Skandapurana 3.3.2.46

3.3.2.46

His heart was filled with compassion, his body with splendor, / and his feet with the rays of the crest-jewels of tributary kings. // 3.3.2.20
Once that lord of the earth, eager for the sport of hunting, / entered a terrible wilderness, surrounded by a large army. // 21
There with his arrows he pierced tigers, gavayas, deer, / ruru deer, boars, buffaloes, and also lions in abundance. // 22
Mounted on a chariot, devoted to the hunt, roaming the dense thicket fully armored, / he slew a night-stalker that possessed the form of blazing fire. // 23
His younger brother, overcome with grief upon seeing it, vanished into the distance; / seeing his brother slain, he reflected in his mind: // 24
“Indeed, this king is invincible even to the gods and the rakṣasas; / by trickery alone must my enemy be conquered, and not otherwise.” // 25
Having thus resolved, that evil rākṣasa in human form / approached the foremost of kings like an embodied calamity. // 26
Seeing him of humble bearing, arrived to offer his service, / the lord of the earth, out of ignorance, made him head of the kitchen. // 27
Then, having sported for some time in that forest, / the king ceased, abandoning the hunt, and returned to his own city. // 28
Of that foremost of mighty kings, a faithful wife named Madayantī / was renowned as beloved, just as Damayantī was to Nala. // 29
At that time the king, having invited the eminent sage / Vasiṣṭha when the day for the ancestors had arrived, brought him to his house. // 3.3.2.30
When the meat dish mixed with human flesh by the rakṣas in the form of the cook / was placed before him, the guru then spoke: // 31
“Fie, fie upon human flesh! O king, by you, a deceitful villain, / this has been offered to me today; therefore you shall become a rakṣas!” // 32
Not knowing it was done by a rakṣas, the guru, having thus cursed [him], / then reflected again and made that curse last for twelve years. // 33
Enraged, the king too said: “Since this was not done by me, / nor known, I have been cursed in vain; I too shall curse my guru!” // 34
Taking up water in his cupped hands and preparing to curse the guru, / Madayantī, falling at his feet, restrained him. // 35
Then, desisting from the curse out of respect for her words, / he dropped the water upon his feet; his two feet became blackened. // 36
From that time forth the ruler of the earth was renowned as Kalmāṣāṅghri; / by the curse of the guru, he became a forest-dwelling rākṣasa. // 37
Assuming a terrible rākṣasa form like the god of death at the end of time, / roaming the forest, he devoured various living beings, beginning with humans. // 38
Once in the forest, somewhere, resembling the god of death, he saw / a youthful, newly-wed sage couple making love. // 39
Feeding on humans, afflicted by the curse, the rākṣasa seized / the youthful son of the sage to devour him, as a tiger seizes a fawn. // 3.3.2.40
Seeing her husband seized by the rakṣas, his beloved, terrified, / weeping and trembling violently, the young woman said piteously: // 41
“Oh, oh, do not commit sin, upholder of the glory of the Solar dynasty! / You are indeed the husband of Madayantī, a lord of kings, not a rākṣasa. // 42
Do not devour my husband, dearer to me than life, O lord; / for you alone are the refuge of the distressed who seek protection! // 43
What use to me, like heaps of sins, are my vile, senseless life-breaths, / and this body, an excessive burden without my noble husband? // 44
What joy is there in this foul, sinful body made of the five elements? / This youth is a knower of the Veda, tranquil, an ascetic, learned in many scriptures. // 45
Therefore, by giving him life, protection of the world will be performed by you; / have mercy, O great king, upon a young brahmin woman! // 46 //”