The Day Restored

The gods went to Anasūyā and won her favour, and she said, Tell me what you wish. They asked that there be day again, as before.

Anasūyā said, The greatness of a faithful wife must never be made less. So I will honour that good woman, and then I will make the day, gods, so that day and night are ordered again as they were, and so that her husband does not perish.

She went to the brahmin woman's house, and when she had been asked after her welfare, Anasūyā spoke to her of a wife's dharma, the right way for a wife to live: Do you rejoice to see your husband's face, good woman? Do you hold him higher than all the gods? By serving my own husband I have won great reward, and every obstacle has turned away from me. A woman wins half of all the merit her husband earns with such labour, by serving him alone; she has no separate sacrifice, no separate rite, no separate fast. So, good and fortunate woman, set your mind always on serving your husband, for the husband is the highest way.

The brahmin woman honoured her words and said: I am blessed, I am favoured, the gods themselves have looked on me, since you strengthen my faith again. I know that a woman has no way equal to her husband. Tell me, noble lady, what you have come to my house for, and what I or my husband can do for you.

Anasūyā said, These gods have come to me in distress, and Indra with them. Your word has taken away day and night, and with them all good works. They ask that day and night be ordered again as they were, unbroken, and I have come for that. Without the day there is no sacrifice, and without sacrifice the gods do not thrive. If the day is cut off, all work is cut off; if work is cut off, there will be no rain, and the world will perish. If you want to save the world from this danger, be gracious, good woman. Let the sun move again as before.

The brahmin woman said, My husband, my lord, has been cursed by Māṇḍavya in great anger to perish at sunrise.

Anasūyā said, If it pleases you, good woman, then at your word I will make your husband's body as it was before, and new. For in every way I honour the greatness of faithful wives.

The woman said, So be it. Then Anasūyā, the woman of austerity, lifted up an offering of water and called on the Sun, and it was the tenth night. And the Sun rose, red as a lotus in full bloom, and climbed the king of mountains, the mountain of the dawn, with his great disc. In that moment the brahmin's life left him, and he fell to the ground, and his wife caught him as he fell.

Do not grieve, good woman, said Anasūyā. See my strength, won by serving my husband. As I have never seen a man equal to my husband in form, in character, in wisdom, in sweetness of speech and in every grace, by that truth let this brahmin be freed of his sickness and young again, and let him live a hundred years with his wife at his side. As I see no god equal to my husband, by that truth let this brahmin live again, free of sickness. As my effort in worshipping my husband is constant, in deed and thought and word, so let this brahmin live.

Then the brahmin rose up, free of his sickness and young again, lighting the house with his radiance like one of the gods who never grow old. Flowers fell like rain, and the drums of the gods sounded, and the gods rejoiced, and said to Anasūyā that she had done a great work for the gods.