History of Indian Medicine, containing Notices, Biographical and Bibliographical, of the Ayurvedic Physicians and their Works on Medicine v2.c19.s1.2

v2.c19.s1.2

King Kalmāṣpāda, son of Sudāsa, while hunting in a forest, met Śaktri, the eldest son of the sage Vaśiṣṭha, and struck him with a whip as he stood on his way. Śaktri cursed him to be a man-eating Rākhasa, and Viśvamitra ordered a man-eater to enter the body of the king. Once he offered human flesh to a Brāhmaṇa, Mitrasala by name, who also cursed him to the same effect. The king then ate Śaktri and the hundred sons of Vaśiṣṭha who, however, took pity on him and restored him to his natural condition after twelve years. In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa the story is told somewhat differently. He killed a tiger, but another tiger, who disappeared, assumed the form of Vasiṣṭha, the priest, in a sacrifice performed by the King. Later, he assumed the form of a cook and served a dish of human flesh to the sage Vasiṣṭha. Thereupon the sage cursed the king, but afterwards knowing him to be innocent, limited the period of curse to twelve years. The angry king being prevented by his wife Madayanti from uttering a counter-curse upon the sage, threw the water on his feet which consequently became spotted (Kalmāṣpāda). After the term, he assumed his natural form and his wife became pregnant and gave birth to Aśmaka by an operation of Cæserian section performed by herself with a stone.