhi' is formed by adding the prefix 'Su' and the suffix 'I' to the Sanskrit word 'Rabh'...
at his hermitage. One day, as the sage carried out his puja, the cow gave birth to a calf, which according to the Vedas, made the cow equal to three worlds, hence Ahalya must be given to Gautama and not to Indra. Brahma agrees and Ahalya marries Gautama, leaving Indra envious and infuriated. A similar shorter version of Ahalya's early life also appears in the Padma Purana
Padma Purana
Padma Purana , one of the major eighteen Puranas, a Hindu religious text, is divided into five parts.In the first part of the text, sage Pulastya explains to Bhishma about religion and the essence of the religion. The second part describes in detail Prithvi...
.
In all versions of the tale, after her marriage with Gautama, Ahalya settles into his ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
(hermitage), which generally becomes the site of her epic curse. The Ramayana records that Gautama's ashram is located in a forest (Mithila-upavana) near Mithila
Mithila
Mithila was a city in Ancient India, the capital of the Videha Kingdom. The name Mithila is also commonly used to refer to the Videha Kingdom itself, as well as to the modern-day territories that fall within the ancient boundaries of Videha...
, where the couple practise ascetics together for several years. In other scriptures, the ashram is usually near the river bank. The Brahma Purana says that it is near river Godavari, while Skanda Purana
Skanda Purana
The Skanda Purana is the largest Mahapurana, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts. The text is devoted mainly to the lilas of Kartikeya , a son of Shiva and Parvati. It also contains a number of legends about Shiva, and the holy places associated with him...
places it near river Narmada
Narmada
Narmada may refer to:* Narmada River of central India* Narmada district of Gujarat, India* The Narmada Dam Project, involving the construction of a series of large irrigation and hydroelectric multi purpose dams on the Narmada River in India...
. The Padma Purana and Brahma Vaivarta Purana
Brahma Vaivarta Purana
Brahma Vaivarta Purana, one of the major eighteen Puranas, a Hindu religious text, is divided into four parts. First part describes the creation of the universe and all beings, the second part relates to description and histories of different goddesses...
describe the ashram to be near the holy city of Pushkar
Pushkar
Pushkar is a town in the Ajmer district in the state of Rajasthan, India. It is situated at 14 km North West from Ajmer at an average elevation of 510 metres , and is one of the five sacred dhams...
.
Brahmanas
The Brahmanas (9th to 6th centuries BCE) are the oldest scriptures to reveal the relationship between Ahalya and Indra in the so-called subrahmanya formula, used by Subrahmanya priests at the beginning of a sacrifice to invoke the main participants: Indra, the gods and the Brahmins (priesthood). The Jaiminiya Brahmana and the Sadvimsha Brahmana from the SamavedaSamaveda
The Sama veda , is second of the four Vedas, the ancient core Hindu scriptures. Its earliest parts are believed to date from 1700 BC and it ranks next in sanctity and liturgical importance to the Rigveda...
tradition, the Shatapatha Brahmana
Shatapatha Brahmana
The Shatapatha Brahmana is one of the prose texts describing the Vedic ritual, associated with the Shukla Yajurveda. It survives in two recensions, Madhyandina and Kanva , with the former having the eponymous 100 adhyayas,7624 kandikas in 14 books, and the latter 104 adhyayas,6806 kandikas in 17...
and the Taittiriya Brahmana from the Yajurveda
Yajurveda
The Yajurveda, a tatpurusha compound of "sacrificial formula', + ) is the third of the four canonical texts of Hinduism, the Vedas. By some, it is estimated to have been composed between 1400 and 1000 BC, the Yajurveda 'Samhita', or 'compilation', contains the liturgy needed to perform the...
tradition, and two Shrautasutras (Latyayana and Drahyayana) invoke Indra, the "lover of Ahalya ... O Kaushika, Brahman (Brahmin), who calls himself Gautama". The Samaveda tradition identifies her as Maitreyi, who the commentator Sayana
Sayana
' was an important commentator on the Vedas. He flourished under King Bukka I and his successor Harihara II, in the Vijayanagar Empire of South India...
explains is "the daughter of the god Mitra
Mitra (Vedic)
This article is about the Vedic deity Mitra. For other divinities with related names, see the general article Mitra.Mitra is an important divinity of Indic culture, and the patron divinity of honesty, friendship, contracts and meetings...
".
