Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.3307

c9.3307

Even from boyhood he disliked worldly pleasures and, abandoning even food, started to do penance. During the hot season he would sit amidst fire and during the cold season he would sit in water to do penance. He would stand with his head down and do penance. The penance of Triśiras was so severe that Indra began to get frightened. He sent celestial maidens to stop the penance but all the attempts proved futile before that great ascetic. Then Indra himself riding on Airāvata went and killed the sage by his Vajrāyudha. Indra feared whether Triśiras would come to life again and wreak vengeance on him. So he ordered a carpenter standing nearby to bring to him the three heads separated from the body. The carpenter cut off the heads from the body and as each head fell to the ground several kinds of birds were found escaping from it. From the head which used to mutter Vedic mantras rose the Kapiñjala birds; from the head used for drinking wine rose Kalapiṅga birds and from the third rose the Tittiri birds. When the birds thus rose to the air Indra was convinced that Triśiras was dead and he went away. See under Viśvarūpa. (6th Skandha, Devī Bhāgavata).