Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.2680

c7.2680

(6) Kṛṣṇa drags Ulūkhala. (Mortar). Yaśodā was once breast-feeding Kṛṣṇa when she noticed milk flowing out of the boiling pan, and she put the child on the floor and went to attend to the boiling milk. Angry at this Kṛṣṇa broke the milk-pot by throwing a stone at it. Yaśodā then tried to bind the child to the mortar with a cord. But, any number of cords could not reach round the child's waist. At this trouble of his mother Kṛṣṇa decided to oblige her and then the first cord itself sufficed to bind him round the mortar. But, Kṛṣṇa then began running, dragging the mortar behind him. Dragging the Ulūkhala behind him he passed through a narrow gap between two trees. The trees were shaken and at once the trees rose up in the sky as two Devas. The two trees were actually Nalakūbara and Maṇigrīva, the sons of Vaiśravaṇa, both of whom had been cursed into the form of trees by Nārada. (See under Nalakūbara).