Ruru falls in love with Pramadvara, who is killed by a snake

Pramadvara, the girl raised by the sage Sthulakesha, had grown into a woman of surpassing beauty. One day, Ruru—the son of the sage Pramati—saw her in that hermitage. The righteous man, though in control of himself, fell deeply in love with her. Through his friends, Ruru made his feelings known to his father. Pramati then went to the famous Sthulakesha and asked for Pramadvara's hand for his son. The sage agreed. Pramadvara was engaged to Ruru, and a date for the marriage was fixed, to take place when a specific nakshatra (constellation) was in the ascendant. A few days before that appointed date, the beautiful girl was playing with her friends. Her time having come, and driven by destiny, she failed to see a coiled snake on the ground. She stepped on it with her foot. Driven by that same destiny, the snake sank its venomous fangs into the body of the careless girl. As soon as she was bitten, she suddenly fell down senseless on the ground. The slender-waisted maiden, so beautiful when alive, was now painful to look at in death. Yet, paradoxically, thanks to the snake's venom, she looked more beautiful than when alive, as if merely asleep on the ground. Her father Sthulakesha and the other hermits saw her lying motionless, as beautiful as a lotus. They were overcome with compassion. A gathering of the best of Brahmanas assembled—Svastyatreya, Mahajanu, Kushika, Shankhamekhala, Bharadvaja, Kounakutsa, Arshtisena, Goutama, along with Pramati and his son Ruru, and other inhabitants of the forest. They all wept when they saw the maiden dead from the snake's venom. But Ruru, in great pain, left the scene.