Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.1646.2

c7.1646.2

2) Crows—the symbol of sin. There is a reference in Śiva Purāṇa to this. Long ago the King of Kāśī had a daughter named Kalāvatī. Even in her youth, she received the "Śaiva pañcākṣara mantra." After that, she was married by Dāśārha, King of Mathurā, who was a sinner. When he touched Kalāvatī who was a holy woman, he experienced unbearable heat. Kalāvatī said that it was because of the King's sin. So she took Dāśārha to the sage Garga, who purified Dāśārha with his mantras (incantations) and made him stand in water. At once the King's sins came out of his body in the shape of crows. Some of them flew away. Many of them fell down with their wings burnt. Seeing this, the sage Garga said that all those crows were the volume of sins accumulated in the course of the innumerable births through which he had passed. (Śiva Purāṇa, Pañcākṣara Māhātmya).