Long ago, King Uttanapada ruled from a royal throne, and he had two queens. He loved Queen Suruchi more, and Queen Suniti less. Queen Suniti had a little son named Dhruva.
One day Queen Suruchi’s son, Uttama, sat on the king’s lap, high on the royal throne. Little Dhruva wanted to climb up too. But Suruchi was there, so the king did not lift him.
Then Suruchi said to Dhruva, “Why do you hope for this, child? You are not my son. This throne is for my son, Uttama, only. You are only Suniti’s son.”
Dhruva left his father and ran, angry, to his own mother’s rooms. Queen Suniti took him on her lap. She smiled gently and asked, “Who has hurt you, my son?”
Dhruva told her everything, and Suniti’s eyes filled with tears. “Be kind and good, my son, and be a friend to every living thing,” she said. “Good things come to the humble, as water flows down to low ground.”
But Dhruva said, “Mother, I will win a place so high that the whole world will honour it, higher than even my father has. You will see it. Let my brother Uttama keep the throne.”
Dhruva walked out of the city into a nearby wood. There sat seven rishis on black antelope skins, spread over kusha, a holy grass. Dhruva bowed low. “I am the son of Uttanapada and Suniti,” he said.
“You are only four or five, and your father is king,” said the puzzled rishis. “Why are you sad?” Dhruva told them, and they were amazed that so small a boy would not forget unkind words. “Tell us your wish, and we will help.”
“I do not want riches or a kingdom,” said Dhruva. “I want a place that no one before me has reached.” The first rishi answered, “Then pray to Vishnu, the great god who looks after the world.”
The other rishis spoke, one after another. Pulaha said, “Indra prayed to Vishnu, and he became king of the gods.” Vasishtha said, “Pray to Vishnu, and you can win even the best place in all three worlds: earth, sky and heaven.”
“How do I pray?” asked Dhruva. The rishis said, “Let the world outside go quiet, and think only of Vishnu. Then say without a sound the prayer your grandfather Manu once said: ‘Om! Glory to Vasudeva.’” Vasudeva is a name of Vishnu.
Dhruva bowed to the rishis and set off, sure he would succeed. He came to Madhuvana, a holy grove on the bank of the Yamuna river. There he prayed just as they had taught him, until Vishnu filled his heart.
Dhruva stood first on his left foot, and one half of the world dipped down. When he stood on his right foot, the other half sank. When his toes touched the ground, the mountains shook and the rivers and seas tossed.
The gods felt the world shake too, and they were worried. Some of them went to Indra, king of the gods, to find a way to stop the boy’s prayer. Other heavenly beings and their king tried hard to break his thoughts.
One of them took the shape of his mother and stood before him, weeping. “My son, my son, stop!” she cried. “You are only five years old. This is your time to play!”
But Dhruva did not even see her, for his heart was full of Vishnu. “Run, run, my child!” the shape cried, and then it was gone. It had never been Suniti at all.
Next came more of their tricks: strange shapes, and loud cries and howls all around. Dhruva did not look. He saw only Vishnu in his heart.
All their tricks had failed, so the worried gods went to Vishnu himself. “This boy grows stronger every day, like the moon that grows day by day,” they said. “Does he want Indra’s throne, or the sun’s place, or the moon’s? Please stop him!”
Vishnu said, “He does not want Indra’s place, or the sun’s, or riches. I will give him what he asks. Go home, and do not be afraid.” So the gods went home, with Indra in front.
Then Vishnu came to the boy, with four arms. “Son of Uttanapada, I am pleased with you,” he said. “Ask me for a boon, a gift you wish for.”
Dhruva opened his eyes. The Vishnu he had seen in his heart stood before him, holding a conch, a spinning discus, a heavy mace, a bow and a sword, and wearing a crown. Dhruva bowed to the ground, and his hair stood on end.
“I am only a child,” said Dhruva. “Please give me words to praise you.” Vishnu touched him with the tip of his conch, and Dhruva’s face shone with joy: “I bow to you, whose forms are earth, water, fire, air and sky!”
“Now that I have seen you, my wish has come true,” said Dhruva. Vishnu asked again what boon he wanted. Dhruva told him what Suruchi had said, and asked for a place higher than every other, a place that would last and last.
