Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.1146.5

c4.1146.5

5) Aurva and the birth of Sagara. Ayodhyā was once ruled by a celebrated King of Ikṣvāku dynasty named Subāhu. He had as his wife Yādavī a good natured and well behaved woman who was a gem among queens. One day Tālajaṅgha a King of the Hehaya line of rulers who was then the King of Māhiṣmatī defeated Subāhu in a battle. Yādavī was then pregnant. Jealous co-wives poisoned her; Yādavī did not die but the poison affected the child in the womb. After the defeat, Subāhu and Yādavī went and stayed with Aurva in his āśrama. For seven years they lived there and then Subāhu died. Grief-stricken Yādavī was about to jump into the funeral pyre and end her life when Aurva stopped her from the act pointing out that she was soon to deliver a child. After a few months she delivered a son and Aurva called him ‘Sagara’ meaning one with ‘gara’ (poison) in him. (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Chapters 16, 17). 6) Aurva and the sister of Garuḍa. Garuḍa, son of Vinatā, had a sister named Sumati. Upamanyu, a sage, wanted to marry her but neither she nor her relatives liked it. Enraged at this the sage cursed Sumati saying that the brahmin who married her would have his head burst. The marriage of Sumati thus remained a problem for her parents. There was a friend of Vinatā, a sannyāsini, living in a forest and to find a escape from the curse Vinatā sent Garuḍa to her. The sannyāsini advised Garuḍa to approach Aurva to find a solution for the problem and Aurva was therefore approached for advice.