Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.1921

c9.1921

Vedavatī began to perform very severe penance to get Viṣṇu as her husband. It was at this time that Rāvaṇa had begun his campaign of conquest. He defeated all kings and was proceeding victoriously through the vicinity of the Himālayas, when he saw the beautiful damsel Vedavatī sitting alone and performing penance. Seeing so beautiful a girl engaged in penance, he told her that he was the famous Rāvaṇa with ten heads and requested her to throw away the garment of bark of the tree and the matted hair and to accept him as her husband. She rejected his request. The angry Rāvaṇa caught hold of her hand. She resisted using her teeth and finger-nails. She cried out that she wanted no more to retain the body made impure by the touch of a wicked person. She made a fire and jumped into it. Thus in the sight of Rāvaṇa, she burnt herself to death. Before death she vowed that in the next birth Mahāviṣṇu would become her husband and would kill Rāvaṇa.