Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.992

c4.992

5) Another version of how the body became crooked. There is another story also about Aṣṭāvakra. Once there lived a sage named Asita. He did great penance to please Śiva to bless him with a child. Śiva blessed him and he got a son named Devala. Rambhā, the queen of devaloka, fell in love with him but Devala did not yield to her wishes. Then Rambhā cursed him and made him into one with eight crooks. Thus Devala came to be called Aṣṭāvakra. He then did penance for six thousand years and Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa accompanied by Rādhā appeared before him. Rādhā was shocked by the ugliness of the sage and did not relish his sight. But Kṛṣṇa asking her to remain quiet went and embraced him. At once Aṣṭāvakra lost all his crooks and became a beautiful man. At that time a chariot descended from heaven and all of them went to heaven in it. (Brahmavaivartta Purāṇa).