Jalandhara, Son of the Ocean

Indra is tested

Indra and Bṛhaspati, the teacher of the gods, once set out for Kailāsa to see Śiva. To test them, Śiva stood in their path disguised as a naked ascetic with matted hair, silent and unmoving. Indra, proud of his rank, demanded to know who this was, and when the stranger said nothing, he raised his thunderbolt to strike him.

Śiva simply froze Indra's arm in the air. His face blazed with anger, and fire gathered in his eyes. Bṛhaspati recognised him at once, fell at his feet and begged forgiveness for Indra. Śiva was pacified — but the fire of his anger, once kindled, had to go somewhere. He cast it far away, into the salt ocean where the Gaṅgā meets the sea.

The child of the sea

From that fire a boy was born, and his crying shook the worlds. Brahmā came down to the shore, and the Ocean placed the child in his lap. At once the boy seized Brahmā by the throat and squeezed so hard that tears ran from Brahmā's eyes. “He has held the water of my eyes,” said Brahmā when he had freed himself, “so he will be called Jalandhara.” Then he foretold the child's life: he would conquer even Viṣṇu, no being but Rudra could kill him — and at the end he would return to where he came from.

The Ocean raised him as his own son. He grew into a king of the asuras, powerful and handsome, and married Vṛndā, daughter of the demon Kālanemi — a woman of perfect devotion to her husband. As long as her faithfulness remained unbroken, the tellings say, Jalandhara could not be defeated.

The conqueror

One day Jalandhara saw the headless Rāhu in his court and asked who had done this. Śukra, the asuras' teacher, told him about the churning of the ocean: how the gods had taken all its treasures — which were, after all, the treasures of Jalandhara's father — and how Viṣṇu had cut off Rāhu's head for tasting the nectar.

Jalandhara went to war. He defeated the gods, took Indra's elephant Airāvata, the horse Uccaiḥśravas and the pārijāta tree, and ruled the three worlds. Even Viṣṇu, fighting him, was so impressed by his valour that he granted him a boon — and Jalandhara asked him to come and live in his city with Lakṣmī. Viṣṇu, bound by his word, went.

The demand

The gods, now Jalandhara's servants, prayed to Śiva. Śiva sent Nārada to Jalandhara's court. Nārada praised all his riches — and then said, as if in passing, that there was one jewel even Jalandhara did not have: Pārvatī, the most beautiful being in creation, who lived with a penniless ascetic on Kailāsa.

Burning with desire, Jalandhara sent Rāhu as his messenger. Rāhu stood before Śiva and said: you are a beggar who lives in cremation grounds; what use is a jewel like her to you? Hand her over to my master, the lord of all jewels.

Kīrtimukha

Before Rāhu had finished speaking, a terrible being burst out from between Śiva's brows — lion-faced, with a lolling tongue and eyes of fire — and lunged at him. Rāhu ran and begged Śiva for protection, and Śiva called the creature back.

But the being was still hungry. “What shall I eat?” it asked. “Eat your own body,” said Śiva. It began at its tail and ate and ate, until only its face was left. Delighted by this obedience, Śiva named it Kīrtimukha, the Face of Glory, and made it the guardian of his door: my devotees will worship you whenever they worship me, he said, and worship that does not honour you first is in vain. To this day that grinning face is carved above the doorways of Śiva's temples.

Vṛndā

Jalandhara marched on Kailāsa. The battle raged — Nandī, Gaṇeśa and Kārttikeya against the asura generals — and when Jalandhara faced Śiva himself, he used a gandharva illusion to charm Śiva's hosts, took Śiva's form, and went to find Pārvatī. She saw through him at once, vanished, and sent word to Viṣṇu: Jalandhara's strength comes from Vṛndā's faithfulness. Go to her.

So Viṣṇu did what he was asked. He appeared to Vṛndā in a forest in the guise of an ascetic, showed her an illusion of her husband's death, and then came to her in Jalandhara's own form. Believing her husband had returned, she embraced him — and her vow was broken.

When she understood, Vṛndā cursed Viṣṇu: just as you separated me from my husband by deceit, two demons will one day carry off your wife, and you will wander the forests in grief with only monkeys to help you. Then she entered the fire. Her radiance, the Śiva Purāṇa says, rose from the flames and merged into Pārvatī.

The end of Jalandhara

Now Jalandhara faced Śiva with no protection left. Śiva drew a circle in the water with his toe, and it became a blazing discus. “If you are so strong,” he said, “lift this.” Jalandhara could not. Śiva hurled the discus and cut off his head. Jalandhara's radiance left his body and entered into Śiva — the fire returned to where it had come from.

The plants that were born

Viṣṇu, the Śiva Purāṇa says, remained bewildered with grief, sitting by Vṛndā's ashes. To free him, the gods prayed to the Mother of the universe, and she gave them seeds to scatter where Vṛndā had burned. From them grew the āmalakī, the mālatī and the tulasī — and Viṣṇu, seeing them, was released from his sorrow. This is why the tulasī is dear to Viṣṇu.