By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik - Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist
In the Mahabharata, we come across two very interesting stories: in one, the husband saves his wife’s life; in the other, the wife saves her husband’s life. The first story is of Ruru and Priyamvada. Ruru’s beautiful wife, Priyamvada, died at an early age. Distraught, Ruru performed penance and invoked Yama, the God of Death, and begged Yama to resurrect his wife. After Ruru’s great persistence, Yama decided to negotiate. Yama conveyed that if Ruru would give him half his life, he would give that half to Priyamvada. Thus, they could live together for a few more years. Ruru agreed to give half his life to his wife. Priyamvada was restored back to life and both returned to the land of the living and lived many years together until it was time for both to die.
