Ida (goddess) - Curse and Marriage To Budha

Curse and Marriage To Budha

In the Ramayana, the Linga Purana and the Mahabharata, Ila grows to become the king of Bahlika. While hunting in a forest, Ila accidentally trespassed Sharavana ("Forest of Reeds"), the sacred grove of the goddess Parvati, the consort of the god Shiva. Upon entering Sharavana, all male beings except for Shiva, including trees and animals, are transformed into females. In the Ramayana, even Shiva had assumed the form of a female to please the goddess. One legend tells that a female yakshini disguised herself as a deer and purposefully led Ila to the grove in order to save her husband from the king. The Linga Purana and the Mahabharata emphasize the sex change of Ila to be a deliberate act of Shiva to start the Lunar Dynasty. The Bhagavata Purana et al. texts tell that Ila's entire entourage as well as his horse also changed their genders.

According to the Ramayana, when Ila approached Shiva for help, Shiva laughed with scorn but the compassionate Parvati reduced the curse and allowed Ila to switch genders every month. However, as a male he would not remember his life as a female and vice versa. While Ilā roamed the forest in her new form with her female attendants, Budha, the god of the planet Mercury and the son of the moon-god Chandra, noticed her. Although he had been practising asceticism, Ilā's beauty caused him to fall in love with her at first sight. Budha turned Ilā's attendants into Kimpurushas (hermaphrodite, lit. "is it a man?") and ordered them to run away, promising that they would find mates as Ilā had.

Ilā married Budha and spent an entire month making love to him. However, Ilā woke one morning as Ila and remembered nothing about the past month. Budha told Ila that his retinue had been killed in a rain of stones and convinced Ila to stay with him for a year. During each month she spent as a woman, Ilā had pleasure with Budha. During each month as a man, Ila turned to pious ways and performed austerities under the guidance of Budha. In the ninth month, Ilā gave birth to Pururavas, who grew to become the first king of the Lunar Dynasty. Then, as per the advice of Budha and Ila's father Kardama, Ila pleased Shiva with a horse sacrifice and Shiva restored Ila's masculinity permanently.

Another legend from the Vishnu Purana credits Vishnu of restoring Ilā's manhood as Sudyumma. The Bhagavata Purana et al. texts tell that after Pururavas's birth, the nine brothers of Ila - by horse sacrifice - or the sage Vasistha – the family priest of Ila – pleased Shiva to compel him to give the boon of alternate month manhood to Ila, turning him into a Kimpurusha. The Linga Purana and the Mahabharata record the birth of Pururavas, but do not narrate the end of Ila's alternating gender condition. In fact, the Mahabharata describes Ilā to be the mother as well as the father of Pururavas. According to another account found in the Vayu Purana and the Brahmanda Purana, Ilā was born female, married Budha, then was transformed into a male called Sudyumna. Sudyumna was then cursed by Parvati and transformed once again into a female, but became a man once again through Shiva's boon.

In almost all versions of the tale, Ila wants to live as a man, but in the Skanda Purana, Ila desires to be a woman. The king Ela (Ila) entered Parvati's grove at Sahya mountain and became the woman Ilā. Ilā wished to remain a woman and serve Parvati (Gauri) and Ganga, the goddess of the Ganges river. However, the goddesses dissuaded him and told him that life as a woman was a curse and full of sorrow. Ilā bathed in a sacred pool and returned as Ela, bearded and deep-voiced.