Śaṅkhacūḍa and Tulasī

A devotee's son

Dambha, a king of the dānavas and a devotee of Viṣṇu, had no son. Taking a Kṛṣṇa mantra from his guru Śukra, he sat at Puṣkara and repeated it for a hundred thousand years, until a scorching radiance rose from his head and frightened the gods. Viṣṇu reassured them: this is my devotee, and he only wants a son. Then he granted Dambha his wish.

The son was Śaṅkhacūḍa. But he was no ordinary child. In a previous life he had been Sudāmā, a cowherd companion of Kṛṣṇa in Goloka, cursed by Rādhā to be born among the dānavas. He remembered it all.

The armour and the bride

Śaṅkhacūḍa too went to Puṣkara to do tapas. Brahmā appeared and granted him what he asked: that the gods would never defeat him. He also gave him a divine armour, the Kṛṣṇa-kavaca called “the blessing of the world's blessings”, and told him to go to Badarikāśrama, where Tulasī, daughter of King Dharmadhvaja, was performing austerities for a husband.

Tulasī was not easily won. She tested him with hard words about the dangers of desire; he answered her honestly, and told her who he truly was. Satisfied that he could not be ruled by a woman's charm, she accepted him. They were married, and Tulasī became the most faithful of wives.

King of the three worlds

Crowned king of the dānavas, Śaṅkhacūḍa conquered heaven and took the gods' places and their shares of the sacrifice. Yet, the Śiva Purāṇa says, he ruled well; his subjects prospered and he remained a devotee at heart. The gods went to Brahmā, Brahmā took them to Viṣṇu, and Viṣṇu told them his secret: this was Sudāmā, and his death was destined to come from Śiva's trident. All of them went to Śiva.

The message

Śiva first sent the gandharva king Puṣpadanta as a messenger: return the gods' kingdom, or fight. Śaṅkhacūḍa listened calmly and answered that he would fight. He said farewell to Tulasī — who had dreamt of evil omens and begged him not to go — and led his army to the banks of the river Puṣpabhadrā.

The battle

The war was immense. Kārttikeya and the great heroes of the gods fought Śaṅkhacūḍa and could not prevail. Bhadrakālī fought him and, the text says, heard a voice from the sky telling her that he could not be killed while his armour and his wife's faithfulness protected him. At last Śiva himself took the field, and raised his trident. Again the voice spoke: Śaṅkhacūḍa cannot die while he wears the kavaca and while Tulasī's virtue is unbroken.

The price

So Viṣṇu, at Śiva's bidding, did two things. He came to Śaṅkhacūḍa as an old brahmin and asked, as a gift, for his armour — and Śaṅkhacūḍa, generous to the last, gave it. Then Viṣṇu took Śaṅkhacūḍa's own form, went to Tulasī's palace with drums of victory, and was welcomed as her returning husband.

In that moment Śiva's trident fell. Śaṅkhacūḍa's body was burnt to ash, and he rose freed from Rādhā's curse, in his old form as Sudāmā, and returned to Kṛṣṇa. From his bones, the Śiva Purāṇa says, arose the conch — the śaṅkha — sacred in the worship of every god.

Tulasī's curse

Tulasī realised that the man beside her was not her husband. Heartbroken, she cursed Viṣṇu: you have no pity, your heart is like stone — so become a stone. Śiva came to console her. Your curse will stand, he told her, but hear what follows. You will leave this body and become the river Gaṇḍakī, and a sacred plant — the tulasī — without which no worship of Viṣṇu is complete. And Viṣṇu will lie as stones on the Gaṇḍakī's banks, marked by insects with the sign of his discus: the śālagrāma. Whoever brings together the śālagrāma and the tulasī leaf will gain great merit.

So Tulasī left her body in a radiant form and went with Viṣṇu to Vaikuṇṭha. From the body she left behind flowed the Gaṇḍakī, and on its banks the śālagrāma stones are found to this day.