Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.659

c4.659

3) The story of how the Sun did not rise. When Aṇi Māṇḍavya lay on the tip of the trident another event happened. Atri Muni's son Ugraśravas was the husband of Śilavatī. No other woman had so far surpassed Śilavatī in her fidelity to her husband. Once Ugraśravas happened to fall ill. He expressed his desire to visit a prostitute's house. As he was too weak he could not walk. The devoted wife Śilavatī carried him on her own shoulders and took him to the prostitute's house. They were passing near the place where Aṇi Māṇḍavya was lying on the trident. Coming to know of the matter, Māṇḍavya pronounced a curse that Ugraśravas should die before sunrise. Śilavatī shuddered on hearing this. Fearing that she would be widowed by the death of Ugraśravas, she, in her turn, pronounced a curse that the Sun should not rise again.