In the subrahmanya formula, Ahalya does not have a husband. In the Sadvimsha Brahmana, it is not explicitly stated that Ahalya has a husband, although Kaushika is present in the story and his relationship to her can be inferred through Indra's adoption of the Brahmin's form to "visit" Ahalya. The scholar Söhnen-Thieme feels that the Kaushika of the Sadvismha Brahmana is the same individual described as cursing Indra in the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
(discussed below). The Shatapatha Brahmanas commentator, Kumarila Bhatta
Kumarila Bhatta
' was a Hindu philosopher and Mimamsa scholar from Assam. He is famous for many of his seminal theses on Mimamsa, such as Mimamsaslokavarttika. Bhatta was an staunch believer in the supreme validity of Vedic injunction, a great champion of Purva-Mimamsa and a confirmed ritualist...
, reasons that the Ahalya-Indra myth is an allegory for the Sun – symbolized by Indra – taking away the shade of night, personified as Ahalya.
The American scholar Edward Washburn Hopkins
Edward Washburn Hopkins
Edward Washburn Hopkins, Ph.D., LL.D. , American Sanskrit scholar, was born in Northampton, Massachusetts.He graduated at Columbia University in 1878, studied at Leipzig, where he received the degree of Ph.D...
interpreted the Ahalya of the subrahmanya formula not as a woman, but as "yet unploughed land", which Indra makes fertile.
Epics: Ramayana and Mahabharata
RamayanaThe Bala Kanda of the Ramayana is the earliest text to describe the encounter between Ahalya and Indra in detail. Enamoured by Ahalya's beauty and learning of her husband's absence, Indra comes to the ashram disguised as Gautama and requests sexual intercourse with Ahalya, praising her as a shapely and slim-waisted woman. She sees through his disguise, but consents due to "curiosity". According to another interpretation, Ahalya's pride in her beauty compels her to make this decision. Having satiated his sexual lust, Ahalya requests Indra–her "lover" and "best of gods"–to flee and protect both of them from Gautama's wrath. However, Gautama spots Indra, who is still in disguise, and curses him to lose his testicles. Gautama then curses Ahalya to remain invisible to all beings for thousands of years, to fast by subsisting only on air, to suffer and sleep in ashes, and to be tormented by guilt. Nevertheless, he assures her that her sin will be expiated once she extends her hospitality to Rama, who will then visit the ashram. Thereafter, Gautama abandons the ashram and goes to the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
to do penance.
The Bala Kanda mentions that Ayodhyan princes Rama and his brother Lakshmana
Lakshmana
Lakshmana was the brother and close companion of Rama, and himself a hero in the famous epic Ramayana...
and their guru Vishwamitra pass Gautama's desolate ashram in the forest while travelling to King Janaka's court in Mithila. As they near the ashram, Vishwamitra recounts the tale of Ahalya's curse and instructs Rama to save Ahalya. Following Vishwamitra, the princes enter the ashram to see a glowing Ahalya, who up till then has been hidden from the universe. At the behest of Vishwamitra, Rama considers Ahalya guiltless and pure. He and Lakshamana touch her feet in salutation, an act that restores her status in society. She greets them warmly, remembering Gautama's words that Rama would be her redemption. She extends her warmest hospitality, making a "welcome offering" of forest fruits and washing their feet as per the rites of that era. Then, the gods and other celestial beings shower Rama and Ahalya with flowers and bow to Ahalya, who was now purified through the penance she had practised in solitude. Gautama returns to his ashram and accepts her back.
By contrast, the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana recasts the tale as Indra's rape of Ahalya. Indra is cursed to suffer imprisonment, loss of his peace of mind and to bear half the sin of every rape ever committed, while the innocent Ahalya is cursed to lose her unique quality of being the most beautiful woman, as this was the cause of Indra's seduction. Ahalya claims her innocence (this part is not found in all manuscripts), but Gautama agrees to accept her back only when she is sanctified by offering Rama hospitality.
Mahabharata
In the Mahabharata, there are three allusions to the Ahalya episode; however, the Ramopakhyana– the condensed narrative of the Ramayana in the Mahabharata–does not mention Ahalya's violation and her redemption by Rama. In one instance, Indra is said to be have been cursed to have a golden beard as he seduces Ahalya, while a curse by Kaushika is described as the reason for his castration. In another instance, where details of the sexual adventure are absent, an agitated Gautama orders his son Chirakari to behead his "polluted" mother and leaves the ashram. However, Chirakari does not follow the order at once and, as is his habit, thinks it over for a long time, before arriving at the conclusion that Ahalya is innocent. Gautama returns and repents his hasty decision, realising that Indra is the guilty party. In another allusion, Nahusha
Nahusha
Nahusha was a well-known king of the Aila dynasty. He was the son of Ayu, the eldest son of Pururavas and Prabha, the daughter of Svarbhanu. Nahusha reigned from Pratishthana. He married Viraja, the daughter of the Pitrs. They had six or seven sons, according to different Puranas. His eldest son...
reminds Indra's preceptor Brihaspati
Brihaspati
Bṛhaspati also known as Brahmanaspati and Deva-guru , is the name of a Vedic deity...
how Indra "violated" the "renowned" rishi-patni (wife of a sage) Ahalya. Professor Söhnen-Thieme considers the words "violated" and "renowned" indicate that Ahalya is not considered an adulteress here.
