Nala

Yudhishthira, still grieving after Bhima's outburst, asks the newly arrived sage Brihadashva if there has ever been a king more miserable than himself. The sage tells him there was — a king named Nala, who lost everything to deceit and lived in the forest with only his wife — and yet Yudhishthira still has his brothers and his brahmanas.

Nala and Damayanti have never met, but they have heard each other praised so constantly that desire has taken root in both their hearts. Nala, unable to contain his longing, captures a golden-winged swan in a grove — and the bird bargains for its freedom by offering to become his messenger to the woman he has never seen.

The rishis Narada and Parvata visit Indra's celestial court, and Indra notices that the brave kshatriya kings no longer come to him. Narada explains that Damayanti's svayamvara is imminent — and the lokapalas (guardians of the world), overhearing, decide to go as well. On their way to Vidarbha, the gods encounter Nala and ask him to become their messenger.

Four gods — Indra, Agni, Varuna, and Yama — desire Damayanti and choose Nala to deliver their proposal. Nala has already promised to do their bidding, but when he learns the task, he protests: he himself desires Damayanti. The gods insist he keep his word.

Nala enters Damayanti's guarded palace unseen, by the gods' influence. When she asks how he entered unnoticed, he reveals his identity and delivers the gods' proposal — Indra, Agni, Varuna, and Yama all wish to marry her, and she must choose one.

Nala returns to the assembly of the gods, who question him about everything that happened. He recounts his entire conversation with Damayanti — her declaration of love, her threat of suicide, and her plan for the svayamvara — and submits the decision to them.

Damayanti has assembled the kings of the world, but when Nala arrives among them, she bows to the gods and speaks directly to him — confessing that she has been tormented by a swan's words and has chosen him over every other man present, including the gods themselves.

When Damayanti enters the svayamvara arena, she finds five identical men — the four gods disguised as Nala and Nala himself — and cannot tell which is her chosen husband. She prays to the gods, asking them to reveal their true forms, and they grant her request, allowing her to see Nala's mortal signs and place the garland around his shoulders.

After Damayanti chooses Nala, the four gods — delighted by her choice — each grant Nala two boons: Indra gives him presence at sacrifices and supreme sacred goals; Agni gives him his presence whenever desired and resplendent worlds; Yama gives him taste of food and establishment in dharma; Varuna gives him his presence and a fragrant garland. The gods return to heaven, the kings depart, and Nala marries Damayanti, ruling righteously like Yayati.

After the gods depart, Kali tells Dvapara he cannot control his anger and resolves to take possession of Nala and dislodge him from his kingdom. He asks Dvapara to help by entering the dice — enabling the cheating that will destroy Nala through gambling.

The gods, returning from Damayanti's svayamvara, encounter Kali and Dvapara on the road. When Indra tells Kali the svayamvara is over and Damayanti has chosen Nala, Kali's rage ignites — and the gods warn him that cursing Nala will only bring ruin upon himself.

Nala has lost everything and sits like a man maddened, unable to speak. Damayanti, still clear-headed, tries one last thing — summoning the advisers as if on Nala's orders, hoping they can reverse what has been lost.

Nala is losing everything to Pushkara at the gambling table, and the dice seem to obey only his brother. Damayanti watches her husband destroy himself and knows what she must do: send their children away before they are lost too.

After his charioteer abandons him, Nala gambles away everything — his kingdom, his riches, everything except Damayanti. When Pushkara mockingly suggests staking her next, Nala's rage finally breaks through his despair. He strips off his ornaments, leaves the city in a single garment with Damayanti following, and spends three nights outside, surviving on water alone.

Hungry and desperate in the forest, Nala spots birds with plumage like gold and tries to catch them for food and riches, covering them with his only garment. The birds rise into the sky carrying his garment — and reveal themselves as the dice who robbed him of his kingdom, leaving him naked and alone.

Naked and desperate, Nala points out the roads to Vidarbha to Damayanti, implying she should go to her father's kingdom without him. She refuses, arguing that a wife is the best medicine for a suffering husband — but his repeated directions to the road home have already planted doubt in her heart.

Exhausted and starving, Nala and Damayanti arrive at a public dwelling house and sleep on the bare ground. But Nala cannot sleep — his mind is tormented by the loss of his kingdom, his friends, and his dignity. He begins to brood over whether Damayanti would be better off without him, and in the grip of despair, he makes a decision that will shatter both their lives.

Damayanti wakes in a deserted forest to find her husband Nala has abandoned her while she slept. She runs madly through the wilderness, crying out for him — first in grief, then in anger, then in a desperate hope that he is hiding behind the creepers and will answer her call.

After the ascetics disappear, Damayanti goes to another region and sees a flowering ashoka tree. She speaks to it, asking it to remove her sorrow and inquiring if it has seen Nala. She circles it thrice and then moves on, entering an even more terrible region. The tree does not respond, and her sorrow remains unrelieved.

