About
Urmila — Gandharvi, Mother of Somada
Urmila · Urmilaa
Urmila is a gandharvi named in the Balakanda of the Valmiki Ramayana as the mother of Somada, the gandharva woman who served the sage Chuli during his austerities and became, through his ascetic power, the mother of Brahmadatta, king of Kampilya. Urmila herself does not act within the episode; she is named only to identify her daughter Somada by patronymic, in the account narrated by the sage Vishvamitra to Rama at Girivraja. No event, action, or further description is recorded for Urmila in the surviving primary literature.
✦ Lineage
- Daughter: Somada, a gandharva woman who served the sage Chuli and became, through his ascetic power, the mother of Brahmadatta, king of Kampilya and later husband of the hundred daughters of King Kushanabha.
✦ Disambiguation from Other Figures Named Urmila
The name Urmila is shared by several distinct figures across the Sanskrit corpus, and this gandharvi is not to be identified with any of them. The best-known bearer of the name is Urmila, daughter of King Janaka of Mithila and wife of Lakshmana, who appears throughout the principal narrative of the Valmiki Ramayana; she has no recorded connection to Chuli, Somada, or Brahmadatta. A separate Urmila is named in the Mahabharata as a wife of Yama, the god of death, likewise unconnected to this gandharvi. The three figures share only a name, and no primary source identifies any of them with one another.
✦ References
- Valmiki Ramayana, Balakanda, Sarga 33, Verse 12: the sole primary attestation of Urmila, naming her as the mother of the gandharva woman Somada.
- Böhtlingk and Roth, Grosses Petersburger Wörterbuch (Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries): lists this Urmila as a distinct entry, mother of the gandharvi Somada at Ramayana 1.34.39, separate from the daughter of Janaka and from a wife of Yama named in the Mahabharata.
- Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries): confirms that the name Urmila belongs to several distinct women across the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Raghuvamsha.