Arundhati is remembered today as the ideal wife, the tiny star beside Vasistha in the Saptarshi constellation, shown to every new bride as a model of fidelity. But beneath this polished image lies a far more unsettling story. Some traditions insist that before she became the revered Arundhati, she was Akshamala, a Chandala daughter.

In the Skanda Purana, a terrible famine breaks out. Hungry sages wander in search of food and arrive at the house of a Chandala who has wisely stored grain. In times of comfort, such sages would never accept food from a Chandala. Now, driven by hunger, they praise him. The Chandala agrees to feed them on one condition. The greatest among them must marry his daughter, Akshamala. The sages hesitate. After deliberation, they persuade Vasistha to accept the proposal, invoking the principle of emergency ethics. Vasistha marries the Chandala girl.