Puranas
In the Brahma Purana, the location of the curse shifts to the banks of the Gautami (Godavari) river. When Gautama leaves for his morning ablutions by the river, Indra assumes his form and seduces the unsuspecting Ahalya. When Gautama returns and calls to his wife, Ahalya realizes that she has been tricked. She is then cursed to become a dried up stream, but pleads her innocence and even produces servants–who were deceived by Indra's disguise–as witnesses. Gautama softens the curse on his "faithful wife" and she is redeemed when she joins the Gautami river as a stream. The terrified Indra assumes the form of a cat and tries to flee, but is caught and cursed to sprout one thousand vulvae on his body. However, Gautama reduces the effects of the curse by saying that the vulvae will turn into eyes when Indra bathes in the Gautami river.The Padma Purana tells that after Gautama leaves for his ritual bath, Indra masquerades as Gautama and asks Ahalya to satisfy him. Ahalya, engrossed in worshipping the gods, rejects him and says it would be inappropriate to have sex at the cost of neglecting the gods. Her fake husband reminds her that her first duty is serve him. Finally Ahalya gives in, but Gautama learns of Indra's deception through his supernatural powers and returns to the ashram. As Indra attempts to flee in the form of a cat, Gautama curses him to lose his manhood and carry his shame in the form of a thousand vulvae on his body for all to see. Then Gautama turns to Ahalya, who declares herself blameless, but Gautama considers her impure and curses her to be reduced to a mere skeleton of skin and bones. He decrees that she will regain her beautiful form when Rama comes with the sage Vashishtha and will laugh at her seeing her so afflicted – dried out, without a body and lying on the path. When Rama comes, he learns of Ahalya's tale and proclaims her innocence and Indra's guilt, whereupon Ahalya returns to her heavenly abode, where she is recorded as dwelling with Gautama.
According to the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Indra becomes infatuated with Ahalya's beauty when he sees her come to bathe in the Svarnadi (heavenly river), near Pushkar. Assuming Gautama's form, Indra has sex with her, until they sink to the river bed in exhaustion. Gautama interrupts them and curses Indra to bear a thousand vulvae, which will turn to eyes when he worships the sun-god. Ahalya, though innocent, is turned to stone for sixty thousand years and destined only to be redeemed by Rama's touch. Ahalya accepts the verdict without debate. Another version in the same Purana focuses more on the issue of how the chaste Ahalya was seduced by Indra. In this version, Indra approaches Ahalya on the banks of the Mandakini
Mandakini River
Mandakini is a tributary of the Alaknanda River. Mandakini originates from the Charabari Glacier near Kedarnath in Uttarakhand, India. Mandakini is fed by Vasukiganga River at Sonprayag. Mandakini joins Alaknanda at Rudraprayag...
river – near Pushkar – in his own form to ask for a sexual favour, which is flatly refused by Ahalya. Then, Indra poses as Gautama and returns to fulfill his objective. Gautama catches Indra fleeing as a cat and curses him with castration. Ahalya's plea of innocence is acknowledged by Gautama, who declares that her mind is pure and she has kept the vow of chastity and fidelity, but the presence of another man's seed in her body has defiled it. Gautama orders her to go to the forest and become a stone until rescued by the touch of Rama's feet.
The Skanda Purana tells that the divine sage Narada praises Ahalya's beauty in front of Indra, who goes to her disguised as Gautama, and commands her to have sex with him or face his wrath. When Indra embraces and kisses her and "so forth" (probably indicating the sexual act), she smells his celestial fragrance and realizes her folly. She threatens him with a curse and compels him to reveal his true form. When Gautama arrives home, she tells the whole tale truthfully and in return is cursed by Gautama to become a stone, as she acted as a rolling stone unable to recognize the difference between Indra's and Gautama's gestures and movements. The touch of Rama's feet is prophesied to be her saviour. The terrified Indra escapes as a cat and is cursed to be castrated.
Most of the fifth chapter of the Bala Kanda Book of the Adhyatma Ramayana
Adhyatma Ramayana
Adhyatma Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit work extolling the spiritual virtues of the story of Ramayana. It comprises around 4200 double verses embedded in the latter portion of Brahmānda Purana and is traditionally believed to be authored by Vyasa...
