Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.1541

c4.1541

It was a peculiar creature. That creature had done penance before Brahmā, from its young age with the view of destroying everything. Brahmā appeared before the creature and granted it the boon that it would have the power to make anything blind. Brahmā also said that anybody who killed the creature would be given a place in the realm of Gods. The creature had been wandering in the forest making blind every creature it met, and one day it was drinking water and it was then that Valāka shot it down. As soon as the creature fell down the gods showered flowers, and took him to the realm of Gods in a divine chariot. (M.B., Karṇa Parva, Chapter 69).