An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, with Short Explanations and a Concordance to the Bombay and Calcutta Editions and P. C. Roy's Translation c5.s1.655

c5.s1.655

Aṣṭāvakriya(m) ("episode relating to Aṣṭāvakra").—§ 51 (Parvasaṅgr.): I, 2, 449: *A. atraiva vivādo yatra Bandinā*, etc.—§ 412 (Tirthay.): III, 132 ff.: Uddālaka gave his own daughter Sujātā in marriage, together with sacred learning (çrutam), to his disciple the brahman Kahoda, who had served him long. The embryo in her womb had become versed in the Çastras and the Vedas with the aṅgas, and blamed Kahoda, who had been reading the whole night. The great ṛṣi Kahoda cursed him to become crooked on eight parts of his body, wherefore he, when born, was called Aṣṭāvakra. In order to procure wealth for Sujātā, Kahoda went to king Janaka (son of Indradyumna, v. 133, 10624), where he was defeated in a controversy with the sūta (v. 10613, etc., *sataputram* v. 10671) Bandin and was immersed into water. Uddālaka prevailed upon Sujātā to keep it a secret from Aṣṭāvakra, who regarded Uddālaka as his father and Çvetaketu, the son of Uddālaka, who was of the same age with himself, as his brother, until in his 12th year Çvetaketu in anger happened to disclose the matter to him. He and Çvetaketu then went to the sacrifice of Janaka, and on being driven from the entrance Aṣṭāvakra met the king (III, 132), and in the course of a conversation with him and the doorkeeper he compared Janaka to Yayāti, and said that he had heard that Bandin caused those whom he had vanquished in disputation to be drowned in the sea by men sent by Janaka, and he declared that he had come to maintain the unity with Brāhman (Brahmādvaitam) and to defeat Bandin; then he answered several enigmatical questions (about the wheel of Time, the thunder and lightning, the fish, egg, stone, and river) and was admitted (III, 133). Here they disputed in such a way that Bandin enumerated things of which there is only 1 (fire, Sun, Indra, and Yama), Aṣṭāvakra groups of 2 (Indra and Agni, 2 devarṣis: Nārada and Parvata, 2 Açvins, 2 wheels of a chariot; husband and wife), B° of 3 (3 times the creatures are born, etc.; see Nil.), A° of 4 (4 are the āçramas of the brahmans; 4 orders perform this sacrifice (!), etc.), B° of 5 (5 fires, etc.), A° of 6 (6 cows, it is asserted by some, are the dakṣiṇā for establishing the sacred fire, *'adhāne,* etc.), B° of 7 (7 domesticated animals, 7 wild animals, etc.), A° of 8 (8 *çanas* make a *çatamāna*, see BR., 8 are the legs of the çarabha, etc.), B° of 9 (9 are the *sāmidhenī* verses for the Pitṛs, etc.), A° of 10 (10 are the cardinal points, etc.), B° of 11 (11 are the *ekādaçinas* of the creature, see Nil., 11 are there the yūpas, etc.), A° of 12 (12 months, etc.). As Bandin had said the first half-çloka with 13 (the 13th *tithi* is deemed most auspicious, 13 are the islands of the earth), he stopped, and Aṣṭāvakra fulfilled the çloka. Bandin was then doomed to be vanquished, and at the request of Aṣṭāvakra he merged into the sea, after he had declared himself to be the son of Varuṇa and that he had caused the brahmans to be drowned in order that they might see the twelve years *sattra* of Varuṇa that was performed simultaneously with that of Janaka. They at once reappeared, and Kahoda let Aṣṭāvakra bathe in the river Samaṅgā, and all his limbs were immediately made straight, and the Samaṅgā became a remover of sin. "Therefore you also should bathe there" (III, 134).