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तपत्युपाख्यान (tapatyupAkhyAna)

 
Mahabharata
English
[Tapaty-upākhyāna(ṃ)]
(“the episode relating to Tapatī”). § 222 (Caitrarathap.). Arjuna asked why he had called him Tāpatya, and Citraratha said: “Sūrya had a lovely daughter Tapatī, the younger sister of Sāvitrī. Ṛksha's son, the king Saṃvaraṇa, duly worshipped Sūrya
to him Sūrya- resolved to bestow his daughter. Once, when Saṃvaraṇa went on a hunting expedition, his steed died from fatigue on the mountain, and he began to wander on foot and saw Tapatī alone, and declared her his love. She did not speak a word, but disappeared. He wandered through the whole forest in search of her, and failing to find her, indulged in lamentations (I, 171). He fell down on the earth. Then she appeared again. He asked her to marry him according to the Gāndharva form of marriage. She said that she loved him, but told him to ask her father Āditya for her hand, with worship, ascetic penances, and vows (I, 172). Tapatī then ascended to the skies, and Saṃvaraṇa again fell down on the earth. At last his followers found him, and his minister raised him up and sprinkled his head with water, etc. Regaining his consciousness, Saṃvaraṇa sent away all his attendants with the exception of his minister alone, and then began to worship Sūrya. He also thought of his purohita, the ṛshi Vasishṭha. After the king had stayed thus on the same spot day and night, the Viprarshi Vasishṭha came there on the 12th day. Vasishṭha knew at once, by his ascetic power, what had happened and ascended to the sky in order to see Sūrya, and asked him to give Tapatī to Saṃvaraṇa. Saṃvaraṇa, with due rites, took Tapatī's hand on that mountain resorted to by the gods and the Gandharvas. And the king caused Vasishṭha to be proclaimed his regent in his capital and kingdom, etc., and sported with his wife in the woods on that mountain for twelve years. Now Indra for twelve years poured no rain in his capital and kingdom. Then Vasishṭha brought Saṃvaraṇa and his wife back into the city, and then Indra poured rain in abundance. Saṃvaraṇa, with Tapatī, performed sacrifices for twelve years. Their son was Kuru, the ancestor of Arjuna (I, 173).