After traveling a long time, Damayanti sees a large caravan climbing along the banks of a river. She approaches it, causing fear and confusion among the men. She explains who she is and asks if they have seen Nala. The caravan leader Shuchi replies that he has not seen Nala and tells her the caravan belongs to King Subahu of Chedi — but her search continues without resolution.

Having slain the killer of animals, Damayanti enters a deserted and dreadful forest, alone and searching for her husband Nala who abandoned her. She roams the forest, lamenting and calling out to Nala, addressing the mountain and the forest creatures, pleading for any sign of her husband. She finishes her lament to the mountain and then leaves for the northern direction, continuing her search.

After wandering for three days and nights, Damayanti enters a beautiful forest populated by ascetics. She introduces herself as the daughter of King Bhima and wife of King Nala, and asks if they have seen her husband. The ascetics prophesy that she will soon find Nala, freed from his sins and in fortunate circumstances — and then they miraculously disappear along with their hermitage, leaving Damayanti astounded.

Nala, having rescued Karkotaka, wishes to release the serpent — but Karkotaka tells him to walk and count his steps. At the tenth step, the serpent bites him, and Nala's form instantly transforms into something hideous while the serpent takes his shape.

Wandering alone after abandoning Damayanti, King Nala hears a voice crying for help from within a great forest fire. He enters the flames and finds the serpent king Karkotaka trapped by a curse — unable to move, waiting for rescue.

Transformed and unrecognizable, Nala receives a clear plan from Karkotaka: go to King Rituparna in Ayodhya as the suta Bahuka, exchange his skill with horses for Rituparna's skill with dice, and use that skill to reclaim his kingdom, his wife, and his children.

After the serpent disappears, Nala arrives at the city of King Rituparna, hungry and exhausted. He presents himself before the king under a false name, offering his skills in horse-driving and cooking — and asks to be maintained. Rituparna, whose mind is always drawn to speed, appoints him superintendent of the royal stables.

Every evening, while living in disguise in Rituparna's palace, Nala recites a shloka lamenting a woman lost in the forest. Jivala, his companion, hears the words and asks who this woman is. Nala answers — but only in the third person, speaking of himself as though he were someone else.

King Bhima has lost track of his daughter Damayanti and her husband Nala, who vanished into the forest after Nala lost his kingdom. He sends brahmanas in every direction with an extraordinary reward — a thousand cows and a village — for anyone who can find them, dead or alive.

A messenger searching the earth for the lost queen Damayanti finally finds her — living in obscurity, her face covered in dirt. But he recognizes her by the one thing grime cannot hide: the lotus-shaped mark between her eyebrows, placed there by the creator himself.

Damayanti tells her mother plainly: if you want me alive, bring Nala here. The queen, choking with tears, brings the words to King Bhima, who sends brahmanas in every direction. Damayanti gives them a secret message — words only Nala would understand — and instructs them to report back without being discovered.

Damayanti's messengers fan out across the kingdoms, repeating her coded words in every city, village, and hermitage. They are looking for a man who might respond — a gambler who once sliced his wife's garment in half and abandoned her in the wilderness.

Rituparna rushes Bahuka repeatedly, who then selects lean but capable horses. The king objects — these weak animals cannot bear them such a distance. But Bahuka defends his choice, and when the king defers to his expertise, Nala yokes four noble horses and makes them kneel for the king to ascend.

King Rituparna tells his charioteer Bahuka that he wishes to reach Vidarbha in a single day for Damayanti's svayamvara. Bahuka's mind is torn apart by grief and suspicion — is Damayanti truly choosing another husband, or is this a ruse for his sake? Tormented, he resolves to go and discover the truth.

As the chariot rises as if into the sky, confounding its occupants, Varshneya watches Bahuka's extraordinary control over the horses. He weighs the evidence — is this Matali, Shalihotra, or Nala himself? The age matches, the knowledge matches, but the deformed body gives him pause. He decides not to conclude without proof.

As the chariot races toward Vidarbha, King Rituparna sees a vibhitaka tree and boasts he can count every leaf and fruit on it. Nala, still in his disguise as the charioteer Bahuka, dismounts, cuts down the tree, and counts — finding the king's number exactly right.

Nala has just learned the secret of dice from King Rituparna. The knowledge breaks the demon Kali's hold over him — and Kali emerges from Nala's body, vomiting the serpent venom that had tormented him for years. Nala, furious, prepares to curse the demon who ruined his life.

From the palace, Damayanti sees King Rituparna, Varshneya, and Bahuka — but not Nala. The chariot's roar was identical, yet the man is absent. Tormented by the mystery, she debates whether Varshneya has somehow acquired Nala's skill, or whether Rituparna equals him. Then she sends a messenger to search.

Damayanti hears the roar of a chariot that sounds exactly like Nala's — the same deep rumbling that once filled her with joy. The sound fills her with desperate hope and crushing despair. She declares she will perish if she does not see him today, and begins to recall every virtue of the husband she lost.

