Kadrū, Vinatā, Garuḍa and Khakholkāditya

This is the account of how the shrine of Khakholkāditya came to stand in Kāśī. It is told in Chapter 50, the last chapter of the Pūrvārdha of the Kāśī Khaṇḍa in the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa. The chapter tells it through the story of the rivalry between Kadrū and Vinatā, who were daughters of Daksha and wives of Kaśyapa.

A wager over the colour of the divine horse Uchchaiḥśravas made Vinatā the slave of Kadrū. Her son Garuḍa fetched the amṛta (the nectar of immortality) from svarga (heaven) out of love for his mother. He defeated the devas and won the praise of Bhagavān Vishṇu himself, and he used the amṛta to buy his mother’s freedom. After that, Vinatā and Garuḍa both came to Kāśī. Vinatā set up Bhagavān Sūrya there as Khakholkāditya, the name she had cried out in her distress. He stayed in Kāśī as the destroyer of pāpa (sin), of darkness and of obstacles.

The wager of Kadrū and Vinatā

Kadrū and Vinatā were daughters of Daksha Prajāpati and co-wives of Kaśyapa Maharshi. One day, as they played together, Kadrū asked Vinatā to name the colour of Uchchaiḥśravas, the divine horse of Savitṛ that had risen from the churning of the Milk Ocean. Vinatā moved freely through the sky and wished to settle the question simply, without a wager. Kadrū insisted on a game. Vinatā said the horse was white. Kadrū said it was variegated. They agreed that the loser would become the slave of the winner.

Kadrū had a crooked mind. She called her serpent sons and told them to cling to the horse’s tail as dark hairs, so that it would look variegated. Most of them refused in anger: “We were hoping for sweets from our mother, not for an order like this!” Kadrū gave a śāpa (a curse) to those who refused: “You will become the prey of Tārkshya (Garuḍa).” A few obedient sons, who wanted to live, took their places on the horse’s tail and made it look dark. So when the two went to see Uchchaiḥśravas, he looked variegated. Vinatā kept her word and became Kadrū’s slave.

The distress of Vinatā

Day after day Vinatā carried Kadrū and all her serpent sons on her back. She took them wherever they pleased: to Mandara, to Malaya mountain, and to islands in the great oceans.

Her son Garuḍa saw her pale, sighing and in tears. He asked in anguish: “O mother, what is this misery, while I, who frighten even Kāla himself, am alive?” Vinatā told him the whole story of the wager and what came of it.

Garuḍa fetches the amṛta

Garuḍa asked his mother to bargain with the serpents: “Ask them what rare and hard thing you can get for them in return for your freedom.” The serpents answered: “Bring us the nectar of the devas and we will set you free.” Garuḍa agreed.

Before he set out, he asked his mother for food. Vinatā sent him to a shore where Nishāda fishermen lived. She said: “Eat them, for they live by killing fish and deserve punishment. But if there is a brāhmaṇa among them, protect him with care. He must never be eaten.” Garuḍa found the brāhmaṇa by the burning in his throat, and he spat him out unharmed.

Garuḍa then flew up into the sky of svarga. The devas shook with fear and took up their weapons, but they fell, for the wind from his wings scattered them like leaves.

He found the amṛta guarded by a machine of whirling blades, which would cut even a mosquito into millions of pieces. Garuḍa thought: “If my devotion to Śaṅkara is clear and steady, may that Īśvara of the devas give me presence of mind. If I am devoted to my mother even more than to Śaṅkara, let my sharp mind be able to take away the nectar of the devas.” Then he made his body smaller than the thousandth part of an atom. He passed through the scissor-like machine below the blades, tore it out, and seized the vessel of amṛta. The devas shouted as he flew away.

Garuḍa and Vishṇu

The devas went to Bhagavān Vishṇu. He fought Garuḍa in a great battle that lasted sixty-four ghaṭikās. Garuḍa won. Bhagavān Vishṇu was pleased and said: “Choose a vara (boon).” Garuḍa, with a generous heart, offered Bhagavān Vishṇu two varas in return.

Bhagavān Vishṇu asked first: “Be my vehicle.” His second request was: “Show the amṛta to the serpents, but make sure they do not drink it. Give it to the devas instead.” Garuḍa agreed.

He set the pot of amṛta on kuśa grass before the serpents and told them to bathe first and then drink. Bhagavān Vishṇu at once took the pot and gave it back to the devas. The serpents found the pot empty. In their greed they licked the kuśa grass, and their tongues split in two.

Vinatā is freed and goes to Kāśī

Vinatā was freed from slavery. She said to Garuḍa: “O son, I will go to Kāśī to wipe away the pāpa of slavery.” She spoke of Kāśī like one who knew it in her heart: “The pāpa gathered over many births seems very great as long as Kāśī, the destroyer of rebirth, is not held in the heart. Is it any wonder that pāpa goes away just by thinking of Kāśī? By the grace of Viśveśvara even the chance of rebirth goes away. Those who have not gone to the Varaṇā and the Asī, which can strike down the forest of repeated births, stay in the womb and keep being born.”

Garuḍa also made up his mind to go: “I too will come to see Kāśī, which Bhagavān Śiva honours.”

The installing of Khakholkāditya

Mother and son both came to Vārāṇasī and performed fierce tapas (austerity). Garuḍa set up a Śambhu Liṅga, which became known as Garuḍeśvara. Bhagavān Śiva appeared from that Liṅga and gave Garuḍa rare varas:

• All the secrets of Bhagavān Śiva that the suras do not know would be understood by Garuḍa.
• The Liṅga would give perfect knowledge to all who see it, touch it and worship it.
• “You should not see me and Vishṇu as different.”

After giving these varas, Bhagavān Śiva vanished. Garuḍa went to Bhagavān Vishṇu and became his vehicle, and so was made worthy of honour on earth.

Vinatā set up the shining Bhagavān Sūrya and named him Khakholka. This was the cry she had made in her distress, when she was carrying Kadrū on her back and fainting from the fierce rays of the sun. In her confusion she stumbled over her words and said “Khakholka” instead of the proper cry for help.

Bhāskara (Sūrya), “the greatest cosmic form of Śiva”, saw Vinatā doing tapas. He gave her the vara of the destruction of pāpa together with the jñāna (knowledge) of Bhagavān Śiva. He stayed in Kāśī as Khakholkāditya, also called Vinatāditya.

He lives near the Paiśaṅgila (Pilipilā) Tīrtha, north of Trivishṭapa, the shrine of Bhagavān Śiva. Merely seeing him frees a person from all pāpa. The devotee gets whatever he thinks of, and is freed at once from illness.

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa (Pūrvārdha), Chapter 50
• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Chapters 20–34 (the story of the rivalry of Kadrū and Vinatā)