Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.2477

c8.2477

PRAMOHINĪ. A Gandharva maiden. Pramohinī and four Gandharva maidens were absolved from their curses by a drop of water from the river Narmadā. The story recounted to Yudhiṣṭhira by Nārada is as follows : Five Gandharva maidens Pramohinī, Suśīlā, Susvarā, Candrikā and Sutārā were friends. Pramohinī was the daughter of Śukasaṅgiti, Suśīlā that of Suśīla, Susvarā of Svaravedi, Candrikā that of Candraka and Sutārā of Suprabha. On a day in spring all the five went about collecting flowers in a forest. As they went on walking they reached the pond named Acchoda. They bathed in that pond and after that made an idol of Ambikā with clay and adorned it with golden ornaments. Putting marks on it with Kumkum (Saffron) and Candana (Sandalwood-paste) they danced around the idol with devotional songs. As they were doing so, the eldest son of sage Vedanidhi came to bathe in the Acchoda pond. He was very charming to look at with eyes like lotus, broad chest and round and brawny hands. He looked like another Kāmadeva (Cupid). He was wearing a deer-hide and around his waist was a yellow waist-band of Muñja grass. The five girls were attracted by the ascetic youth and stopping their dancing they at first thought of making him their guest. The more the girls looked at him the more they saw a resemblance of Kāmadeva in him and they decided to make him their husband. The girls started to approach him with amorous looks and perplexed by this move, the ascetic youth fled away from the place. The girls searched for him everywhere and he was not to be found. They found an emptiness on all sides. They thought that perhaps he might be a magician. They felt themselves in the plight similar to that of the gopis who searched for the missing Kṛṣṇa. Somehow taking courage they reached their homes and fell down before their mothers. The mothers asked them why they were so late and they replied they knew not the passage of time speaking with the Kinnaris who arrived there. Their bodies were hot and the mothers thought that it might be due to their brisk walking for such a long distance.