Ruru and Pramadvara

 

An affectionate father pleading for his daughter’s life

A parents’ affection for their child is unlimited. He/she will do anything to bring happiness to the child and protect the child from any bad experience. This is one such touching story from our Puranas.

Once there lived a sage called Ruru. Who was this Ruru? It is always important for us to understand the family tree of our sages as this gives us a sense of the long line of our ancestors. That is why in many families we keep having the same names repeated over generations. Perhaps easy to remember your grandfather if your son is also named after him.

Anyway coming back to our story of Ruru, he was a descendant of Bhrgu Maharishi who was one of the son’s of Brahma. Ruru’s father was Pramati, the grandson of Bhrugu maharishi Ruru was a learned man in his own right.

At that time, there lived in that region a Gandharva chief named Vishvavasu. He once saw the celestial dancer Menaka and fell in love with her. Menaka lived with Vishvavasu for a few years. They had a daughter. Celestial dancers do not live on Earth. Once the child was born, Menaka went back to the Indraloka.

When the time for Menaka to return came, she left her daughter near a river and went back. The child was found by a rishi from one of the hermitage in the forest. The rishi and his wife brought up the beautiful girl as their own. They named the child Pramadvara. Vishvavasu, who loved his daughter watched her life and growth from his celestial abode .

Pramadvara grew up to be a beautiful young girl. One day the young Ruru happened to see Pramadvara and fell in love with her. The father of Pramadvara, who saw Ruru saw a learned and wise young man. Ruru also came from an illustrious family. Pramadvara’s father who brought her up could not think of a better match for her.

The elders got together and fixed a date for the wedding. Vishvavasu, who was looking out for his daughter

While the wedding preparations were on, Pramadvara went to the river to fetch water and a snake from the bush bit her and she died on the spot.

Ruru who was greatly sad and disappointed, got down to the Ganges and bathed. Then rinsing his mouth he took some water in his hand and said "By the favour of God I have acquired by my devotion and worship of gods, devotion and service to my teacher, by my scripture-study, my worship with Gāyatrī, my prayer, and meditation, my penance, my offerings to the holy fire, and my oblations, let her come to life. If she does not come to life, I will die in this Ganges water." Making this prayer, making the gods witnesses he poured the water down.

The Gods heard his prayer. They told him “ We can bring her back, if you are willing to share half your lifetime with Pramadvara.” Ruru, who loved Pramadvara agreed.

But then someone had to take this message to the God of death, Yamadharmaraja himself. Vishvavasu decided that he would be the one. He went to the abode of Yamadharmaraja and said “ Oh wise one, I lost my daughter prematurely. She was young and full of life. Please bring her back to life.”

The God of death told him “Vishvavasu, life and death are determined by the great cycle of time. No one can change it. But since you are a wise Gandharva who serve the devas well, I can give you a boon. I need someone who is willing to share sacrifice their  lifetime with Pramadvara so that she can live.”

Vishvavasu said “That is not a problem, Dharmaraja. My future son in law, Ruru who is a scion of the Bhrugu maharishi is willing to sacrifice half his life for the sake of my daughter. They were engaged to be married. So please grant half of Ruru’s life to Pramadvara so that they can spend atleast a few years together.”

Dharmaraja was moved by this tale of sacrifice and allowed Pramadvara to live in return for Ruru’s lifetime. The young couple got married and decided to share whatever time they had on earth together with the blessings of both their parents and Pramadvara’s divine dad Vishvavasu.