(embedded in the Brahmanda Purana
Brahmanda Purana
The Brahmanda Purana is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts and has been assigned the eighteenth place in almost all the lists of the Puranas.Brahma in Sanskrit means "the biggest", anda/andam means globe...
) is dedicated to the Ahalya episode. Like most other versions of the story, when Indra seduces the unsuspecting Ahalya, he is cursed to bear a thousand eye-shaped holes, while Ahalya is turned into stone and advised to engross herself in meditation and penance to Rama, the Supreme Lord. When Rama touches the stone with his foot on Vishwamitra's advice, Ahalya rises as a beautiful maiden and sings a long panegyric
Panegyric
A panegyric is a formal public speech, or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing, a generally highly studied and discriminating eulogy, not expected to be critical. It is derived from the Greek πανηγυρικός meaning "a speech fit for a general assembly"...
dedicated to Rama. Ahalya describes his iconographic form and exalts Rama as an incarnation of Vishnu and source of the universe to whom many divinities pay their respects. After worshipping him, she returns to Gautama. At the end of the narrative Ahalya's hymn is prescribed as an ideal benediction for a devotee to gain Rama's favour.
Besides these scriptural examples, the story also appears in the Matsya Purana
Matsya Purana
Matsya Purana is the sixteenth purana of the Hindu scriptures. During the period of mahapralaya, Lord Vishnu had taken Matsya Avatar to save the seeds of all lives and Manu...
, the Ganesha Purana
Ganesha Purana
The Ganesha Purana is a Hindu religious text dedicated to the Hindu deity Ganesha . It is an that includes many stories and ritualistic elements relating to Ganesha. The Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana are core scriptures for devotees of Ganesha, known as Ganapatyas...
, the Harivamsa (a supplement of the Mahabharata) and the Markandeya Purana
Markandeya Purana
The Markandeya Purana is one of the major eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of Hindu religious texts. It is written in the style of a dialogue between the ancient sage Markandeya and Jaimini, a disciple of Vyasa.-Contents:...
, of which the last uses the tale to denigrate Indra and glorify Vishnu.
Non-scriptural Sanskrit works
The RaghuvamsaRaghuvamsa
Raghuwamsa or Raghu race is a legendary lineage of warrior kings tracing its ancestry to the Hindu solar deity Surya. Kalidasa's famous work, Raghuvaṃśa depicts the legend of this race. The progenitor of the lineage was Raghu, son of the emperor Dileepa. Raghu was father of Aja, and thus...
of Kalidasa
Kalidasa
Kālidāsa was a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language...
notes that the wife of Gautama (unnamed here) momentarily became the wife of Indra. Without explicitly mentioning the curse, it relates further that she regains her beautiful form again and casts away her stony appearance, due to the grace of the dust on Rama's feet that removes her sins.
The Kathasaritsagara
Kathasaritsagara
Kathasaritsagara is a famous 11th-century collection of Indian legends, fairy tales and folk tales as retold by a Saivite Brahmin named Somadeva....
tells that Indra arrives undisguised and requests sexual intercourse. As in the earliest telling of the encounter in the Bala Khanda, Ahalya makes a conscious decision to accept the offer. After the act, when Gautama arrives Indra tries to flee as a cat and is cursed to bear the marks of a thousand vulvae. When asked by Gautama about her visitor, Ahalya wittily answers that it was a majjara a word meaning either "cat" or when split as ma-jara, "my lover". Gautama laughs and curses her to be turned into stone, but decrees that she will be released by Rama since she at least spoke the truth.
The well-known treatise on sexual behaviour, the Kamasutra also mentions how lust destroys men, giving the example of Ahalya and Indra as well as Sita and Ravana. However, it also urges men to seduce women by telling the romantic tales of Ahalya, Bhasa
Bhasa
Bhāsa is one of the earliest and most celebrated Indian playwrights in Sanskrit. However, very little is known about him.Kālidāsa in the introduction to his first play Malavikagnimitram writes -...
's Avimaraka and Shakuntala
Shakuntala
In Hindu mythology Shakuntala is the wife of Dushyanta and the mother of Emperor Bharata. Her story is told in the Mahabharata and dramatized by Kalidasa in his play Abhijñānaśākuntalam .-Etymology:Rishi Kanva found her in forest as a baby surrounded by Shakunta birds...
.
