[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879) › c5.1227.2 # A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1227.2 A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1227.2 - **Language:** English ### [c5.1227.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1227.2) Kali, a personification of the Kali or iron age, arrived too late for the swayam-vara. He resolved to be revenged, and he employed his peculiar powers to ruin Nala through his love of gambling. At his instigation, Pushkara, Nala’s younger brother, proposed a game of dice. Kali charmed the dice, and Nala went on losing; but he was infatuated; the entreaties of friends and ministers, wife and children, were of no avail; he went on till he had lost his all, even to his clothes. His rival Pushkara became king, and proclaimed that no one was to give food or shelter to Nala, so the ruined monarch wandered forth into the forest with his wife, and suffered great privations. Some birds flew away with his only garment. He resolved to abandon his wife in the hope that she would return to her father's court, so he divided her sole remaining garment while she slept and left her. Thus left alone, Damayantī wandered about in great distress. She did not go home, but she at length found service and protection with the princess of Chedi. Nala fell in with the king of serpents, who was under a curse from which Nala was to deliver him. The serpent bit Nala, and told him that the poison should work upon him till the evil spirit was gone out of him, and that he should then be restored to all he loved. Through the effects of the bite he was transformed into a misshapen dwarf. - [Previous: c5.1227.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1227.1) - [Next: c5.1227.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1227.3) - [Up: c5.1227](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1227) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1227.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.1227.2) · Pramāṇa