Sthūṇakarṇa

Sthūṇakarṇa, also called Sthūṇa, was a powerful yaksha who guarded a forest near Pāñcāla. The Mahābhārata remembers him for his kindness to Śikhaṇḍī. He gave her his male form for a time, so that she could prove her manhood to the angry Hiraṇyavarman of Daśārṇa. For this, Kubera spoke a śāpa (a curse) on him. He was to stay female until Śikhaṇḍī died.

The yaksha and his forest

Sthūṇakarṇa was a yaksha of great power. He lived in a forest in or near Pāñcāla. His house was plastered with fine lime and filled with the sweet smoke of uśīra roots (also called vāṭivela). It was hung with banners on tall flagpoles and stocked with food and drink of many kinds. His presence ruled the forest so strongly that ordinary people did not enter it, out of fear.

He served Kubera, the lord of the yakshas and guardian of the northern quarter. He had the power to grant a vara (a boon), even one that could not be given by ordinary means.

Meeting Śikhaṇḍī

Śikhaṇḍī was born a girl but raised by Drupada as a son. After her marriage was arranged, the wife of Hiraṇyavarman, king of Daśārṇa, found that Śikhaṇḍī was a woman. Hiraṇyavarman threatened war on Drupada.

Śikhaṇḍī felt that her own nature had brought disaster on her parents. In deep distress she left the palace and went into the forest where Sthūṇakarṇa lived. She entered the yaksha’s house and fasted for many days. She refused food, and her body grew weak with sorrow.

Sthūṇakarṇa was moved by her suffering. He came to her gently and asked what troubled her. He promised to grant whatever she wished. Śikhaṇḍī told him her trouble, and the yaksha listened with compassion.

The exchange of forms

Sthūṇakarṇa agreed to a temporary exchange. He would take Śikhaṇḍī’s female form, and Śikhaṇḍī would take his male form, for a fixed time. He set one condition: Śikhaṇḍī must come back when the trouble was over and undo the exchange.

The two exchanged forms. Sthūṇa took on the female nature. Śikhaṇḍī received Sthūṇa’s radiant male form of a yaksha. Now fully male in form, Śikhaṇḍī went back gladly to Drupada’s palace and told her father. The women sent by the king of Daśārṇa checked and confirmed that Śikhaṇḍī was male. Hiraṇyavarman went away satisfied, and the threat of war was gone.

Kubera’s śāpa

While Śikhaṇḍī enjoyed the borrowed male form in the palace, Kubera made one of his royal journeys and came to Sthūṇa’s house. He found it richly decorated and ready to receive him. But Sthūṇa did not come out to greet him. The yaksha now had a female form and was too ashamed to appear before his lord. The other yakshas told Kubera what had happened.

Kubera was furious. He called Sthūṇa, who came before him in female form. Kubera pronounced a śāpa. What Sthūṇa had done could not be undone. The female form he had taken from Śikhaṇḍī would be his for good. He had shamed the order of the yakshas by giving his male nature to a human woman. He would stay female as long as Śikhaṇḍī lived.

The yakshas who had gathered begged Kubera for mercy. Kubera softened the śāpa by one step. After Śikhaṇḍī died, Sthūṇakarṇa would have his male form again. Kubera went no further than this.

The exchange made final

Śikhaṇḍī came back to the forest of the yaksha to keep the first agreement and undo the exchange. Sthūṇakarṇa told her all that had happened. The exchange could not be undone while Śikhaṇḍī lived, because Kubera’s word had made it final. So Śikhaṇḍī left for good in the male form, a complete man. Sthūṇakarṇa stayed in the forest, female, waiting for the day of Śikhaṇḍī’s death.

That day came on the eighteenth day of the Kurukshetra war, when Śikhaṇḍī was killed.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Udyoga Parva, Ambopākhyāna Parva, Chapters 191–192