Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.715

c7.715

HEMAMĀLĪ I. He used to supply flowers to Vaiśravaṇa. He had a beautiful wife called Viśālākṣī. Once when he returned with flowers from Mānasasaras he felt an onrush of love and spent time at home in love pranks with his wife. Kubera went to the temple for worshipping Śiva at noon and though he waited there till dusk time for Hemamālī to bring the flowers the latter did not come. Kubera got angry and sent for Hemamālī and he came trembling with fear. Kubera's curse turned him into a leper afflicted with eighteen varieties of leprosy, and separated from wife he fell from Alakāpurī. At last he came to Hemādri where he met sage Mārkaṇḍeya. Hemamālī told him all about his misfortune and the sage advised him to observe Āṣāḍhakṛṣṇaikādaśī. Hemamālī did so and got cured of the fell disease and returned to Devaloka. (Padma Purāṇa, Uttarakhanda, Chapter 54).