Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.2478

c8.2478

Telling a lie like that to hide their secret, they lay on the ground thinking about him and him alone. They did not make the Kelimayūra (peacock kept for pleasure) dance, did not teach the parrot in the cage, did not pet the mongoose nor did they converse with their pet Śārikā. The night seemed to them like a yuga and as soon as it was morning they ran up to the Acchoda pond. The brahmin boy came there that morning also for bathing. The five girls encircled him and requested him to marry them. He made several excuses and tried to get away from them. Then Pramohinī breaking the circle went and caught hold of him by his legs, Suśīlā and Susvarā caught hold of his hands, Sutārā embraced him and Candrikā kissed him on his cheeks. At last in despair the brahmin boy cursed them and turned them into devils. The girls were not to be subdued like that. They also cursed him in return and made him also a devil. All the devils formed like that by curses and counter-curses lived in the same place in the forest. After a long time one day the sage Lomaśa came that way by chance and the burning effulgence of Lomaśa due to his severe penance made him unapproachable to the devils and they stood at a great distance from him. But the brahmin devil by the strength of his penance in his previous life knew Lomaśa and falling before him in prostration told him everything that had happened. Lomaśa was greatly moved by his story and he took them to the banks of the river Narmadā. At that time a wind blew and drops of water from the river, changed them into their original forms and they stood praising Narmadā. Then following the advice of Lomaśa the brahmin boy married the five girls and lived on the shores of Narmadā bathing in it, drinking its water and worshipping it. They lived there for long happily and then attained Viṣṇuloka. (Chapter 22, Padma Purāṇa)