Ramayana Simplified: Part 12: The Story behind the birth of Maharishi Durvasa

Maharishi Vishwamitra along with the two princes, Rama and Lakshmana were continuing their journey to Mithila. Maharishi Vishwamitra was introducing several characters through his stories. He started narrating the story behind the birth of Maharishi Durvasa, about his curse and the impact it had on the entire community of devas thus leading to the churning of the ‘Palazhi’ ocean and many other incidents related to that.

Maharishi Durvasa was a special type of character. He was very short-tempered but at the same time, he was very powerful through his tapashakthi (strength of tapas). Maharishi Vishwamitra explained the reason for the short-tempered nature of Maharishi Durvasa.

The story behind the birth of Maharishi Durvasa

Once there was a situation where Lord Shiva had to kill Tharakasura. As a result of that, Tharakasura’s three sons started doing tapas to Lord Brahma for getting more strength. When Lord Brahma appeared before them, their wish was that all the three should die of a single arrow at the same time. Lord Brahma granted their wish.

These asuras then went to three different places so that they don’t die of the same arrow at the same time. They also started attacking nearby kingdoms thinking that no one would be able to kill them since they got their wish granted from Lord Brahma. They started killing innocent people and there was a situation of chaos, as these asuras were killing and expanding their territories.

Seeing this situation, the devas approached Lord Brahma, he approached Lord Vishnu and both of them, in turn, approached Lord Shiva for help. Whenever Lord Shiva tried to kill them, they tried to escape and their army men got killed every time. Finally, Lord Shiva opened his third eye, everything started burning through the fire that arose from his third eye. When the three asuras understood that their death was approaching, they were forced to gather at a single place, Lord Shiva’s divine asthra (weapon) called Pinaka passed through their bodies and the three of them died.

Lord Shiva could not control his anger after this. So he immediately had to find a way to control his anger. He checked with his wife Parvathy Devi if something could be done about his anger.

The story of Sheelavathy

Once when a maharishi named Animandava, was in his tapas, a few thieves happened to pass by. The king’s army came chasing them and found the maharishi who was in tapas. When the army men started questioning the maharishi, he neither heard nor talked to the army men as he was involved in his tapas. The enraged army men forked him on a spear.

There was a king named Ugrasravas. In the course of time, he lost his empire and became bedridden. His wife’s name was Sheelavathy who was known for her ‘Pathivrithya’ (love/respect towards husband). She used to carry her husband on her back and go to seek bhiksha (alms) from households. Once while walking, they saw maharishi Animandava hanging in a spear. Ugrasravas started laughing on seeing this.

The maharishi cursed Ugrasravas that his head will burst into pieces when the sun rises the next day. Sheelavathy cursed back that the sun will not rise the next day. Sheelavathy, due to her steadfast Pathivrithya which is just like tapas, is said to have prevented the sun from rising the next day. Consequently, life on Earth became miserable. The devas requested Sheelavathy to withdraw her curse but she was not ready to give up. Maharishi Athri’s wife Anasooya was sent by the thrimoorthys (Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu, and Lord Shiva) to convince Sheelavathy.

Anasooya first visited Maharishi Animandava and persuaded him to withdraw the curse that was put upon Ugrasravas. Sheelavathy also withdrew her curse and the sun rose, as usual, the next day.

The thrimoorthys became very happy on seeing this and asked if Anasooya had any wish to fulfill in return for the help she had done. Anasooya requested three sons each having powers of Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu, and Lord Shiva respectively. Thus she got three sons, Chandra(Moon)(with the power of Lord Brahma), Dattatreya (with the power of Lord Vishnu), and Durvasa (with the power of Lord Shiva). The anger which Lord Shiva had, was put into the child (Durvasa) as Anasooya was in the initial stages of her pregnancy. This anger is said to have become the default character of Maharishi Durvasa.

Few Insights…

• Why did Lord Brahma fulfill the wish of asuras knowing that it can create problems?

This is answered in the chapter: The background behind the birth of Rama (https://megharamesh.medium.com/ramayana-simplified-5afca944d20a)

• Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu, being very powerful, approach the help of Lord Shiva when there was a problem. Does it mean that Lord Shiva is the most powerful among the thrimoorthys?

There is no question of strength or power between the thrimoorthys. Depending on the situation, we find that sometimes Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu may approach Lord Shiva, and sometimes the other two may approach Lord Vishnu (we see this in the story behind the birth of Lord Rama, https://megharamesh.medium.com/ramayana-simplified-5afca944d20a). There are also situations where the thrimoorthys approach the goddesses(Saraswathi Devi, Lakshmi Devi, or Parvathy Devi) in case of any problems. In the above story, it is also to be noted that the thrimoorthys take the help of Anasooya in solving a problem. So sometimes they may also need the help of ordinary people

• From the above story, we see the way in which women are portrayed in Hinduism. From this story, we see several instances that show the importance of women. Lord Shiva consults with his wife Parvathy Devi when he encounters a problem. Unfortunately, in some families, we still see that women’s opinions are not taken into account when it comes to taking major decisions related to their life or related to the family.

Another powerful character, we see is Sheelavathy who is shown to be so powerful that she was able to prevent sunrise the next day. Imagine the power she would have had to carry her bedridden husband every day! She is also known for her Pathivrithya as mentioned in the story. Pathivrithya is often misinterpreted as something which makes women inferior to men. But through the story of Sheelavathy, we see that she gains her power through Pathivrithya which is similar to tapas. The extent to which a woman’s power is portrayed can be clearly seen from this story. As mentioned earlier, depending on the problem we also see that the thrimoorthys take the help of a woman, Anasooya in solving a major problem.

It is sometimes very unfortunate to hear when people say that ‘Hinduism suppresses women’. I would request the so-called ‘modernists’ to learn about Hinduism and the way it treats women before making allegations that Hindu society is a misogynist society. These kinds of stories can also be helpful for the real misogynists who don’t give importance to a woman’s opinions or treat a girl child/woman as a curse or a burden.