Medieval vernacular versions
Kamban's 12th century TamilTamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
adaptation of the Ramayana – the Ramavataram – portrays Ahalya as deceived by Indra's Gautama disguise and agrees to have sex with him as she has craved affection from her ascetic husband for a long time. However, after some time she realizes that her lover is an imposter, but continues to enjoy the dalliance. As in other versions of the tale, Ahalya is turned to stone, only to be liberated by Rama, and Indra runs away as a cat but is cursed to bear the mark of a thousand vulvae. In this version, Rama does not have to physically touch Ahalya with his foot: the mere touch of dust from his feet is enough to bring Ahalya to life. Kamban's telling is an example of Bhakti-era poets who exalt Rama as the saviour.
The Awadhi
Awadhi language
Awadhi is an Indo-Aryan language, part of the Hindi-Urdu continuum. It is spoken chiefly in the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh, although its speakers are also found in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Nepal. Furthermore, the Fiji Hindi dialect spoken by Indo-Fijians is considered a variant of Awadhi,...
Ramacharitamanasa drops the narrative of Indra's visit to Ahalya. In this epic Vishvamitra tells Rama that the cursed Ahalya has assumed the form of a rock and is patiently awaiting the dust from Rama's feet. Ahalya tells Rama that Gautama did well in pronouncing a curse on her, and she deems it as the greatest favour, for as a result of the curse she feasted her eyes on Rama which liberated her from her worldly existence. As in the Adhyatma Ramayana, Ahalya lauds Rama as the great Lord served by other divinities, asks for the boon of eternal engrossment in his devotion, and afterward leaves for her husband's abode. The narrative ends with praise for Rama's compassion. Tulsidas alludes to this episode numerous times in the Ramacharitamanasa while highlighting the significance Rama's benevolence. Commenting on this narrative in the Ramacharitamanasa, Rambhadracharya says that Rama did three things – he destroyed the sin of Ahalya by his sight, he destroyed the curse of Ahalya by the dust of his feet, and he destroyed the affliction of Ahalya by the touch of his feet. Rambhadracharya states this to be the reason behind the use of the Tribhangi (meaning "destroyer of the three") metre
Meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
used by Tulsidas in the verses which form Ahalya's praise of Rama — this being the only use of the Tribhangi metre in the entire epic.
In an 18th century Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
rendition of the tale, Ahalya is depicted as a romantic adulteress. When Brahma creates Ahalya as the most beautiful being, she falls in love with Indra and longs for him, but her father grants her to Gautama. The lovers continue to meet after Ahalya's marriage. In Gautama's absence, Indra visits Ahalya and flirts with her. At one point Ahalya receives a visit from Indra's female messenger who mocks husbands who avoid sex by citing such excuses as "Today is not the right day for pleasure." Ahalya protests, saying that whenever he agrees to make love to her, she imagines he is Indra and that a woman should be a stone forgoing all thought of pleasure. That night, when Ahalya longs for conjugal pleasure, Gautama refuses her, saying that she is in not in her fertile period. Agitated, she wishes that Indra was there to satisfy her. Indra understands her wish and takes the form of a rooster who crows to dispatch Gautama for his morning ablutions. Indra comes in Gautama's disguise, but is revealed by his seductive speech. Ahalya recognizes him and makes love to him joyously. When Indra reluctantly leaves, Gautama arrives and curses Ahalya to become a stone, to be later purified by Rama's feet. After she is freed from the curse. Gautama and Ahalya are reconciled and they spend their days in bed, inventing various ways to obtain sexual satisfaction.
The tribal Bhil
Bhil
Bhils are primarily an Adivasi people of Central India. Bhils are also settled in the Tharparkar District of Sindh, Pakistan. They speak the Bhil languages, a subgroup of the Western Zone of the Indo-Aryan languages....
Ramayana of Gujarat begins with the tale of Ahalya-Gautama-Indra. Ahalya is created from the ashes of the sacrificial fire
Yajna
In Hinduism, yajna is a ritual of sacrifice derived from the practice of Vedic times. It is performed to please the gods or to attain certain wishes...
by the seven great sages and gifted to Gautama. The jealous Indra seduces Ahalya with the moon-god Chandra
Chandra
In Hinduism, Chandra is a lunar deity and a Graha. Chandra is also identified with the Vedic Lunar deity Soma . The Soma name refers particularly to the juice of sap in the plants and thus makes the Moon the lord of plants and vegetation. He is described as young, beautiful, fair; two-armed and...
's help. In this version, Gautama attacks and imprisons Indra, who is freed when he as the rain god promises to shower rains on crops and the one fourth of all crop is dedicated to Gautama. Here, Ahalya is interpreted as dry and burnt land, eager for the rains by Indra, who is tamed by the wild cyclonic Gautama.
