Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.900

c7.900

31) *Indra and Śrutāvatī*. Bharadvāja's daughter Śrutāvatī (Śruvāvatī) performed a very severe penance to get Indra as her husband. To test her character, Indra assumed the shape of Vasiṣṭha and went to Śrutāvatī. She received the guest with due reverence. Pleased with her treatment, the guest handed her five raw fruits and asked her to cook them for him. Śrutāvatī gladly undertook that service. She proceeded to cook the fruits but even after burning all the fuel she had, the fruits were not properly cooked. So she began to use her limbs one by one as fuel and burned them up. Indra was deeply impressed by her self-sacrifice and appearing to her in his own form married Śrutāvatī. (M.B. Śalya Parva, Chapter 48).