Vishnupurana 4.4.37
Viṣṇupurāṇa (vulgate) 4.4.37
- Language
- Sanskrit
4.4.37
tatputraś ca ṛtuparṇaḥ yo 'sau nalasahāyokṣahṛdayajñobhūt //
"It was yourself," replied the Rájá to the indignant sage, "who commanded this food to be prepared." "By me!" exclaimed Vaśisht́ha; "how could that have been?" and again having recourse to meditation, he detected the whole truth. Foregoing then all displeasure towards the king, he said, "The food to which I have sentenced you shall not be your sustenance for ever; it shall only be so for twelve years." The king, who had taken up water in the palms of his hands, and was prepared to curse the Muni, now considered that Vaśisht́ha was his spiritual guide, and being reminded by Madayantí his queen that it ill became him to denounce an imprecation upon a holy teacher, who was the guardian divinity of his race, abandoned his intention. Unwilling to cast the water upon the earth, lest it should wither up the grain, for it was impregnated with his malediction, and equally reluctant to throw it up into the air, lest it should blast the clouds, and dry up their contents, he threw it upon, his own feet. Scalded by the heat which the water had derived from his angry imprecation, the feet of the Rájá became spotted black and white, and he thence obtained the name of Kalmáshapáda, or he with the spotted (kalmásha) feet (páda).
Translations (2)
- The Vishnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition — Horace Hayman Wilson 1840, English
- A Prose English Translation of Vishnupuranam — Manmatha Nath Dutt 1896, English