Drought Ends When Samvarana Returns with Tapati
King Samvarana remains on a mountain sporting with his new wife, Tapati, for twelve years. In his absence, Indra withholds all rain, plunging the kingdom into a famine so severe the capital resembles a city of the dead. The sage Vashishtha must intervene to bring the king home and restore the natural order.
With his guru Vashishtha’s permission, King Samvarana decided to stay on the mountain with his wife. He instructed his ministers to rule in his stead, and Vashishtha departed. For twelve years, the king sported with Tapati among the mountain’s groves and streams, living like a god.
In the kingdom he left behind, a different reality unfolded. Indra, the king of the gods who commands the rains, did not pour a single drop on Samvarana’s city or lands for all those twelve years. A punishing drought took hold. Crops failed. Hunger and starvation spread until the people became like walking corpses. The capital, once vibrant, now looked like a city of Yama, the god of death, populated only by the dead.
Seeing this devastation, the illustrious rishi Vashishtha, learned in dharma, knew he had to act. He returned to the mountain and found the king. Vashishtha brought the tiger-like Samvarana, who had been away from his city for twelve years, back to his capital, together with Tapati.
The moment the king re-entered his city, the slayer of demons — Indra — sent down rain as before. Revitalized by the life-giving showers, the city and the kingdom, which had been enervated by the king’s long absence, became extremely happy again. With his wife Tapati, King Samvarana then performed sacrifices for twelve years, ruling in happiness like Shakra, the lord of the maruts.