Shiva - Sati/Parvati:
The Destroyer of the Trinity, the supreme God of Gods, was a loner, vagabond, refusing to settle down and be tied down by earthly relationships. Enters Sati, the daughter of Prajapati Daksha of Kankhal. At such a young age, her love moves everyone except her father. The reluctant Shiva had to answer her calls, and for the first time, somebody wanted to marry him as a boon. What followed was wrath between Shiva and Daksha, a clash of egos that ended the soft maiden Sati's life. She chose death after overhearing her father insult her husband. Shiva's sorrow turned to the angry tandav that destroyed the world. He roamed around as a vagabond again, this time with a broken heart!
A few years passed by in her memory as he roamed the land of Aryavarta, making a Linga at every Sati Peeth beside her. In that way, this time, he will always be there by her side to protect her.
Enters Parvati, the daughter of Parvat Raj. She was believed to be Sati reborn by everyone except Shiva. Denial was the best defence for his heart. He put Parvati on a difficult test to impress him enough to accept her. He had made up his mind that this time he won't make the same mistake of falling in love. But she was Adi Shakti herself. At sixteen, the maiden Gauri performed difficult penance as Uma and won his heart. They married grandly, and she took over his abode to make it home. Sati always remained in his memories, but Parvati gave him a perfect married life. Their respect for each other even made their smallest of clashes and quarrels perfect. To calm an angry Kali, he stepped up and lay on her path. No ego came between their love, as they became proud parents of Kartika, Ashoka Sundari and Ganesh. Together, they made the Earth safer and guided each other through the destruction of evil. She was the power behind his destruction. Today, in India, unmarried women seek a husband like Shiva, and newly married couples seek Parvati's blessings.
Narayan and Laxmi:
Lord Vishnu is the Preserver of the Trinity of Gods. He took the Kurma avatar to churn the ocean of milk, to help the Devas and Asuras regain what they had lost. Out came Laxmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, Daughter of Samudra Dev. She saw the handsome Vishnu mesmerise the Asuras as Mohini, and she asked him to marry her. She is the wealth behind his kingly ways. Although in God forms, they have no issue, yet they are sometimes believed to be the first married couple of the Gods and can never be worshipped without each other. In their different Avatars on earth, they are sometimes mother and son, siblings, friends or couples. They together help to preserve the earth.
Ram and Sita:
Ram was the prince of Ayodhya, the perfect man. Sita was the daughter of Janaka, the Princess of Mithila. He was a warrior, and she was his home. They met at the Yagna of Maharshi Vishwamitra when he was around sixteen and she was barely close to her teenage years. Their views of the world were different, they crossed paths, yet Ram and Sita learnt the meaning of life. Before they could consummate their marriage, disaster struck. They left for exile, promising to stay away from each other, but being responsible as husband and wife. He promised her his life. That she will always be his only wife and queen. He became Maryada Purushottam. No king at that time was as loyal to one wife as him. He trusted her enough that she was chaste; she trusted him enough that he would come for her. He knew the questions that could arise from his people. They pined and cried for each other in fond memories. They stayed away from each other most of their life, taken away by fate or driven away by society, yet they remained truthful and loyal to each other. He could not stop her from going; he was the king first, then the husband, and his trust in her chastity had no proof for his people.
She stayed away, suffering in silence, knowing what he was going through, and she lived through their children, Labh and Kush, the only signs of their brief marital bliss. He could not stop her when she left forever; he sat silent, a strand of her hair in his hand, of all that remained of her. He taught Labh and Kush all they needed to know to rule the kingdom and left them to unite with his wife by jumping into the Sarayu. Their perfectness made them the reincarnation of Narayan and Laxmi. They put their responsibilities ahead of their love and suffered in silence.
Today, Ram and Sita are worshipped in temples all over India. They are the epitome of love for the Indians.
