Ruru

Ruru sees Pramadvara in the hermitage and is smitten; their marriage is arranged. But days before the wedding, driven by destiny, Pramadvara steps on a coiled snake and is killed instantly by its venomous bite.

Ruru's beloved Pramadvara lies dead, and his grief-stricken pleas cannot bring her back. A divine messenger appears with a terrible bargain: Pramadvara can live again, but only if Ruru gives her half of his own life.

Consumed by a vow to destroy all snakes after Pramadvara's revival, Ruru enters a large forest. He sees an old dundubha snake and raises his staff to strike — but the snake speaks to him.

Ruru has sworn to kill every snake he sees after one killed his wife. When he encounters a dundubha snake and raises his staff, the snake does not flee. It argues that it is a snake only by smell, not a biting snake, and that Ruru's indiscriminate vow shows he cannot tell right from wrong.

Having spared the strange, articulate snake, Ruru seeks to understand it. He asks how it came to be in its current form. The dundubha reveals it was once a rishi named Sahasrapata, transformed by a Brahmana's curse.