King Rituparna arrives in Vidarbha in the evening, his chariot roaring through the gates of Kundina. The sound reaches Nala's horses, who rejoice as if their master had returned. It reaches Damayanti, who is stirred with hope and grief. King Bhima welcomes Rituparna with honours, puzzled by the unexplained journey of over a hundred yojanas, while Bahuka — Nala in disguise — tends to the horses.

From her palace window, Damayanti sees a charioteer with short arms and a malformed body — and her heart grows calm. She sends her maid Keshini to question him, suspecting this is King Nala in disguise. Keshini learns he is Rituparna's charioteer and cook, and that Varshneya is with them, but the suspicion remains.

Keshini repeats the words of a grieving wife — about the gambler who abandoned her, the half-garment, the bird that stole it — and asks Bahuka to recount the tale. He speaks with a choked voice, suppressing his grief, but when he finishes, he weeps uncontrollably. Keshini reports everything to Damayanti.

Damayanti, hearing Brihadashva's account, suspects the charioteer Bahuka is her lost husband Nala. She sends her maid Keshini to secretly observe him — and Keshini returns with reports of impossible things: narrow passages widening before him, vessels filling with water at his glance, fire refusing to burn him, and flowers growing fresher in his hands.

Damayanti, now certain that Bahuka is Nala, weeps — but needs one final confirmation. She sends Keshini to steal meat from Bahuka's kitchen. When she tastes it, she recognizes the cooking of her husband from years before, and knows beyond doubt.

Keshini brings the twins to Bahuka. He recognizes them instantly — Indrasena and her brother. The king rushes to them, embraces them, places them on his lap, and weeps loudly, his grief and anguish pouring out. But then, abruptly, he sends Keshini away, fearing that her frequent visits may be misinterpreted.

Keshini reports Bahuka's strange agitations to Damayanti, who suspects he is Nala but is uncertain because of his changed appearance. She sends word to her mother, requesting a meeting with Bahuka — and with her parents' sanction, has him brought to her chambers.

Damayanti, dressed in rags with matted hair, sees the man who abandoned her in the forest and is overcome with sorrow. She confronts him with a series of questions — about dharma, about promises, about what kind of man leaves his sleeping wife in the wilderness — and demands to know where the pledge he made before the fire has gone.

Nala, still haunted by suspicion, accuses Damayanti of unfaithfulness. She responds not with anger but with an oath — calling on the wind, the sun, and the moon to strike her dead if she has sinned. The wind-god himself speaks from the sky, and flowers rain down.

With his doubts dissolved, Nala dons the garment that does not decay, recalls the king of the serpents, and regains his original form. Damayanti embraces him and weeps — and in the fourth year of separation, they are finally reunited.

King Rituparna learns that his charioteer Bahuka was actually King Nala in disguise, and that Nala has been reunited with Damayanti. He is delighted — but Nala, brought before him, immediately begs forgiveness, setting off a mutual exchange of pardon between two kings who both feel they owe the other something.

After the night passes, Nala adorns himself and goes with Damayanti to meet her father, King Bhima. The reunion is formal and joyful — Nala pays his respects, Bhima welcomes him like a son — and the entire city of Kundina erupts in celebration, decorated with flags, garlands, and flowers, as the gods are worshipped in every temple.

Brihadashva concludes the story of Nala, who lost everything to gambling and then regained it all. He draws a direct parallel to Yudhishthira's own exile, reminding him that prosperity is transient and that hearing Nala's tale brings blessings. Then he makes an unexpected offer: he will teach Yudhishthira the secrets of dice, to destroy his fear of ever being challenged again.

Rama asks Sugriva how to cross the ocean. The monkeys propose leaping or building boats, but Rama rejects both — the army is too vast, and trade should not suffer. He decides to force the ocean god himself to yield a path, threatening to dry up the sea with celestial weapons. The ocean god appears in a dream and offers a solution: Nala, son of Vishvakarma, will build a bridge that the ocean will bear.

Sugriva summons the foremost monkeys from every direction, and they arrive with armies numbering in the crores — Sushena, Gaja, Gavaya, Gavaksha, Gandhamadana, Panasa, Dadhimukha, and Jambavan with his bears. On an auspicious day, Rama marches out with this vast force, armed with trees and rocks, and they camp along the shore of the salty ocean — where the real problem begins.

Enraged by the slaughter of his invisible ambushers, Ravana leads his full army against the monkeys, arranging them in the fearsome ushanas battle formation. Rama counters with a formation recommended by Brihaspati, and the two armies collide in a battle that shakes the three worlds.

Ravana's son Indrajit binds Rama and Lakshmana with boon-granted arrows, trapping them like birds in a cage. Sugriva and the monkeys stand guard helplessly until Vibhishana arrives with the prajna weapon to revive them, and Kubera sends consecrated water to grant them the power to see invisible beings.

Enraged by the death of his son, Ravana marches out with his rakshasa army and attacks Rama with terrifying maya — creating illusory soldiers and even false forms of Rama and Lakshmana. But when Indra sends his own chariot, driven by Matali, Rama mounts it and invokes the brahmastra, an arrow that envelops the lord of rakshasas in a mass of blazing flames from which nothing remains — not even ash.