Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.1919

c7.1919

2) *Kaṃsa, an incarnation of Kālanemi.* In the svayambhuvanvantara Marīci had a wife named Ūrṇā and they had six mighty and powerful sons. One day they ridiculed Brahmā saying ‘A father who has married his own daughter’ (Brahmā married Sarasvatī, his own daughter). Brahmā became angry and cursed them to be born as demons on earth. All the six sons were, therefore, born as sons of a demon called Kālanemi on earth. In their next birth they were born as sons of Hiraṇyakaśipu. They led a pious life and pleased at this Brahmā asked them what boon they wanted and they demanded that they should not be killed by anybody. Their father, Hiraṇyakaśipu, did not like his sons getting a boon behind his back and so he cursed his sons “May you all six go to Pātāla (nether-world) and sleep there for a long time under the name of Ṣaḍarbhakas. The sons begged for relief and Hiraṇyakaśipu said that they would after sleeping for a long time be born to Devakī, wife of Vasudeva, as their children and that Kālanemi, their father in their previous birth would then be born as Kaṃsa and kill the children of Devakī by striking their heads on the ground.