Vishnu gave him a place above the sun, the moon, the planets and the seven rishis who taught him. “You will hold up the stars and planets for an age of ages,” he said, “and your mother will shine as a bright star near you.”
Dhruva sits in the one place no one can move him from, and every star turns around him. Even the Moon’s star groups, the nakshatras, follow him round, and his mother’s star shines close by. That still star in the north is the pole star.
For grown-ups
Where this story comes from
This story is retold from the Vishnu Purana, Book I, chapters 11–12, in H. H. Wilson’s English translation (London, 1840). Wilson has no verse numbers, so we cite the chapter and quote his words. The last page also uses two short passages from Book II of the same Purana, chapters 7 and 9, where the pole star is called the pivot of the sky. In the Vishnu Purana, the seven rishis teach Dhruva, and his mother Suniti becomes a star beside him. The better-known telling in the Bhagavata Purana (Book 4, chapters 8–12) differs in many places, and we name them below. The name *dhruva* means “fixed” or “firm” in Sanskrit, and it is also the Sanskrit name of the pole star. It is a faithful simplification. We shortened and left out parts, and we name them below. We did not add events, and we did not change anyone’s reasons. The dialogue is a plain rendering of Wilson’s English, not a word-for-word quotation. Eight lines need a note.
1. Page 25 comes partly from Book II. Chapters 11–12 say that Vishnu gave Dhruva a station above the sun, the moon, the planets and the seven rishis, where he will “sustain the stars and the planets”. “Every star turns around him” and “the Moon’s star groups … follow him round” are from Book II: the pole star is “the pivot or axis of the whole planetary circle” (ch. 7), and “As Dhruva revolves, it causes the moon, sun, and stars to turn round also; and the lunar asterisms follow in its circular path” (ch. 9).
2. “No one can move him from” (page 25). The Purana does not say this in those words. It says the station is above all the others and lasts a whole kalpa, and it calls the pole star the pivot of the sky. Our line puts that in a child’s words.
3. “An age of ages” (page 24). Dhruva asks for a station “that shall endure for ever”. Vishnu grants “the duration of a Kalpa”, a day of Brahma, far longer than human history. We do not say that Vishnu gave it for ever.
4. His age. The rishis call him “but four or five years of age”. The false mother calls him “a child but five years old”.
5. Who tries to stop him (pages 14–17). In the narrative, the gods called Yamas “took counsel with Indra”, and the beings called Kushmandas, with their king, “commenced anxious efforts to distract his meditations”. “One” of them takes the shape of Suniti. Then Rakshasas and other frightening beings “advanced”, and the text calls all of it “their delusive stratagems”. Wilson’s heading for chapter 12 calls these the “Unsuccessful attempts of Indra and his ministers to distract Dhruva’s attention”. The story says “some of them went to Indra”, “other heavenly beings and their king”, “one of them” and “their tricks”.
6. The prayer (page 11). “Om! Glory to Vasudeva” is the start of a longer prayer in Wilson’s text. The story gives only its first words.
7. The conch (page 22). The Vishnu Purana says only that Vishnu “touched the son of Uttanapada with the tip of his conch-shell”. It does not say where.
8. The seven rishis (page 24). “The seven rishis who taught him” is our reading. The seven who teach Dhruva in chapter 11 are Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu and Vasishtha, the usual names of the seven rishis. Chapter 12 places Dhruva “above the regions of the seven Rishis”, and Ushanas sings “that the seven Rishis should be preceded by Dhruva”. The text does not say in so many words that these are the same seven.
Jyotish note — this is not from the Purana. In jyotish, the nakshatra the Moon was in at the moment a child was born is called the child’s birth nakshatra. One of the Moon’s star groups that turn round the pole star was in the sky when your child was born. The Vishnu Purana says nothing about anyone’s birth nakshatra. Jyothshi can tell you your child’s birth nakshatra and Moon sign.
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Three things this telling leaves out, and why
- The false mother’s threat (ch. 12). She says, “If thou wilt not desist from these austerities, I will terminate my life before thee.” A threat of self-harm is not for young children. Page 15 keeps her tears and her plea. The meaning stays: the test is whether Dhruva turns from Vishnu, and he does not.
