Post No. 14,992
Date uploaded in London – 16 September 2025
Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com
Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.
this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.
tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com
xxxx
In the Rig Veda, the oldest book in the world, we have this beautiful wedding mantra,
Bridegroom says to his bride,
With these seven steps become my friend.
I seek your friendship. May you never deviate.
From this friendship,
May we walk together
May we resolve together
May we love each other and enhance each other.
May our vows be congruent, and our desires shared.
Rig Veda (Tenth Mandala)
***
There is a sexy story in Anushasana Parva of Mahabharata. It is in the conversation between Bhishma and Yudhisthira . it is the story of Uttara disha and Ashtavakra.
Uttara disha means Northerly Direction; here it is the name of an ugly woman who acted as a sex maniac.
Ashtavakra means Body with Eight Bents; this name explains the science of sound and mantras. Because his father recited the Vedas with wrong pronunciation when Ashtavakra was in the womb of his mother, his body shrugged and eight bents came; Hindus are great scientists who said that sound can affect even a foetus. So, they always sent the pregnant women to their mother’s house where she will have sweet words and tasty food. We can’t see such a tender care for women in any part of the world.
***
Now let us go through the story as told by Bhishma in Mahabharata, the longest book in the world with two lakh lines.
Yudhisthira, eldest of the five Pandava brothers raised doubts about the role of woman. How can one consider a woman as Saha Dharmacharini/ part of or helper of husband’s rituals.
Bhishma narrated the story in chapter 19 of Anushasana parva.
***
Ashtavakra went to sage Vadanya and told him that he wanted to marry his daughter Suprabha.
Tamil linguistics
Look at the name Su+ Prabha. We have scores of such SU prefixed names in Sanskrit books. Tamils also followed the same method and had Nal+Velli, Nal+ Keeran , Su + Lochana in Sangam literature. This explodes the theory of (Bluffing) of Caldwell gangs. From Kanya Kumari to Kashmir, Tamils had the same Six Paravas in Climate, same Four Divisions of Army , Same belief in the sanctity of Arundhati and Himalaya, same belief in Seven Steps in Friendship, same belief in Dreams, same belief in Bird Omens and same belief in Eight Types of marriage etc. The prefix NAL=GOOD=SU is seen in Sanskrit and Tamil literature)
***
Sage Vadanya asked Ashtavakra to go to North and meet a woman and then come back to marry his daughter. When he asked the direction he gave the details of Alakapuri, Capital city of Kubera, Kaliash, Himalaya and beyond those places.
(This formed the plot of Kalidasa’s Meghaduta, the first travelogue in the World)
When Ashtavakra proceeded to North, he met seven beautiful girls who led him to a palace there. There was an ugly woman served by these seven girls. There were two beds. When the night came, he was asked to take a bed in the same room where the ugly lady was staying. As the night passed by, the ugly lady jumped on to Ashtavakra’s bed and insisted sexual intercourse, but Ashtavakra rejected all her sexual advances. In the morning, she became a beautiful woman and praised Ashtavakra for his self -control. She asked him to go back and marry the daughter of the sage.
Ashtavakra came back as a victorious man and married Suprabha.
***
What is interesting here is the quotations of the characters involved in this story.
In the beginning Yudhisthira says,
Some of the law givers are of the firm opinion that women are given to untruth; if that is true, then how can one living with a woman order one’s life? It seems to me therefore, that saha dharma is no more than a secondary attribute of marriage, and what husband and wife do together is given the name dharma purely on functional grounds. The more I think about it , the more it appears highly complex to me. Can you throw some light on this subject? – Anusashana parva 19-1-8
***
The ugly woman who embraced Ashtavakra demanding sex, distressed by the lack of response from him said,
“The only thing woman wants , finding a man near her, is the gift of sex. Driven by Kama, I have come to your service. Take me, I will satisfy all your desires. Here we both will enjoy all the earthly enjoyments. To women, nothing is more desirable than physical intimacy with men” — Anusashana parva 19-86
Ashtavakra said,
“I swear I intend marrying someone I love, the daughter of a sage. Of these things I have but little knowledge. Moreover I shall not touch a woman who is another’s wife”.
Then again, the ugly woman said,
“Aroused with sexual desire, women behave as they wish. Burning with desire they can walk on burning sands, but their feet do not burn thereby.
Women desire not even Gods as they desire Kama, the lord of sexual desire, for by nature women are given to sexual pleasure, and to that alone.
Then they know neither father, nor family, nor mother. They regard neither brother, nor husband, nor children. Driven by their sexual desire, they break the bounds of family, even as the great rivers destroy their own banks.
May be there is one in a thousand women who is not greedy of sexual pleasure, and in a hundred thousand one who is sexually faithful to her husband.
Why, as you have seen, the fever of maithuna jwara – desire for sexual union—burns even in old woman”.
***
When Ashtavakra was steadfast in his view and showed his self-control, the ugly woman Uttara Disha (woman in the Northerly Direction) concluded by saying,
“On this earth, or in the heavens, wherever men and women are, they have in them, in physical proximity, the impulse for physical union.
By placing you in the situation of closest physical proximity of a woman, I was indeed putting you to test; but by doing so, I was also strengthening your resolve not to be swayed away from dharma. You have indeed conquered yourself and thus conquered all sacred spaces.
Sage Vadanya, the father of the girl you wish to marry, had sent you to me to teach you, and that I have done.
Ashtavakra returned and married Suprabha.
***
My comments
Newspaper reports show us every day many cases of both men and women straying away from dharma/law. This story explains the human psychology; it also shows how to conquer sexual desire through self- control. Tamil and Sanskrit literature have many examples to justify what Mahabharata said in Anusashana Parva.
The Seven Beautiful Girls in the story represent Seven Days of the week. One must have self -control all the days.
–subham—
Tags- who is a good wife, part 9, Ashtavakra, Suprabha, Tamil linguistics, Sage Vadanya.
Tamil and Vedas 