Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.1362

c9.1362

From Puṣkara Sarasvatī flowed towards the west and reaching a date-garden not far off from Puṣkara it rose up again where Sarasvatī is known as Nandā as well. There is also another reason for the name Nandā. Once upon a time there was a King called Prabhañjana. While hunting in the forest he saw a deer inside a cluster of shrubs and he shot an arrow at it. Then the deer told the King: "What a crime is this ! You have wounded me, who am feeding my child. I have heard that the King shall not kill a deer while it is engaged in drinking, sleeping or mating. May you, who have done this cruel act, be transformed into a tiger and roam about this thorny forest." Saying again and again that he did not notice that the deer was feeding its child, the King begged for absolution from the curse. Taking pity on the weeping the deer told him that he would be redeemed from the curse when he had talked with the cow called Nandā, which would go there after a hundred years.