[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975) › c7.382 # Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.382 Purāṇic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Purāṇic Literature c7.382 - **Language:** English ### [c7.382](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c7.382) Dhundhukārī lived in his own house surrounded by prostitutes. Thieving was his only means of livelihood. Knowing this the servants of the king started to capture Dhundhukārī and the prostitutes who lived with him, for their safety, bound Dhundhukārī with ropes and put him into fire and killed him. The soul of Dhundhukārī became a great phantom. Hearing the news of the death of his brother, Gokarṇa returned home. He conducted a śrāddha at Gayā to give peace to the soul of his departed brother. But the phantom of Dhundhukārī was not pacified. This phantom troubled him always. Gokarṇa was not afraid of it and asked him what he wanted and the phantom pleaded that in some way Gokarṇa should get him absolved of all his sins. Gokarṇa then consulted Pandits to know what method should be adopted to save a soul which could not be saved even by a Gayā-Śrāddha. The Pandits advised him to do penance to propitiate the Sun. The Sun who appeared before Gokarṇa as a result of his penance declared that if he did read the entire Bhāgavata in seven days Dhundhukārī would get mokṣa. So Gokarṇa performed a Saptāha and among those who assembled to hear it was the phantom of Dhundhukārī also. The phantom finding no place to sit crept into a seven-layered bamboo and sat there listening to Gokarṇa. When the first day was over the first layer broke and it went on like that every day and on the seventh day the seventh layer broke and when Gokarṇa finished the twelfth Skandha the phantom rose from the bamboo to heaven. When it was going to heaven it looked at Gokarṇa and told him that his mokṣa was due to the result of his hearing the saptāha reading. When Gokarṇa asked him why none of the others who heard it got it he said that it was because none had heard it with such rapt attention as he had done. Gokarṇa then conducted another reading of Saptāha and the people present heard the same with rapt attention. When the reading was over, a chariot of Viṣṇu from Vaikuṇṭha descended and carried away all those who heard the reading. The place where Gokarṇa sat and read the Saptāha became known later as the famous Gokarṇa. (Chapters 1 to 3, Bhāgavata Māhātmya). - [Previous: c7.381](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c7.381) - [Next: c7.383](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c7.383) - [Up: c7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c7) ## Cites (1) - [Bhāgavatapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.bhagavata) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c7.382](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c7.382) · Pramāṇa