Usha and Vanasura

Krishna had more than one lakh and eighty thousand sons. But the best of them was Pradyumna and Pradyumna’s son was Aniruddha.

Vali’s son was Vanasura and Vanasura’s daughter was Usha. Usha once met Parvati and Shiva. She asked Parvati who her husband would be. Parvati replied that in the month of Vaishakha a person would appear in Usha’s dreams. And this person would be her husband.

As promised by Parvati, Usha did see a person in her dreams. But she did not know who this person was. She told her friend Chitralekha about this. Chitralekha thought that the only way to find out was to show Usha the portraits of various important personages amongst the devas, gandharvas and asuras. But the required person could not be identified from these portraits. Usha was then shown the portraits of humans and immediately she identified Aniruddha.”

Many years ago, Vanasura had prayed to Mahadeva,” he had said, “please grant me fights. I have ten thousand arms. What will I do with all these arms if I don’t get a chance to fight?”

“Be patient,” replied Mahadeva. “One day you will find your flag lying broken. When that happens, you will get the opportunity to fight as much as you wish.”

At this Vanasura was happy.