Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.266

c8.266

The prince accepted the request of the mother-prostitute. At that time Rūpiṇikā had gone to the temple and Lohajaṅgha for a walk. After some time Lohajaṅgha came as usual and entered the house and Makaradamṣṭrā introduced Lohajaṅgha to the prince. At once the servants of the prince beat Lohajaṅgha and carrying him away out of the house put him in an excrement pit. Lohajaṅgha somehow escaped from there and ran away. He was sorry to part with his love and he went on a pilgrimage. He walked for a long distance in the hot sun and feeling tired searched for a shady place to take some rest. Then he saw the carcass of an elephant. Jackals entering through the buttocks had eaten all flesh and the animal lay hollow inside with the skin intact on the skeleton. Lohajaṅgha entered the inside of the elephant and slept there. That night it rained heavily and the hole at the buttocks contracted with little space for Lohajaṅgha to get out. The rains continued, the water-level in the river Gaṅgā rose and soon the carcass of the elephant was carried away to the river and it gradually reached the ocean. At that time a great kite taking it to be flesh drew it up and took it to the other side of the ocean. When it pecked it open it found a man inside and frightened left it there and flew away. By this time Lohajaṅgha awoke from his slumber and while he was looking around in surprise he saw two demons approaching him. The demons thought he had come to the place crossing the ocean like Śrī Rāma to bring disaster to them and so they immediately ran up to Vibhīṣaṇa and told him of the incident. Vibhīṣaṇa asked his servants to bring Lohajaṅgha before him and when he was brought here he enquired very politely who he was and why he had come there and how he had come. In reply to the enquiries Lohajaṅgha said thus: "I am a brahmin from Mathurā. I did penance to please Viṣṇu to get relief from my poverty and one day Viṣṇu appeared before me in person and said, 'Go to my devotee Vibhīṣaṇa, and he will give you enough wealth to live happily'. It was in a dream and when I awoke I found myself on this shore. I do not know how it all happened."