Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.82

c4.82

10) Agastya cursing Kubera and his companion. In the course of their sojourn in forest, the Pāṇḍavas visited several holy places and reached the proximity of the Himālayas. Leaving their brothers behind, Arjuna went up the Mahāmeru to worship Śiva. Years passed by. At last his brothers also started for the Mahāmeru in search of Arjuna and with the help of the hermits Vṛṣaparvā and Ārṣiṣeṇa, they reached Kuberapurī (the capital of Kubera). There Bhīma destroyed the army of Kubera and killed Maṇimān, his friend and favourite. Dharmaputra, repenting of his younger brother's iniquity bowed before Kubera and asked him with politeness, why the power of Gods gave way to the power of man. Kubera replied that it was due to the curse of Agastya and began to depict the event thus : Once my friend Maṇimān and myself were going, in a chariot, to be present at the singing and chanting just begun at Kuśavatī. At that time Agastya was standing in his hermitage on the bank of Kālindī, performing Sun worship. When Maṇimān saw this from the sky, he spat on the head of Agastya, who instantly getting wild cursed me. "Lo, Kubera, your friend Maṇimān spat on my head in your sight. So this Maṇimān and your army will meet with death at a man's hand. When they die you should not feel sorry for them. If it becomes possible for you to meet the man who killed Maṇimān you will be liberated from the curse."