Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.2501

c4.2501

Saying these words Brahmā disappeared. Karkaṭī made her body smaller and smaller and finally assumed the shape of a needle. After that she began her work by entering the body of those who had lost their energy because of illness, in the form of a needle of gout and caused Cholera, and the body of those who were lean and worn and weary, in the form of internal cholera. Thus assuming two bodies and killing countless people she travelled for a long time in the earth and the sky, until she herself felt aversion to her work. When she remembered her original form she loathed the needle-form. Karkaṭī again went to the vicinity of the Himālayas and began to do penance, which lasted for another thousand years. Thus she became pure and by the power of thinking, she acquired spiritual knowledge.