Birth of Sudyumna

In the Dravida kingdom, the progenitor of humanity Vaivasvata Manu (King Satyavrata) and his wife Shraddha had seven sons. Now they are expecting their next child. Upon approaching their royal priest the great sage Vashistha performed the Putreshthi Yagnya (Fire sacrifice) dedicated to Mitra and Varuna to obtain a child for the couple. This time queen Shraddha wished for a daughter. Sage Vashistha heeded her wish while performing the sacrifice and thus, a daughter was born. The daughter was named "Ilā". However, Manu desired a son, so Vashistha requested the gods, who changed the gender of the girl to that of a male, and the eighth boy of King Manu and Queen Shraddha was named "Sudyumna."


Sudyumna turned in to Ilā

As time passes, Vaivasvata Manu made Sudyumna the king of the Bahlika kingdom (Morden day Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan). As a king, from time to time, he used to go to the forest for hunting. Once upon a time when King Sudyumna went for hunting to the bottom of Mount Puru (Meru), he saw a beautiful antelope pair. Seeing the king behind her, the female antelope left her companion and started running away. The male hid somewhere in the forest. Chasing the antelope with his minister and companions, Sudyumana accidentally crossed the Sharavana (The forest of reeds), which was the sacred grove of Goddess Parvati, where Shiva and Parvati spend many intimate moments. On entering Sharavan, Sudyumana and his companions instantly turned into women and their horses became mares. But none of them knew that there was a story behind this accidental incident too. 

Long ago, when the great sage Shaunaka came to the Puru (Meru) mountain range with their disciples wishing to see Lord Shiva, they found Goddess Parvati enjoying private moments with Lord Shiva. Seeing this, they all started feeling guilty and quickly left the forest and went to the ashram of Lord Nara and Narayana.

When Goddess Parvati came to know about this, she also felt ashamed and told about her guilty feelings to Shiva. Then the lord clarified (cursed) that whoever enters this part of the forest, all men, except God Shiva, including trees and animals, will immediately turn into a woman.

This curse was simply the reason for Sudyumn and his companions becoming women. Sudyumn, who turned in to Ilā again, was in guilt and anger. She was thinking in her mind why she followed the antelope for which he had to suffer this condition? But the antelope was in fact a Yakshini who disguised herself as an antelope along with her husband and purposefully led Sudyumna to Sharavana to save her husband from the king.

Seeing the state of Ilā (Sudyumna), she came in her true form and told Ilā about this legend and the curse of Lord Shiva. Hearing this Ilā becomes worried and asks her the cure. The Yakshini asked Ilā to wait until she met someone like her own. After listening to Yaksini's words, now Ilā decided not to return to her kingdom. She took the name of Ilā again, left Sharavana and started living in the forests of Mount Puru (Meru) with her companions.


The meeting and marriage of Ilā and Budha

By then Treta Yuga had arrived. One day Ilā was roaming around in the forest in her new form with her attendants. Co-incidentally Soma and Tara's child Budha (God of Mercury) was present in that region. Although Mercury was doing penance at that time, they fell in love at first sight with each other.

Mercury went to Ilā and asked, "Oh beautiful, it seems that as you are a nymph of heaven. Who exactly are you and what are you doing in this dense forest?"

Ilā said, "My name is Ilā and I am the child of King Satyavrata (Vaivasvata Manu). Due to a curse, I am wandering in this forest."

After this, Ilā continued narrating the details of the whole incident to Budha. After hearing all, now Budha too narrated his life story to her. They were connecting with each other as they were almost similar in all forms. Budha proposed Ilā to marry him and asked for her consent. Ilā agreed. The reason for this was also that due to the effect of being a woman, female qualities were developed in Ilā. So she already started loving Budha. 

With his divine power, Budha turned the attendants of Ilā into Kimpurushas (Hermaphrodites) and ordered them to flee from there. He also told them all that, like Ilā, they too will get their life partners soon. Now Ilā got married to Budha and started spending a good time in the forests of the Puru Mountains. 


Birth of Pururava and his brothers

In the ninth month of their marriage, Ilā gave birth to her first son. Being born on Mount Puru, the boy was named Pururavas. With the passage of time, Ilā (Sudyumna) started worrying about her kingdom due to being away from it for so long. But she couldn't be able to go back to her kingdom with the female form. So she thought about her male form that she had lost now. She then remembers the sage Vasistha. At that very moment, Sage Vasishta appeared and offers her to worship Lord Shiva for a solution. 

Pleased with the worship of Ilā, when Lord Shiva asked her to ask for a boon, Ila asked for her masculinity. But Lord Shiva was bound by his promise to Goddess Parvati. And also wanted to fulfill the wish of his devotee. Therefore, he tied her in a cycle of blessing. That boon was that during the rest of her life Ilā will be a man every alternate month and will transform into a woman the following month. It was going to be a cyclic process each month which Ilā accepted as her fate.

Ilā returned to his kingdom as Sudyumna with Pururava. There he gave birth to four other sons named Shashabindu, Utkala, Gaya (Haritashva), and Vinatashva. The four sons ruled the kingdom for their father as Sudyumna was unable to do so himself due to his alternate gender. The sons and their principalities were called Saudyumnas. Utkal, Gaya, Vinatashv, and Shashabindu crowned as the kings of, Utkala Kingdom (Mordan day Odisha region), Gaya (southern part of Bihar region), the eastern regions including North Kuru and the Bahlika Kingdom (Morden day Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan) respectively. On the other hand, Sudyumna himself, with the help of his royal priest Maharshi Vashistha, regained control of the Pratishthanpur (Prayagraj) kingdom. He continued ruling as Sudyumna every alternate month and retired to the palace when she changed to Ilā. Sudyumna (Ilā) kept Pururava with him as he was so dear to him.


The beginning of Chandravansha (Lunar Dynasty)

When Pururavas attained adulthood, Sudyumna left his kingdom to Pururavas and went to the forest for penance. Then, for the success of his penance, the Deva rishi Narada gave Sudyumna a nine-letter Navakshari Mantra from which, Adi Shakti (Supreme Goddess) could be pleased. When Adi Shakti emerged in front of Sudyumna that time Sudyumna was in his Ilā (female) form. Ilā praised the goddess, pleased with which the goddess merged the king's soul with her, and thus, Ilā attained salvation. In the Mahabharata, Sudyumna/Ilā is called the father as well as the mother of the Aila dynasty. 

Sudayumna, succeeded by Pururava who got the Pratishthanpur kingdom after him. Hence Pururava became the first king of the Aila dynasty and the Chandravansha (Lunar dynasty).

To be continued...