There is an exquisite forest in the lower part of Merugiri.  There are many types of big trees in this forest and there are many types of trees giving many fruits and flowers.  In that forest filled with such trees and vines, birds always hummed.  Swans and peacocks used to wander.  There was a constant sound of bamboos.  This forest seemed to be very pleasing to those who went inside.

 Once upon a time, Lord Shiva was roaming in this forest with his wife Parvati.  Then many sages came to this forest to visit Lord Shankar and saw Lord Shankar enjoying playing various kinds of games  with his wife Parvati ji.  Seeing the sages coming, Parvati ji went away from there and sages went to see Lord narayana in vaikunth seeing Shankar and Parvati ji playing games.  After the sages left, Lord Shankar said to Parvati ji, Goddess why are you so ashamed, I will make you happy.  I will curse this forest that any man who comes to this forest will become a woman.  People who knew this thing never used to go inside that forest.

 There was a king named Sudhumra, who was very religious.  One day he went to the forest on horseback on the pretext of hunting and seeing this forest cursed by shiva, he wished to go inside that forest.  He did not know that this forest is cursed by Lord Shankar and went inside that forest.  As soon as he went into this forest, he became a woman and his horse also turned into a mare.  This king, who became a woman, got the name ila and came out of the forest and drowned in worry and started wandering around.

 IMoon’s son budha saw ila ,the king who transformed into a women  and proposed  Ila be his wife.  Then Ila also liked the idea and she made budha her husband, then both of them became loving couple.  A few days later Ila gave birth to a son and ila named this son budha Pururava.  After the birth of Pururava, one day Ila remembered her life as king before entering the cursed forest and went  to her master vashist. Vashist did penance of lord shiva got the blessing that ila will stay as man for a month and a women for a month.  After worshiping Bhagwati Jagdamba, he became a full-fledged man and went to goddess  Jagdamba’s manidweep loka.

In this way King Pururava was born from the female form Illa of Sudhumra and from moon’s son budha.  Later on pururava  married Urvashi and became very sad after parting with Urvashi.

Categories: Devi Bhagwat Puran, Mahabharat

Tags: birth of pururava, devi bhagwat, devi bhagwat puran, king pururava