Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.1865

c7.1865

Śambara, who employed Māyāvatī as his kitchen-maid had received a boon from Śiva. A condition laid down in it was that Śambara would die not long after Kāmadeva’s birth in the world. So Śambara was making careful enquiries to ascertain whether Kāma was born anywhere in the world. It was during this period that Śambara received the news that Kāma had been reborn as Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s son. At once he went secretly to Rukmiṇī’s house and stole the little baby and threw it into the sea. A sea-fish swallowed the child and a fisherman who caught it presented it to Śambara. When Śambara cut it open, he saw a lovely baby inside the fish. He entrusted the child to Māyāvatī to be brought up.