Modern renditions: curse, redemption and thereafter
Ahalya's tale lives on in modern day poetry written by poets like the Nobel laureate Rabindranath TagoreRabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
(1861–1941) – in Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
and English, P. T. Narasimhachar (1940 poetic drama called Ahalya in the Kannada
Kannada language
Kannada or , is a language spoken in India predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannada, whose native speakers are called Kannadigas and number roughly 50 million, is one of the 30 most spoken languages in the world...
language) and
Sanskrit scholar and poet Chandra Rajan, who wrote the following verse:
Gautama cursed his impotence
and raged...
she stood petrified
uncomprehending
in stony silence
withdrawn into the secret cave
of her inviolate inner self...
she had her shelter
sanctuary
benediction
within, perfect, inviolate
in the one-ness of spirit
with rock rain and wind
with flowing tree
and ripening fruit
and seed that falls silently
in its time
into the rich dark earth
R. K. Narayan
R. K. Narayan
R. K. Narayan , shortened from Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami Tamil: ) , Madras Presidency, British India. His father was a school headmaster, and Narayan did some of his studies at his father's school...
(1906–2001) focuses on the psychological details of the story, reusing the old tale of Indra's disguise as Gautama, his flight as a cat and Ahalya's being turned to stone. Dr. Pratibha Ray
Pratibha Ray
Pratibha Ray is an Indian academic and writer. She was born on 21 January 1943, at Alabol, a remote village in the Balikuda area of Jagatsinghpur district formerly part of Cuttack district of Orissa state....
's Oriya language
Oriya language
Oriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...
novel Mahamoha (1998) deals with Ahalya's tale. Pudhumaipithan
Pudhumaipithan
Pudhumaipithan also spelt as Pudumaipithan or Puthumaippiththan, is the pseudonym of C. Viruthachalam , one of the most influential and revolutionary writers of Tamil fiction. His works were characterized by social satire, progressive thinking and outspoken criticism of accepted conventions...
's Tamil story (1943) translated as "Deliverance from the Curse" and K. B. Sreedevi's Malayalam language work (1990) translated as "Woman of Stone" also focus on Rama's "double standards". They ask if Rama frees Ahalya from being cursed for adultery, why does he punish his wife Sita
SITA
SITA is a multinational information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the air transport industry...
over false accusations of adultery with her kidnapper Ravana
Ravana
' is the primary antagonist character of the Hindu legend, the Ramayana; who is the great king of Lanka. In the classic text, he is mainly depicted negatively, kidnapping Rama's wife Sita, to claim vengeance on Rama and his brother Lakshmana for having cut off the nose of his sister...
?. While in Pudhumaipithan's tale, Ahalya turns back into stone after hearing that Sita had to undergo a trial by fire to prove her chastity, Sreedevi portrays her turning into stone upon learning that Sita is banished from the kingdom on charges of adultery even after proving her chastity. Pudhumaipithan also narrates how after the redemption, Ahalya suffers from "post-trauma repetition syndrome
Psychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
", re-experiencing Indra's seduction and Gautama's fury again and again. Gautama also suffers from self-recrimination at his hasty decision to curse Ahalya. S.Sivasekaram's 1980 Tamil poem Ahalikai questions Ahalya's life with regard to the stone metaphor that appears in the story; she marries a husband who is no more interested in her than a stone and briefly tastes a more exciting life with Indra, only to end up cursed to become a stone with no life herself. The poet asks if it was better for Ahalya to remain physically a stone and maintain her dignity rather than return to a stony marriage. N. S. Madhavan
N. S. Madhavan
N. S. Madhavan is a leading writer of contemporary Malayalam literature, whose short stories, novels, football columns and travel articlea enjoy a wide readership in Malayalam speaking areas of India.-Early life:...
's Malayalam story (April 2006) retells Ahalya's tale in a modern setting, where Ahalya – accused of adultery – is beaten by her husband, leaving her in a coma, but the neurologist Rama revives her from her sleep.
Children and other tales
The Ramayana mentions Ahalya's son Shatananda, who is the family priest and preceptor of King JanakaJanaka
Janaka or Raja Janaka were the kings of Videha Kingdom. Their capital was Mithila, which is believed to be present day Janakpur, Nepal...
of Mithila. In this version of the story, Shatananda asks Vishwamitra anxiously about the well-being of his mother. By contrast, the Mahabharata mentions two sons: Sharadvan, who is born with arrows in his hand, and Chirakari, who ponders on all his actions so much that he delays them. Besides these, an unnamed daughter is also alluded to in the narrative. The Vamana Purana mentions three daughters: Jaya, Jayanti and Aparaji.
