Rakshasa Puloman Confronts Agni About Puloma
While the sage Bhrigu is away, the rakshasa Puloman arrives at his hermitage and sees Bhrigu's pregnant wife, Puloma. He claims she was first engaged to him and confronts the sacred fire, Agni, demanding under oath to declare whose wife she truly is. Agni is caught in an impossible dilemma, terrified of lying and equally terrified of Bhrigu's curse.
Bhrigu’s wife, Puloma, was pregnant. The sage had gone out for his morning ablutions, leaving her alone in the hermitage. It was then that the rakshasa Puloman arrived.
He entered and saw her. She was unblemished, beautiful, and she performed her duty as a hostess, serving the guest with roots and fruits from the forest. Seeing her, Puloman was consumed by lust. His mind lost its senses, and a single desire took hold: to carry her away.
But he did not simply seize her. He went to the room where the holy fire, Agni, blazed brightly. He had a question, and he wanted it answered under oath.
“O Agni!” the rakshasa said to the flaming fire. “Tell me truthfully, whose wife is she? This beautiful lady was earlier engaged to be my wife. But later, her father gave her to Bhrigu. Tell me truly if she can be called Bhrigu’s wife.”
His logic was brutal. If the fire declared she was not rightfully Bhrigu’s wife, then he, Puloman, was justified in taking her. “Since I have found her in the hermitage, I wish to carry her away. My heart burns with rage that Bhrigu should have obtained this slim-waisted woman who was my wife first.”
He pressed the point, invoking Agni’s cosmic role. “O Agni! You are always there in every being as witness of their righteous deeds and evil ones. Answer my question truthfully. The wrong-doer Bhrigu abducted her, though she was my wife first. When I hear the truth from you about whether she is Bhrigu’s wife or not, I shall carry her away from the hermitage in your presence.”
The seven-tongued fire heard these words and was extremely distressed. He was placed in an impossible bind. To lie would be a violation of his sacred nature as witness and truth-teller, and he feared the curse that would follow such a falsehood. But to tell the truth — to declare that, by the rakshasa’s claim, Puloma was not Bhrigu’s rightful wife — would unleash Puloman’s violence upon the pregnant woman. And for that, he feared Bhrigu’s curse even more.
The fire blazed, caught between two terrors, giving no answer.