Shiva Grants a Maiden the Boon of Five Husbands
A sage’s daughter, unable to find a husband, performs severe austerities to please Shiva. When he offers her a boon, she asks repeatedly for a single, perfect husband. Her repeated request becomes the literal form of the boon: she will have five husbands in a future life.
In a hermitage in the forest, there was once the daughter of a great-souled rishi. She was beautiful and pure, but she could not get a husband.
It is said that through her austerities, she pleased the god Shankara (Shiva). Pleased with her, the god himself appeared and spoke. “Tell me what you want.”
Thus addressed, she repeatedly told the boon-granting supreme god, “I wish to have a husband who is accomplished in every way.”
The god Shankara happily granted the boon. “O fortunate one! You will have five excellent husbands.”
The maiden, who had pleased the god, clarified her desire. “O Shankara! I wish to have only one husband who possesses all the qualities.”
The god of gods, extremely pleased with her, uttered these words again. “You have addressed me five times, asking for a husband. O fortunate one! It shall be as you have asked. You will have good fortune and all this will happen in one of your future births.”
Thus, through her own actions and the literal interpretation of her repeated plea, the maiden was preordained to become a woman who would have five husbands in a later life.