Devotion, Desire and Rebirth

Maudgalya and Nalayani as imagined by Gemini AI

One of the most provocative and complex tales found in Indian mythological lore is that of Nalayani. Nalayani was married to Sage Maudgalya who was notorious for his temper tantrums. He was afflicted with leprosy and emitted a foul odour from the sores that festered on his body. Despite this, Nalayani served him with extreme devotion.

This woman is presented as an ideal of many virtues.

1.     Self-effacement = a delicate art that nobody seems to choose willingly

2.     Conjugal devotion = pativrata dharma which is applicable only to women, interestingly.

3.     Reward of ascetic power = could be punishment too

4.     Karmic continuity = you will definitely reap what you sow.

One day, Maudgalya wished to visit a prostitute. Many sages and even gods in Hinduism were extremely lecherous creatures. I have no grouse about that. Moreover, I’m told that all such stories have something to teach us – like: even gods are imperfect. That must be a highly consoling teaching for most of us.

Maudgalya – who was a sage, don’t forget – demanded Nalayani’s gold ornaments to pay the prostitute. The wife proved her pativrata dharma by handing over all her gold ornaments. Her husband then asked her to carry him to the prostitute’s house. The devoted wife put her husband in a basket and carried him to the prostitute’s house and then waited outside until the man’s kama [lust, not to be confused with karma] burned away. In old movies, a raging fire would be shown beneath a pot as a symbol. When the pot boils over, the wife understands that now it’s time for her conjugal duty to carry her husband back home from the prostitute’s house and the prostitute will eat what was boiling in the pot.

Eventually the prostitute got tired of the sage’s insatiable lust and refused to entertain him any further. Then he took out all his fury on his pativrata wife by treating her inhumanly. You may think sages were holy people filled with love and compassion. Not in our very own indigenous mythologies.

When Maudgalya kicked Nalayani, she asked him whether his foot was hurt. Such was her devotion and loyalty. That’s how women in India were supposed to be. They were even expected to immolate themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands.

Fortunately, Nalayani escaped that last fate. Another great sage named Mandavya cursed Maudgalya to death that very night. Interestingly, Mandavya was himself on his deathbed which was nothing more than a spear on which he was impaled as punishment for his karma. Even dying, his ire was limitless. Holiness has many things without any limit in this part of the world.

The pativrata Nalayani prayed to gods: “If my devotion to my husband is true, let the sun not rise tomorrow.”

The sun has condescended to many such prayers and orders liberally in our myths and epics. And he did this time too.

When the sun didn’t rise for long, the gods became panicky. The rhythm of the cosmos was being usurped by a silly woman, however pativrata she might be. The gods managed to catch Mandavya just before he breathed his last and got him to revoke his curse. Soon Maudgalya became a handsome man cured of his leprosy because of Nalayani’s spiritual powers accrued by her conjugal devotion.

The most fascinating twist in the story happens now.

Nalayani now wants her husband to make love to her in five different ways every day. Boy, was she passionate! Having spent years suppressing her own physical, emotional, and sensory needs while serving a decaying and abusive body, now her suppressed desires erupt like Mount Tambora. Our mythical stories have great lessons for you, dear reader. Nalayani teaches us that extreme self-denial often leads to intense, unfulfilled cravings. Be careful of your ascetic leanings, especially these days when every Ram, Shyam and Hari are behaving like holy warriors of one god or the other.  

Nalayani’s transformation brings her sexuality and agency to the forefront. Woman is not merely a slave to her husband. You may wonder, as I did too, why then did Nalayani behave like a brainless woman of some Brahminical catechism all this while? Maybe, she was helpless. Maybe, some transformations arrive at the appropriate time like miracles which liberate the soul from certain bondages. I shall wait for your views on this.

Nalayani the Transformed now explicitly demands that her husband fulfil her desires in multiple aspects, moods, and forms. She went overboard, as we’d say now. That’s bad, you know. So the story doesn’t end with all those volcanic orgasms.

Sage Maudgalya counselled her to exercise restraint. He was growing old and exhausted anyway and wished to return to asceticism – whatever that meant. Now we have what our eminent scholars would call a gendered dichotomy: the male pursuit of detachment (vairagya) versus the female embodiment of worldly desire or attachment (samsara).

Karma catches up once again. Maudgalya the patron of Sanatana dharma chooses to punish the woman who had dedicated herself body and soul to the consummation of his whims and fancies and is now an undesirable embodiment of carnal pleasures. He curses her. Dharma is subtle, remember. Many of our great gurus have said that repeatedly. Bhishma, Krishna, Rama – they all understood the subtlety of dharma. Now Nalayani must have too.

Maudgalya cursed her to die and be reborn as the wife of five men. And thus was Draupadi, wife of the five Pandavas, born.

Thus, Draupadi’s polyandry is not a social anomaly or moral failing, but the cosmic fulfilment of Nalayani’s unresolved desires. Maudgalya abandoned Nalayani before her desires were properly gratified. So her intense longing was carried over into her next life as Draupadi with five husbands who would match the fivefold desires of her previous incarnation.

Nalyani’s story may remind you of Ahalya, wife of another sage, another protector of Sanatana dharma. We’ll take a look at Ahalya in the next post.

PS. Since India is becoming a Hindu Rashtra with the natural velocity of expediencies, I’m trying to understand Sanatana dharma which will be our code of ethics and law sooner than later.  [Of course, there are similar interesting and provocative case studies in other religions too. That’s why religions continue to flourish.]