Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.113

c9.113

After this Viṣṇu told Indra as follows :—“You should, at the end of the Dvāpara yuga see that this Nara, born from blood, is reborn as an aspect of yours on earth. King Pāṇḍu will one day go into the forest with his wives, Kuntī and Mādrī, and he will then become the object of an animal’s curse. He will therefore, in a spirit of renunciation, go to mount Śataśṛṅga where he would ask Kuntī to become a mother by another man. Unwilling to do so Kuntī will desire to have sons by Devas, and when she prays to you, you should favour her with this Nara as son. Devendra raised a legal objection to the above injunction of Viṣṇu as follows :—“You, who incarnated yourself as Rāma in the twentyseventh yuga of the last Manvantara for the purpose of killing Rāvaṇa, killed my son Bāli. Therefore I do not wish to procreate Nara as my son.” To this objection of Indra Viṣṇu assured him that as a penalty for the mistake of killing Bāli, he would be a companion of Nara (Arjuna) who would be born as Indra’s son.