Arjuna frees the five Apsarases cursed as crocodiles

Classical

During his exile Arjuna visited holy places across India: the Ganga's source, the Himalayas, Naimiṣa, Kalinga, and Maṇipura, where he married Citrāṅgadā and had a son. Then he went south along the sea coast. There he came to five sacred pools, named Agastya, Saubhadra, Paulomā, Kāraṇḍhama and Bhāradvāja, which were holy but empty. The ascetics avoided them. Arjuna asked why. The ascetics said five large crocodiles lived there and dragged under anyone who bathed. They urged Arjuna to keep away, but he went to Saubhadra, the first pool, and dived in. A crocodile seized his leg. He pulled it onto the shore, and it turned into a beautiful, ornamented woman. Arjuna asked who she was and why she had taken such a dreadful form.

She said she was Vargā, an Apsarā, a favourite of Kubera. With four friends, Saurabheyī, Samīcī, Budbudā and Latā, she had been on her way to Kubera's palace when they saw a young Brahmin studying the Veda alone in a forest, shining with ascetic power. They landed and tried to disturb him by singing, smiling and teasing. He never wavered. He looked at them with anger and cursed them to live as crocodiles in the water for a hundred years. The Apsarases begged for pardon, saying women should not be killed and Brahmins should protect creatures. The Brahmin softened the curse. They would be crocodiles for a limited time and seize men; then a man of great merit would pull them out of the water and restore their forms.

The five pools would be known as the Nārī-tīrthas, holy sites of women's suffering and release. Nārada told the Apsarases that Arjuna would free them in the pools of the southern sea. Vargā asked Arjuna to free her four friends as well. He went to the other four pools, pulled each crocodile onto the land, and each became a woman again. He cleared the waters of danger, and the Apsarases went wherever they liked. Arjuna then went to Maṇipura, where he saw his son by Citrāṅgadā, Babhruvāhana, and then went on to Gokarṇa. The story is a small one, but it shows Arjuna as a hero who helps those in trouble, and it gives five pools a new name.

The story is a small, self-contained legend of a kind the epic often includes among pilgrimage episodes. It explains why some tīrthas were feared, and how they became holy again. The pattern is a familiar one: a sage whose austerities have been disturbed curses the women who tried to disturb him, and then softens the curse in answer to their plea. The detail that the Apsarases were Kubera's attendants links them to the north, while the pools are in the south. Because the five are named, the story also works as a record of southern shrines. Arjuna does not seek the adventure; he walks into it because the ascetics warn him off, which is how he is shown throughout his pilgrimage.

Told by Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya

Who: Arjuna, Vargā, Saurabheyī, Samīcī, Budbudā, Latā, A young Brahmin, Nārada

Bound to

Chitrangada and the condition of the son origin

Ulupi drags Arjuna underwater origin

The Draupadī rule and Arjuna's twelve-year exile origin

Arjuna's Urvashi curse becomes his Virata disguise mirror

Places: Agastya, Saubhadra, Paulomā, Kāraṇḍhama and Bhāradvāja tīrthas, Maṇipura, Gokarṇa

Where this comes from

read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Adi Parva, Section CCXVII (Himalayas to Maṇipura; Citrāṅgadā)
read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Adi Parva, Section CCXVIII (the five pools; Vargā's account)
read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Adi Parva, Section CCXIX (the curse softened; Arjuna frees them)

See it on the tree · All stories

← The Draupadī rule and Arjuna's twelve-year exile · Takshaka's son Aśvasena escapes the Khāṇḍava fire →