Another legend tells that Aruna
Aruna
In to Hindu mythology and Hindu scriptures, Aruṇá or Aruṇ is a personification of the reddish glow of the rising Sun, which is believed to have spiritual powers...
, once the charioteer of the sun-god Surya
Surya
Surya Suraya or Phra Athit is the chief solar deity in Hinduism, one of the Adityas, son of Kasyapa and one of his wives, Aditi; of Indra; or of Dyaus Pitar . The term Surya also refers to the Sun, in general. Surya has hair and arms of gold...
, became a woman named Aruni and entered an assembly of celestial dancers, where no man except Indra was allowed. Indra fell in love with Aruni and fathered a son named Vali
Vali (Ramayana)
In the Hindu epic Ramayana, the vanara Vali , also known as Bali , , , Yuan: Bari, , Lao: Palichan) was king of Kishkindha, a son of Indra and the elder brother of Sugriva...
. The next day, at Surya's request, Aruna again assumed her female form, with whom Surya fathered Sugriva
Sugriva
In the Hindu epic Ramayana, Sugriva , also spelled Sugreeva or Sugreev, was the younger brother of Bali, whom he succeeded as ruler of the vanara or monkey kingdom Kishkindha. Ruma was his wife. He was the son of Surya, the Hindu deity of the sun...
. Both children were handed over to Ahalya to be reared, but Gautama cursed them to become monkeys as he did not like them. In the Thai version of the Ramayana, Ramakien
Ramakien
The Ramakian is Thailand's national epic, derived from the Hindu epic Ramayana....
, Vali and Sugriva are described as Ahalya's children born from her liaisons with Indra and Sugriva. She passes them off as sons of Gautama; however, her daughter by Gautama, named Anjani
Anjana
' was the mother of Hanuman and Maruti Anjana and Kesari named him after their first son Hanuman he is said to be born when Hanuman was 16 years old and it is said hey has taken an avatar on earth and believed to be still alive . one of the heroes of the Indian epic, the Ramayana...
, reveals her mother's secret to Gautama. He consequently drives the sons away and curses them to become monkeys. Enraged, Ahalya curses Anjani to become a monkey too. Anjani later gives birth to Hanuman
Hanuman
Hanuman , is a Hindu deity, who is an ardent devotee of Rama, a central character in the Indian epic Ramayana and one of the dearest devotees of lord Rama. A general among the vanaras, an ape-like race of forest-dwellers, Hanuman is an incarnation of the divine and a disciple of Lord Rama in the...
, the monkey-god and helper of Rama.
The Shiva Purana
Shiva Purana
The Shiva Purana is one of the s, a genre of Hindu religious texts dedicated to Shiva. According to a tradition which is stated in the of this text, the original text was known as the ....
does not mention Ahalya's encounter with Indra, but tells how she and Gautama are victimized by other sages. Once, during a hundred year drought, the god of the waters, Varuna
Varuna
In Vedic religion, Varuna is a god of the sky, of water and of the celestial ocean, as well as a god of law and of the underworld...
, was pleased with Gautama's penance and so gave him an inexhaustible well as a reward. Gautama's well became a refuge for all beings tormented by the drought. The wives of the Saptarishi – the seven sages – also came to fetch water from the well, demanding priority and abusing Gautama's disciples. When Ahalya intervened, she was abused too. The wives of the Saptarishi lied to their husbands about what had happened. The agitated sages compelled Ganesha
Ganesha
Ganesha , also spelled Ganesa or Ganesh, also known as Ganapati , Vinayaka , and Pillaiyar , is one of the deities best-known and most widely worshipped in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations...
– the god of obstacles – to turn into a illusory cow, which fell dead when touched by Gautama. Proclaiming Gautama guilty of the heinous sin of cow slaughter, the sages stoned Gautama and Ahalya, driving them out of their ashram. Thereafter, the god Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
punished the Saptarishi and their wives by stripping them of Vedic knowledge.
Assessment and remembrance
A well-known verse cited about Ahalya runs–
ahalyā draupadī sītā tārā mandodarī tathā ।
pañcakanyāḥ smarennityaṃ mahāpātakanāśinīḥ ॥
A variant of this prayer replaces Sita with Kunti. Orthodox Hindus, especially Hindu wives, remember the panchakanya – the five virgins or maidens in this daily prayer. While one view considers them as "exemplary chaste women" or mahasatis ("great chaste wives") as per the Mahari dance tradition, another view states that none of them is considered an ideal woman who could be emulated. Bhattacharya, author of Panch-Kanya: The Five Virgins of Indian Epics contrasts the panchakanya with the five satis enlisted in another traditional prayer: Sati
Dakshayani
Dākshāyani or Satī is a Hindu Goddess of marital felicity and longevity. She is worshipped particularly by Hindu women to seek the long life of their husbands...
