Chapter 24 - The Legend of Dharmadatta

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Note: The legend of Dharmadatta is mentioned in 12.86 supra. The detailed legend is given in this chapter. This is obviously a later addition.

Pṛthu said:

1. The great benefit of the person of observing the Kārttika Vrata has been mentioned. Describe once again its efficacy. By whom was this observed? By whom has this splendid Vrata been performed?

Nārada said:

2. Formerly, in the city of Karavīra^[1], in the country (around) Sahya mountain, there was a certain Brāhmaṇa well known by the name Dharmadatta.

3-7. He performed (all) Viṣṇu Vratas. He was always engaged in the proper worship of Viṣṇu.

Once, in the month of Kārttika, he went to the temple of Hari when a fourth of the night yet remained, for the purpose of Hari Jāgaraṇa (keeping awake at night along with prayers to Hari).

As he went along taking all the materials of worship of Hari with him, a Rākṣasī (demoness) of dreadful appearance was seen coming by him. On seeing her, he became extremely frightened. All his limbs began to tremble. Out of fear he threw all the materials of worship and the holy waters upon her. The moment she was hit by that water which contained a Tulasī leaf after remembering Hari’s names her sins perished. She remembered that her state was the result of her Karmas of the previous birth. She prostrated in front of the Brāhmaṇa and spoke these words:

Kalahā said:

8. I have attained this plight (of being an ogress) as a result of my own previous Karmas. How can I once again, O Brāhmaṇa, attain the excellent goal?

Nārada said:

9. On seeing her bowing down and clearly speaking about her own Karmas, the Brāhmaṇa was exceedingly surprised. Then he spoke these words:

Dharmadatta said:

10. What is that Karma as a result of which you have attained such a plight as this? Who are you? To which place do you belong? What had been your conduct? Tell me everything.

Kalahā said:

11. O Brāhmaṇa, formerly there was a Brāhmaṇa named Bhikṣu in a city in Saurāṣṭra. I was his wife Kalahā by name.^[2] I was extremely cruel.

12-16. No auspicious rite was performed by me even at the instance of my husband. Nor did I ever offer him sweet food. He became dejected because I was fond of quarrel and habituated to speak (harsh) words to my husband. So my husband became inclined to marry another woman. Therefore, I took poison and gave up my life, O Brāhmaṇa. Then the servants of Yama bound me and carried me away even as I was being tortured. On seeing me Yama asked Citragupta:

Yama said:

O Citragupta, see what acts have been performed by this woman. Let her experience the fruit thereof, food or otherwise.

Kalahā said:

17. Then Citragupta rebuked me and spoke these words: Citragupta said:

No good act was done at all by this woman.

18. She used to eat sweet food but nothing was given to her husband. Hence let her be born of a Valgulī (a kind of bat or a species of nocturnal birds) and let her remain feeding herself on her own faeces.

19. She used to despise her own husband and regularly quarrelled with him. Hence, O Yama, let her be born in the womb of a Sūkarī (a sow, a female pig).

20. She used to eat straight from the vessel in which food was cooked. She was further in the habit of taking food by herself. Hence let her be born as a cat that devours her own young one.

21. With her husband in view, she had committed suicide. Hence she is highly despicable. So, let her remain as a ghost in the dead body, all alone.

22. Therefore, she has to be taken to a desert place by the soldiers (of Yama). Let her be a ghost there and remain there for a long time.

23. After that let her be born (as mentioned before) in the three wombs (species) as she had been a doer of evil acts.

Kalahā said:

24. I remained as a ghost in a dead body for five hundred years. Being afflicted with hunger and thirst I permeated the body of a merchant. Then I came to the southern land to the confluence where Kṛṣṇā and Veṇī meet.^[3]

25. As soon as I came to the banks of that river, I was dragged out of the body of that merchant by the attendants of Śiva and Viṣṇu.

26. Then, O excellent Brāhmaṇa, you were seen by me even as my body has become emaciated. Thanks to the contact with the Tulasī water sprinkled with your hand, all my sins have disappeared.

27. O eminent Brāhmaṇa, perform that holy rite whereby I shall attain liberation from this ghostly nature, as well as the three types of births destined to happen later.

28. The excellent Brāhmaṇa pondered over these words of Kalahā. He was afflicted with fear, surprise and misery at the turn of her Karmas. His mind was moved on seeing her agony. After meditating for a long time, he spoke these words out of distress:

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Modern Kolhapur. It seems that the author is probably a Maharashtrian.

[2]:

For the story of Kalahā and her redemption compare PdP VI (Uttara Khaṇḍa, Pūrvārdha), Chs. 106, 107, 108.

[3]:

The confluence of Kṛṣṇā and Veṇī is at Māhulī near Satara (Maharashtra). River Kṛṣṇā is mentioned in old inscriptions (e.g. at Khidrapur) with the joint name Kṛṣṇā-Veṇī, though Koynā, a river equal to Kṛṣṇā, joins it at Karad (Satara Dist.).