Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.1312

c8.1312

(ii) Son of Kalāvatī. There lived in Kānyakubja the emperor called Drumila. He, along with his wife Kalāvatī, performed penance on the banks of the Gaṅgā for an offspring. Kalāvatī pleased Kaśyapa, by her worship and with his blessing she became pregnant. Drumila, who in the meantime had renounced everything in life, decided to spend the rest of his life in the forest itself. He gifted away all his wealth to brahmins and died in the forest. Though Kalāvatī got ready to follow him in the funeral pyre, a celestial voice stopped her and she refrained from committing self-immolation. She returned to the village and lived as a slave in a brahmin's house. In due course of time she delivered a son. On the birth of the child it rained in the land which was suffering from failure of rains, and because of that the brahmin master of Kalāvatī named the child Nārada, meaning he who gives water. When the child Nārada grew up he told his mother the story about his former birth. He turned out to be a great devotee of Viṣṇu. Meanwhile, Kalāvatī, who went to milk the cow one night, was bitten to death by a snake, and Nārada was orphaned. Śiva and three attendants of his who went there in disguise were pleased at Nārada's great devotion for Viṣṇu and his service-mentality. He lived on the left-overs given by them. He repeated songs sung by them about Viṣṇu. Gradually Nārada became perfect devotee of Viṣṇu and a unique master of music. Śiva and others imparted Bhāgavata to Nārada before they left him. Nārada who thus attained divine knowledge performed penance for many years on the banks of the Gaṅgā and died there. (Bhāgavata, 7th Skandha).