A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.504

c5.504

DHRUVA. The polar star. According to the Vishnu Purāna, the sons of Manu Swāyam-bhuva were Priya-vrata and Uttānapāda. The latter had two wives; the favourite, Suruchi, was proud and haughty; the second, Sunīti or Sūnritā, was humble and gentle. Suruchi had a son named Uttama, and Sunīti gave birth to Dhruva. While quite a child Dhruva was contemptuously treated by Suruchi, and she told him that her own son Uttama would alone succeed to the throne. Dhruva and his mother submitted, and he declared that he wished for no other honours than such as his own actions should acquire. He was a Kshatriya, but he joined a society of Rishis, and becoming a Rishi himself, he went through a rigid course of austerities, notwithstanding the efforts of Indra to distract him. At the end he obtained the favour of Vishnu, who raised him to the skies as the pole-star. He has the patronymic Auttānapādi, and he is called Grahādhāra, ‘the stay or pivot of the planets.’