Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.3285

c7.3285

LIKHITA I. An ancient sage. The King of that land cut off his hands on a charge of theft. But they grew into their original form by the power of the penance of his brother, (Chapter 23, Śānti Parva). It was a time when the celebrated King Sudyumna was ruling over the country. On the banks of the river Bāhudā in that country there lived two sages, Śaṅkha and Likhita, in two separate hermitages of their own. Once Likhita went to the āśrama of his elder brother Śaṅkha and finding none but feeling hungry took some vegetables from there and started eating them. While he was eating his brother walked in and he deemed the action of his brother taking the vegetables without his permission as an act of theft. Cutting the culprit was the punishment accorded by the King at that time to the offender. Śaṅkha sent Likhita to the King. The King received the sage respecifully and gave him a seat. The sage then told him all that had happened and then Sudyumna ordered the hands of Likhita to be cut off. Blood was oozing from his hands when Likhita went and bowed before his brother. The brother congratulated him on his accepting the punishment and asked Likhita to go and take a dip in the Bāhudā river. Likhita bathed in that holy river and then he found the hands growing like lotus-buds from his body. He rushed to his brother and showed him the hands and then Śaṅkha said that it was due to the power of his penance that Likhita got his hands. Then Likhita asked his brother why he did not purify him by his power before. Śaṅkha replied that the power of punishing was vested in the King and the King Sudyumna had become great by executing the law correctly.