- The frightening shapes (ch. 12). Rakshasas with faces “emitting fiery flame”, jackals “as they devoured their prey”, goblins calling “Kill him, kill him; cut him to pieces; eat him”, and monsters with lion, camel and crocodile faces. Page 17 says “strange shapes, and loud cries and howls”. It keeps that they came and that he did not look.
- Why the false mother says “Run” (ch. 12). She cries that “the hideous spirits of ill are crowding into this dreadful forest with uplifted weapons”. The story keeps “Run, run, my child!” without the reason.
- Suniti’s words about a former life (ch. 11). She says Suruchi’s favour is “the reward of her merits in a former existence” and that “Suruchi has rightly spoken”. The story keeps her tears and her advice to be kind and humble. Her words about former lives are adult teaching, and on the page they would seem to say that Dhruva deserved the unkindness.
- Dhruva’s former birth (ch. 12). Vishnu says that Dhruva was once a Brahman who saw a rich young prince and wished to be born a king’s son. This is adult teaching, and the story keeps the boon without it.
- The Madhuvana aside (ch. 12). The grove is named after the demon Madhu, and Shatrughna, Rama’s brother, later killed Madhu’s son Lavana there and founded Mathura. It is a side story, and it has a killing.
- Details from the Bhagavata Purana. Many families know Dhruva’s story from the Bhagavata Purana, and these well-known parts are from that telling, not from Vishnu Purana Book I, chapters 11–12:
• the sage Narada teaches Dhruva, and gives him the twelve-syllable mantra (Bhagavata 4.8). In the Vishnu Purana the seven rishis teach him, and the prayer begins “Om! Glory to Vasudeva”;
• Dhruva fasts for months, on fruit, then leaves, then water, then air (Bhagavata 4.8). Chapters 11–12 of the Vishnu Purana give no length of time and no food;
• one big toe presses the earth so that half of it tilts (Bhagavata 4.8). The Vishnu Purana says that each foot bent half the earth, and that at his toes the earth shook;
• Vishnu touches Dhruva’s cheek with the conch (Bhagavata 4.9). The Vishnu Purana does not say where the conch touched him;
• Dhruva goes home, his father welcomes him, and he becomes king (Bhagavata 4.9). Chapters 11–12 of the Vishnu Purana do not tell this. Chapter 13 lists Dhruva’s descendants;
• Uttama is killed by a Yaksha, and Dhruva fights the Yakshas (Bhagavata 4.10–11);
• a heavenly chariot comes for Dhruva, he steps on Death’s head, and Suniti goes up ahead of him (Bhagavata 4.12). In the Vishnu Purana, Vishnu says that Suniti will abide near him “in the orb of a bright star”.
The seven rishis each speak in turn: Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Kratu, Pulaha and Vasishtha. The story names only Pulaha and Vasishtha and calls Marichi “the first rishi”. The rishis say that his anger shows “the vehemence of the Kshatriya nature”; page 8 says they were amazed that so small a boy would not forget unkind words. The long hymn of praise (ch. 12) is given as its first line. The gods’ guesses also include “the sovereignty of riches or of the deep”. Vishnu says that whoever praises Dhruva “at dawn, or at eventide” gains great religious merit. Ushanas, the teacher of the gods and the demons, sings: “Wonderful is the efficacy of this penance, marvellous is its reward, that the seven Rishis should be preceded by Dhruva”, and praises Suniti, “who, having given birth to Dhruva, has become the asylum of the three worlds”.
The question children ask here
“Why does that one star never move?” The Vishnu Purana answers it:
- Vishnu gave Dhruva a station above all the others, where he will “sustain the stars and the planets” (Book I, ch. 12);
- the pole star is “the pivot or axis of the whole planetary circle” (Book II, ch. 7);
- “As Dhruva revolves, it causes the moon, sun, and stars to turn round also … for all the celestial luminaries are in fact bound to the polar-star by aerial cords” (Book II, ch. 9). The pole star turns in its own place, as the pivot of the sky (Book II, ch. 7); it does not travel across the sky like the other stars.
“Because Vishnu gave Dhruva the middle of the sky, and all the other stars are tied to him and turn around him.”
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