Skandapurana 3.1.34

Glorious Sūta said:

"I shall recount again an ancient story praising Dhanuṣkoṭi,

the dialogue between a jackal and a monkey, O excellent ones. // 1

Formerly there was a jackal and a monkey, both remembering their previous births.

Even previously, in human existence, they had been friends.

Having attained other wombs, namely that of a jackal and likewise that of a monkey,

both of them entered into friendship, the jackal and the monkey, O twice-born.

Once, the monkey spoke to the jackal standing in the cremation ground,

seeing him in the midst of the cemetery, remembering his former birth:

The monkey said:

"Jackal, what very dreadful evil deed did you commit previously,

that you eat vile corpses of foul stench in the cemetery?"

Thus addressed then by the monkey, the jackal said to him:

The jackal said:

"In a previous birth I was indeed a brahmin who had crossed to the end of the Vedas,

learned, named Vedaśarman, knowing the full aggregate of rituals.

Having promised a brahmin, in that birth I did not

give the wealth, O monkey; therefore I became a jackal.

Therefore I eat such utterly vile food.

Those vile-minded men who, having promised, do not give,

attain the utterly contemptible womb of a jackal, O monkey.

Whoever, having promised, does not give—whether little or much—

all his hopes are ruined, like offspring for a eunuch.

When one fails to give after having promised to a brahmin, O monkey,

the merit acquired over ten births is destroyed at that very instant.

The sin that is born from failing to give after having promised

is not completely purified even by a hundred horse sacrifices.

I do not know when this sin of mine will be destroyed;

therefore, promised wealth must always be given by a wise man.

By failing to give after having promised, one certainly becomes a jackal;

therefore, what was promised must indeed be given by an intelligent, learned man."

Having said this, that jackal spoke again to the monkey:

"What sin was done by you, because of which you went to monkeyhood?

You hurt innocent forest-dwellers and birds, O monkey.

Tell me today that evil deed which gave you monkeyhood."

Thus addressed by the jackal, the monkey spoke to the jackal:

The monkey said:

"In a former birth, I was a brahmin known as Vedanātha.

Viśvanātha was my father; Kamalālayā was my mother.

O jackal, friendship indeed existed between the two of us even in our former birth.

You do not know all of that; I know it because of the weight of merit.

Having propitiated Giriśa through austerity formerly, by his grace I have

knowledge of past and future even in another birth.

O jackal, in that birth vegetables belonging to a brahmin were stolen by me.

From that sin, after experiencing hell, I was born as a monkey.

A brahmin's wealth must not be taken; from taking it, hell ensues.

Monkeyhood will follow thereafter, there is no doubt.

Therefore, property of a brahmin must never be stolen by a wise man.

There is no sin greater than the stealing of a brahmin's property.

Poison kills only the one who drinks it; a brahmin's property will burn an entire family.

Because of stealing a brahmin's property, the sinner is boiled in Kumbhīpāka.

Afterwards, with the remainder of hell, he attains the womb of a monkey.

Property of a brahmin must not be stolen, and patience must always be shown towards them.

Even if they are children, poor, miserable, or devoid of the Vedas and treatises,

brahmins must not be despised; if angered, they are equal to fire.

O jackal, I possess complete knowledge of the past and the future.

Yet I lack just one knowledge: the purification of this sin.

For you, though remembering your birth, do not understand future events.

Even regarding the past, you know little because of an obstruction.

Therefore, you do not know the past and future in full.

O jackal, for how long will such misery be experienced by us?

Who indeed will be the deliverer of the two of us from this sin?"

While the monkey and the jackal were speaking thus there,

By chance, through divine dispensation, and by the power of past merit, O brahmins,

there arrived that sage of great splendor named Sindhudvīpa,

his whole body dusted with sacred ashes, his forehead marked with the tripuṇḍra,

adorned with garlands of rudrākṣa beads, chanting the names of Śiva.

Seeing the sage named Sindhudvīpa,

the jackal and the monkey bowed down, and being filled with joy, then asked this:

The jackal and the monkey said:

O venerable one, knower of all duties, O Sindhudvīpa, great sage!

Protect the two of us! Look upon us again and again with joy, with an eye of compassion,

by which our states of being a monkey and a jackal may be destroyed.

Tell us that means today, for you are the foremost among the meritorious.

The destitute, the miserable, the ignorant, children, and people afflicted by disease—

the virtuous always protect them out of compassion, without expecting anything in return.

Addressed thus by the two of them, the wise Sindhudvīpa, the great sage,

meditated in his mind for a long time, and then spoke to that monkey and jackal.

Sindhudvīpa said:

I know the two of you well, O jackal and monkey!

O jackal, in your previous birth you were indeed a brahmin named Vedaśarman.

Having promised an āḍhaka measure of grain to a brahmin,

it was not given by you; through that sin you obtained the womb of a jackal.

And you, O monkey, were formerly a brahmin named Vedanātha.

Vegetables were stolen by you through theft from a brahmin's house, O dear one;

therefore you have attained the womb of a monkey, terrifying to all birds.

I shall declare a means for the pacification of the sin of you two.

Both of you, go quickly to the southern ocean, to Rāma's Dhanuṣkoṭi;

perform ritual ablution there, and by that you will be freed from sin.

In ancient times, a brahmin named Sumati, through associating with a Kirāta woman, drank wine;

having bathed at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he was delivered from sin.

