Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c5.113

c5.113

Rtuparṇa, hearing the words of Sudeva, wanted Bāhuka to take him in the chariot to Vidarbha within the period of a day time for the second svayaṃvara of Damayantī. Nala consented with a breaking heart. Immediately they started. Vārṣṇeya also got into the chariot. The chariot flew through the sky with tremendous speed, to Vidarbha. On the way the upper garment of the King fell on the ground. He ordered the chariot to be stopped for taking his upper garment. Nala said that within that winking time the chariot had travelled a yojana (league) and gloried in his power of driving horses. Then they saw in the forest a Tanni tree (Terminalia bellerica) with fruits. Seeing the Tanni tree the King said, “O Bāhuka, if you are an expert in horse-driving I am an expert in reckoning. I will tell you how many leaves and nuts there are in that Tanni Tree. There are five crores of leaves in both the branches together and two thousand and ninetyfive nuts. They stopped the chariot and checked the tree and found the reckoning of the King correct. The King had the knowledge of the art called ‘Akṣahṛdaya’. It was with this art that the King calculated the number of leaves in the tree, at one look. Bāhuka drove the chariot with the speed of wind because he had known the art called ‘Aśvahṛdaya’. Then and there, Bāhuka taught the King the art of ‘Aśvahṛdaya’ and the King taught Bāhuka the art of ‘Akṣahṛdaya’. The moment Nala learned Akṣahṛdaya Kali vomitted the poison of Karkoṭaka and got out of the body of Nala. Long ago, the mother of Indrasena, a god, had cursed Kali and drove him out. Since then Kali had been living in the body of Nala. As soon as he came out Kali begged Nala for pardon. Nala curbed his anger. But Kali was afraid of Nala. So he made the Tanni tree his abode. Because of that Tanni became detestable.