Chapter 137 - Māṇḍavya Impaled

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

The sages said:

1-3. By whom was this tiger among sages, Māṇḍavya of excellent penance, placed on the stake? For what reason? Do tell us.

Sūta said:

That sage Māṇḍavya was performing his pilgrimage with great faith. He came to this holy spot. That sage of great vows came to the great and excellent Tīrtha of Viśvāmitra and offered libation to the ancestors and also to the Sun.

4-6. He repeated the excellent Sūkta beginning with “vibhrāṭ”, a great favourite of Bhāskara. In the meantime a thief who carried the stolen booty of some person came there, O Brāhmaṇas, along with the people closely pursuing him. On seeing the excellent sage in the vow of silence, the thief dropped down the booty in front of him and entered a cave. In the meantime, those persons reached that place for taking away the booty.

7-8. The sage was strictly adhering to the vow of silence. The wise sage knew that the thief was in the cave. Yet he did not say anything. Seeing the booty in front of him, they said to the leading sage: “A thief with the booty in his hand has come this way. O esteemed one, say quickly which way did he go out.”

9-10. He was repeatedly asked. But he was thinking about the Supreme Being (or consideration for others). He saved the life of the thief. Thereupon they whispered: “Indeed this man is the thief. Closely pursued by us, he has taken the guise of a sage.”

11. Without thinking anything further, those tribal people of wicked intention took him to a dense forest and staked him on the spike.

12. It was thus that the sage was staked on the spear, as a result of the terrible Karma of the previous birth, though he was wise and faultless.