The Bride Who Came Back Too Tall

Long, long ago, in the time of the first kings, a king named Revata ruled the land of Anarta from a fine city called Kusasthali. His son was Raivata, who was also called Kakudmin, the eldest of a hundred brothers.

Raivata had a daughter, and she was very lovely. When she was old enough to marry, he looked at every prince he knew and found none of them good enough for her.

"I will ask Brahma himself," he said. "He made the world. He will know who is worthy of her."

So he took his daughter by the hand and went up to the world of Brahma.

When they arrived, Brahma was listening to music. Two heavenly singers, Haha and Huhu, were singing before him, with others beside them. Raivata was a courteous king. He did not interrupt. He stood with his daughter and waited for the song to end, and it seemed to him the briefest of moments.

When the singing stopped he bowed to the ground and explained why he had come.

"Whom would you like for a son-in-law?" asked Brahma.

Raivata named the princes he had in mind, one after another, the best young men of his day.

Brahma nodded his head gently and smiled.

"Of the men you have named," he said, "not even the grandsons' grandsons are alive. While you stood here listening to our singers, age after age went by on earth. The twenty-eighth great age of this Manu is nearly over down there, and the age of Kali is close. Your friends, your ministers, your servants, your wife, your family, your armies and your treasure have all been swept away by time. You are alone."

Raivata stood amazed and afraid.

"Then, lord," he said, "you must tell me. Who should she marry now?"

Brahma spoke to him of Vishnu, who has no beginning and no end, who is time itself, every moment and hour and year of it, and in whose power Brahma creates and Rudra destroys.

"A part of that Vishnu is on earth now," he said. "Your own city of Kusasthali, that once rivalled the city of the gods, is called Dwaraka today. A part of Vishnu rules there as Baladeva. He looks like a man. Give her to him. He is a worthy husband for her, and she is a fit wife for him."

So Raivata bowed and went down to earth with his daughter.

He hardly knew it. The people had dwindled. They were shorter than the people he remembered, weaker and slower of mind. His city of Kusasthali was there, but much changed.

He went in and found Balarama, the bearer of the plough, whose chest was as fair and bright as crystal, and gave him his daughter.

Balarama looked at the bride. She came from the old time, before the people dwindled, and she was far too tall. So Balarama, whose banner is the palm tree, took the end of his ploughshare and shortened her with it, and she became his wife.

They were married with all the proper rites. Her name was Revati. Her father went away to the Himalaya, and spent the rest of his days there in prayer.

In the Bhagavata, Revata built his city of Kushasthali out in the depths of the ocean, and his son Kakudmi was the eldest of a hundred sons.

Kakudmi took his daughter Revati to Brahma's world, a place beyond everything that changes, and asked him to choose her a husband. But Brahma was busy. The Gandharvas were performing their music before him, and he had not a moment to talk. Kakudmi waited until it was over.

Then he asked his question, and Brahma laughed out loud.

"King," he said, "the men you were thinking of are long gone. Twenty-seven rounds of the four ages have passed while you waited. Their sons are gone, and their grandsons, and every family after them. Nobody on earth even remembers their names."

The king did not know what to say.

"Give your daughter to Baladeva," said Brahma. "He is on earth still. He is the Lord himself, and Vishnu is a part of him, and he has come down with everything that belongs to him to make the world clean and lighten its load."

Kakudmi bowed to Brahma and went home. His palace was empty. His brothers and all his family had fled to the four corners of the earth long before, afraid of the Yakshas and other such beings.

So he gave his beautiful daughter to Baladeva, and went away to the hermitage at Badari, to spend his last days in prayer to Nara and Narayana.