Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.1834

c7.1834

4) *Śakti Cursed Mitrasaha.* One day Mitrasaha went to the forest for hunting. Viśvāmitra wished to get this mighty King as his disciple. While the King was passing through the forest, he saw Śakti, Vasiṣṭha’s son, coming towards him. The King was a Kṣatriya and Śakti was a Brāhmaṇa. They were faced with the problem of whether the Kṣatriya should make way for the Brāhmaṇa or vice versa. Neither of them made way for the other. At last, Mitrasaha struck Śakti with his whip. In his anger Śakti cursed Mitrasaha that he should become a Rākṣasa and roam about in the forest for 16 years. Viśvāmitra who was standing nearby at the time introduced a devil into the body of the King and from that day Mitrasaha wandered about in the forest in the form of a Rākṣasa. (M.B. Ādi Parva, Chapter 176).