Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.1151

c4.1151

AURVA II. A brahmin living in the country of Mālava. This brahmin got a daughter named Śamīka by his wife Sumedha. She was married very early to Mandāra, son of Dhaumyaka and disciple of Śaunaka. After some days when Mandāra his wife fully grown he went to Aurva to bring his wife home. Aurva sent them both to the house of Mandāra with his blessings. On their way home they met the Maharṣi Bhuśuṇḍi and burst into laughter at his sight. The sage cursed them and made them into two trees. When Aurva found his daughter and son-in-law missing he started a search for them. Then he came to know that both of them had changed into trees by a curse. Aurva and his wife then prayed to God for help. Aurva then lived in the tree of Śamā in the shape of Agni and Śaunaka made an idol of Gaṇapati with the root of the Mandāra tree and worshipped him. Gaṇapati was pleased by the devotional deeds of Aurva and Śaunaka and changed the trees again into Śamīka and Mandāra. (Gaṇeśa Purāṇa).