The jackal and the monkey said:

Whose son was that Sumati, and how did he drink wine?

How became he attached to the Kirāta woman, O Sindhudvīpa of great intellect?

Please tell this in detail to the two of us now, out of compassion.

Sindhudvīpa said:

In the country named Mahārāṣṭra, there was a certain pious brahmin

renowned as Yajñadeva, who had mastered the Vedas and Vedāṅgas,

compassionate, hospitable, and a worshipper of Śiva and Nārāyaṇa.

That Yajñadeva indeed had a son named Sumati.

Abandoning both his parents and also his devoted wife,

he went off to the Utkala country, dedicated to the company of rakes.

A certain Kirāta woman lived in that country, charming to young men;

alluring young men, she took away all their wealth for a long time.

Sumati, the lowest of brahmins, went to her house.

Because he was penniless, that Kirāta woman did not accept the brahmin Sumati.

Rejected by her, Sumati, solely intent on union with her,

constantly stole a great deal of wealth from here and there,

gave it to her, and dallied with her for a long time, and ate food in her house.

He drank wine with her from a single goblet.

Dallying thus with her for a long time,

afflicted by sensual desire, he did not remember his parents or his own wife.

Once, he went with the Kirātas to commit robbery.

Those Kirātas went to the region of the Lāṭas to seize wealth.

He too, disguised in the attire of a Kirāta,

went into the house of a certain brahmin to steal wealth, reckless, sword in hand.

Having slain the master of that house, a brahmin, with a sword, the reckless one,

seized much wealth and went to the house of the Kirāta woman.

As he went, the terrifying Brahminicide pursued him,

dreadful, wearing dark blue garments, with extremely red hair,

roaring with wild laughter and making the two worlds tremble.

Pursued by her, he wandered over the surface of the earth.

Wandering thus across the entire earth, one day Sumati himself...

he went to his own village out of fear, O jackal and monkey!

Pursued by her, terrified, he went toward his own home;

pursuing [him], the brahmahatyā too went with him to the house.

Sumati fled for refuge to his father, crying, “Save me! Save me!”

Saying to him, “Do not fear,” his father prepared to protect him.

Then that brahmahatyā addressed his father: / Brahmahatyā said:

“Do not take him in, Yajñadeva, best of brahmins!

He is a drinker of liquor, a thief, a killer of brahmins, and a perpetrator of supreme sins;

he has wronged his mother, wronged his father, abandoned his wife, and done evil deeds;

he is defiled by union with a Kirāta woman; I will not release him, O brahmin!

If you take in this son who is a perpetrator of great sins, O brahmin,

your wife, his wife, you, and this son, O brahmin,

and your whole lineage I will consume; therefore abandon this son!

If you abandon this son, I will let the rest of you go at once.

You ought not to destroy your family for the sake of a single person, O wise one!”

Addressed thus by her there, Yajñadeva replied to her:

Yajñadeva said:

“Love for my son afflicts me; how can I abandon him?”

Hearing what was said by the brahmin, the brahmahatyā then said to him:

Brahmahatyā said:

“Indeed, this [son] of yours has become fallen, cast out from the varṇas and āśramas.

Do not show affection for this son; even the sight of him is censured.”

Having spoken thus, while Yajñadeva looked on, that brahmahatyā

struck his son named Sumati with the palm of her hand.

He wept, repeatedly crying out to his father: “Father! Father!”

Then his father, his mother, and even Sumati's wife wept.

In the meantime, Durvāsas, born from a portion of Śaṃkara,

arrived there by good fortune, the yogi, O jackal and monkey!

Then Yajñadeva, seeing that sage, an incarnation of Rudra,

bowed down and begged for refuge on account of his son.

The father said:

“O Durvāsas, you are a great yogi, truly born directly from a portion of Śaṃkara.

Darśana of you can never happen for the meritless.

My son has become a killer of brahmins, a drinker of liquor, and a thief;

this brahmahatyā, having come to strike him down, is turning about [here].

So that this son of mine may be freed from the great sin,

and so that this terrible brahmahatyā may swiftly dissolve away,

tell that means today; have compassion on my son!

Indeed, he is my only son; I have no other child, O sage.

If he dies, my lineage will be cut off completely at the root.

Then surely there will not even be an offerer of rice-balls to the ancestors.

Therefore show mercy unto us, O venerable sage!”

Addressed thus, Durvāsas, born of a portion of Śaṃkara,

having meditated for a very long time, then spoke to Yajñadeva, the best of brahmins.

Durvāsas said:

“O Yajñadeva, an exceedingly cruel sin has been committed by your son;

there could be no pacification of this sin even through tens of thousands of expiations.

Nevertheless, for the pacification of this sin of your son,

I will tell an expiation; listen with undivided mind, O brahmin!

At the tip of glorious Rāma's bow, in the southern ocean of waters,

if this son of yours bathes, he will be freed from the sin in an instant,

where, by ritual ablution, the brahmin named Durvinīta, O best of brahmins,

was freed that very instant from the sins of having carnal knowledge of the guru's wife.

That very tip of the glorious bow of Rāghava, who is Hari himself,

would destroy the flood of your son's sins merely by ritual ablution.”

Thus ends the thirty-fourth chapter, entitled ‘The Account of the Means for the Release of Sumati from Great Sins,’ in the Praise of Dhanuṣkoṭi in the dialogue between the jackal and the monkey, in the Setumāhātmya of the third [section], the Brahmakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skandapurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.