Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.999

c7.999

3) *Indradyumna's fall from heaven when the merits of his good deeds were exhausted.* The merits or the result of his good and noble deeds having been exhausted, Indradyumna, the saintly king once descended from heaven to earth, and the sad King approached sage Mārkaṇḍeya. But, the sage did not recognize him. The King and the sage went to Prāvīrakarṇa, an owl living on the top of the Himālayas. It also did not recognise the King. Then they went to Nāḍijaṃgha, a stork very much older than the owl and living in the lake known as Indradyumna. Nāḍijaṃgha also could not recognise the King. In another part of the lake was living a tortoise called Akūpāra, who was older than Nāḍijaṃgha. At last the King, the sage, Prāvīrakarṇa and Nāḍijaṃgha approached Akūpāra. At his very sight Akūpāra recognized the King. Akūpāra told sage Mārkaṇḍeya that Indradyumna was a very famous King and quite liberal and munificent in distributing gifts, and that the lake Indradyumna was formed by the passage of the cows gifted by the King. Having heard these details regarding the King the sage sent him back to heaven. (M.B. Vana Parva, Chapter 199).