Laxman and Urmila :
The brother of Ram married the sister of Sita, and their marital bliss too was short-lived because of the doom that came upon Ayodhya. Laxman wanted to follow his brother to the forest, and Urmila wanted to follow him. But he made her stay back in the Palace to look after their old mothers. She waited 14 Years to see him and prayed for his safety as the news of the Battle arrived at Ayodhya. C prayed to the goddess Maya to grant her his part of sleep for fourteen years so that he could stay awake and guard his brother in the night. Upon being back from the forest, they were blessed with twins as Laxman moved his capital to present-day Lucknow. They stayed together through thick and thin, even as the relationship between their respective siblings broke.
Kama and Rati:
Kama was the son of Brahma, the God of Love, somewhat of the Indian Cupid with his arrow of flowers. His wife was Rati. As Kama was turned to ashes by Shiva's third eye, Rati prayed to god for mercy. Kama was forced to be reborn on earth as a human, and Rati happily followed him.
Draupadi-Arjun-Subhadra:
If love triangles are a thing that adds spice to movies now, then this one is surely the most famous triangle. Draupadi gave her heart to the young man who won her in the swayamvar. She had heard of Arjun, the greatest warrior and chose him over Karna, his half-brother. He was a charmer who gave his heart to his friend's sister and his own cousin, Subhadra. Subhadra had loved him ever since she knew him, and they eloped happily away from the vain Suyodhan, who wanted to marry her. But they were welcomed by an angry Draupadi. Arjun had given up on all his vows to his first wife. Her sole authority was gone, and he shared her with his brother. Draupadi's call in distress was always to her other husband, Bheem; Arjun never defended her at any point in his life. Arjun's firstborn was also Subhadra's son Abhimanyu. Although they stayed together, Draupadi and Subhadra's relationship was always a cold war because of Arjun. Draupadi followed the brothers to death as Subhadra stayed behind to mentor her grandson and new king Parikshit in Hastinapur.
Krishna-Radha/ Rukmini:
The God who taught love was Krishna. He was the flirtatious Gopal who played the flute and danced with the Gopis, stealing their clothes and their butter. His love for Radha was a teenage romance full of passion and deep meaning, beyond the social barriers of the land. She was older, married in some versions and yet in a mad trance at his name. She danced to his flute, and no matter how many gopis he met, every night at the gardens beside the Yamuna, Krishna met Radha, played his flute and made haste for her. His separation from her was yet again due to his responsibilities towards his people, and he told her to wait for him. Radha waited for years in vain for news from him. Making his capital Dwarka, he was sure she was waiting for him back home. But she could take the pain no longer and committed suicide. Radha's death devastated him. He stopped playing his flute and dancing. He played the flute only because Radha danced to it. Krishna returned to Dwarka as a staunch politician.
Rukmini was a princess of Videhi and sister to Krishna's enemy Rukmi. When Rukmi wanted her to marry the sinner Sishupala, she wrote a letter to Krishna urging him to make her his. Krishna responded as they eloped to get married. She made him vow not to kill her kin to marry her, and he kept her word. She was his chief consort from his many marriages, and her devotion to him is expressed in many tales. She gave him his first son and supported him throughout her life. Once, when his wife was set to weigh him against their valuable clothes and jewellery, she chose a Tulsi leaf to be equal to him, such was her devotion.
Abhimanyu and Uttara:
My favourite epic couple, Abhimanyu, was the warrior son of Arjun and Uttara, the daughter of King Virat. They got married just before the outbreak of the great Kurukshetra war when he was sixteen and she was around fourteen. Their only child, Parikshit, was still unborn when Abhimanyu was brutally killed by his uncles. Uttara lived all her life bringing up her child like his father. In their short span of marital life, so great was their love that Uttara wanted to die in his pyre. When stopped by Krishna for her child, she asked for a boon of rebirth as his wife, to commit Sati. The great Rani Sati Temple in Rajasthan stands as a witness to the fulfilment of her promise.
