Kalmāshapāda Upākhyāna

King Mitra-saha, who is also called Saudāsa, was a king of the Ikshvāku line. In the Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, in the account of the Solar dynasty, his story is told as a narrative of its own. He fell under a śāpa (a curse) from the ṛshi Vasishṭha, spent twelve years as a rākshasa, and burned his own feet with water charged with his anger. This is why he is called Kalmāshapāda, “he of the spotted feet”. A brāhmaṇī’s śāpa later kept him from his wife. The child of the line, Aśmaka, was born only after the śāpa had run its course.

The hunt and the two tiger-rākshasas

King Mitra-saha, also called Saudāsa, went hunting in a forest. There he met two huge tigers that had cleared the forest of all its animals. He killed one with an arrow. As it died, it turned into a fearsome rākshasa. It had been a rākshasa in the form of a tiger all along.

The second tiger-rākshasa vanished. As it went, it gave a warning: “I shall have my revenge.”

The rākshasa takes the form of Vasishṭha

Some time later, Mitra-saha performed a great yajña (a fire ritual). As the yajña came near its end, the second rākshasa took the form of Vasishṭha. In that form he spoke as the family ācārya (teacher) and ordered the cooks to prepare human flesh as the last offering for the king. The cooks did as he said. At the end of the yajña, the king received the dish, which was prepared in the gold vessel. He then waited for the real Vasishṭha to arrive.

When Vasishṭha came, the king placed the dish before him as the yajña-pātra (the vessel of the ritual). The great ṛshi looked into the vessel with his inner sight. He saw at once that it held manushya-māṃsa, human flesh. His mind filled with disgust and anger. He said: “This king knows that such food cannot be offered to a tapasvin (one who practises austerity) like me, and yet he has done it. Let him have the very craving that he has offered me.”

After Vasishṭha pronounced the śāpa, he went into samādhi (deep meditation). Mitra-saha understood that someone had taken Vasishṭha’s form and that the śāpa was unjust. He took up water to pronounce a śāpa on Vasishṭha in return.

Madayantī holds back the king

His wife Madayantī caught his arm. She said: “Do not pronounce a śāpa on the guru! This ṛshi is our kula-devatā (family deva), our ācārya, the protector of our line. He is the one we cannot curse.”

The king held himself back, but he could not simply put the water down. He poured it over his own feet. The water was charged with the full heat of his anger. It burned his feet and left them spotted and dark. From then on he was called Kalmāshapāda, “he of the spotted feet.”

Twelve years as a rākshasa

Under Vasishṭha’s śāpa, Kalmāshapāda spent twelve years roaming the forests in the state of a rākshasa. He ate human beings. One day he came upon a brāhmaṇa and his wife, who were together in the forest. The couple ran away in fear from the king’s frightening rākshasa form, but the king caught the brāhmaṇa.

The brāhmaṇa’s wife begged him: “Have mercy! I am still with my husband and still seeking the joy of married life. You are a king of the Ikshvāku line. Do not do this terrible thing.” Her words reached the king’s ears, but not his rākshasa nature. He ate the brāhmaṇa as a predator eats its prey.

The brāhmaṇī’s śāpa

The woman, now without her husband, pronounced a śāpa on the king with all the force of her tapas (austerity). She said: “You have taken my husband away while I was still with him. When you, O king, are moved by desire for your wife, at that moment you shall die.” After the śāpa, she entered the fire (agni-praveśa) and left this world.

The end of the śāpa and the birth of Aśmaka

After twelve years Vasishṭha’s śāpa ran its course. Kalmāshapāda came back to his own nature and his own mind, which followed dharma. He returned to his kingdom. He had no son. The brāhmaṇī’s śāpa also stopped him from going near Madayantī, because that would cost him his life.

The king asked Vasishṭha for help. Vasishṭha agreed. He himself performed garbhādhāna (the rite of conception) on Madayantī as a niyoga (an appointment to give a child to a childless line). Even so, the child stayed in the womb for seven or eight years.

Madayantī could not bear it any longer. She struck her own womb with a stone (aśma), and the child was born at once. Because he was born from a stone (aśma), he was named Aśmaka.

Aśmaka’s son was Mūlaka. Women surrounded Mūlaka and protected him from Paraśurāma’s killings, so he is also called Nārīkavaca.

Sources

• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Chaturdhāmsa, Chapter 4