, Sita, Savitri
Savitri and Satyavan
The oldest known version of the story of Savitri and Satyavan is found in "The Book of the Forest" of the Mahabharata.The story occurs as a multiple embedded narrative in the Mahabharata told by Markandeya...
, Damayanti
Damayanti
Damayanti , a character in Hindu mythology, was the princess of Vidarbha Kingdom, who married king Nala, of Nishadha Kingdom, and their story is told in the Mahabharata.-The story:...
, and Arundhati and rhetorically asks: "Are then Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara, and Mandodari not chaste wives because each has "known" a man, or more than one, other than her husband?" Due to the "nobility of her character, her extraordinary beauty and that she is chronologically the first kanya", Ahalya is often regarded as the head of the panchkanya. Although Ahalya's "moral slip" has blemished her and denied her the high status and reverence accorded to women like Sita and Savitri, this very action has made her immortal in legend. In the Devi-Bhagavata Purana
Devi-Bhagavata Purana
Devi-Bhagavata Purana , also known as Shrimad Devi Bhagvatam or Devi Bhagavatam, is one of the most important work in Shaktism, the veneration in Hinduism of the divine feminine, next to Devi Mahatmya...
, Ahalya is enlisted in a list of secondary goddesses, who are "auspicious, glorious and much praiseworthy", along Arundhati, Tara, Mandodari, Damanyati et al. She is also considered the "epitome of the chaste wife, unjustly accused of adultery", while her "proverbial loyalty to her husband" makes her venerable.
Bhattacharya says Ahalya is unique in her daring act and its dire consequences. For Bhattacharya, Ahalya is the eternal woman who responds to her inner urges and the advances of the divine ruler, a direct contrast to her ascetic husband, who did not satisfy her womanly desires. The author regards Ahalya as an independent woman who makes her own decisions, takes risks, and is driven by curiosity to experiment with the extraordinary and then accept the curse pronounced on her by patriarchal society. It is this "unflinching acceptance" of the curse that makes the Ramayana praise her and venerate her. V.R. Devika, author of Ahalya : Scarlet letter, asks questions based on Ahalya's example: "So is it right to condemn adultery and physical encounters as modern afflictions and against our (Indian/Hindu) culture? Or do we learn from Ahalya who made a conscious choice to fulfill her need and yet has been extolled?"
Like Bhattacharya, Kelkar, author of Subordination of woman: a new perspective, feels that Ahalya was made venerable due to her acceptance of the norms of conduct for women and ungrudgingly accepted the curse while acknowledging that she needed to be punished. However, Kelkar adds, another reason for making Ahalya immoral in scripture could be that Ahalya's punishment acts as a warning and deterrent to women as patriarchal society always condemns Ahalya as a fallen woman. Jaya Srinivasan, whose discourses on tales from the epics says that though Ahalya's action was "unpardonable", she was redeemed by the divine touch of dust particles from Rama's feet. Jaya adds that Ahalya's actions and the resultant curse are a warning that such immoral behaviour leads to doom, although sincere penitence and complete surrender to God can erase the gravest sins. In Hindu weddings in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Ahalya appears as a symbolic black stone, which the bride touches with her foot while promising not to be like Ahalya.
The right-wing Hindu women's organization Rashtra Sevika Samiti considers Ahalya as the symbol of "Hindu woman's (and Hindu society's) rape by the outsider", especially the British colonizers and Muslim invaders, but also Hindu men.
The place where Ahalya practised penance and was redeemed - has been celebrated in scriptures as a sacred place called Ahalya-tirtha. A tirtha
Tirtha and Kshetra
In Hinduism, Tirtha and Kshetra are two terms denoting sites of pilgrimage.-Tirtha:A tīrtha , which literally means "a ford, a shallow part of a body of water that may be easily crossed" has come to connote places of pilgrimage associated with sacred water.-Kshetra:A Kṣētra denotes a holy precinct...
is a sacred place with a water body, where pilgrims generally bathe to purify themselves. The location of the Ahalya-tirtha is disputed, according to some scriptures it is on river Godavari, while some place it on river Narmada. An Ahalya-tirtha is located near the Ahalyeshvara temple in Bhalod on the banks of the Narmada. Another Ahalya-tirtha is located in Darbhanga district
Darbhanga District
Darbhanga district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state in eastern India, and Darbhanga town is the administrative headquarters of this district. Darbhanga district is a part of Darbhanga Division...
, Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
.