Caṇḍa the Kirāta and Śivarātri

This account tells how a hunter called Caṇḍa reached Kailāsa because of one Śivarātri night that he spent at a Śiva Liṅga without knowing it. It is told in Chapter 33 of the Kedāra Khaṇḍa, in the Māheśvara Khaṇḍa of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa. The same chapter tells of Duḥsaha, who heard a teaching about Bhagavān Śiva by chance, and ends with a list of the tithis (lunar days) and the devas they belong to.

The night of Māgha Kṛshṇa Caturdaśī

The Kedāra Khaṇḍa names Śivarātri as the night of Māgha Kṛshṇa Caturdaśī. This is the fourteenth day of the dark half of the month of Māgha. The chapter calls it the night most dear to Bhagavān Śiva. Even acts done on this night without knowledge or intention carry their full fruit. The account that follows shows this. (Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 33)

Caṇḍa the Kirāta hunter

Caṇḍa was a hunter of the Pushkasa people, a kirāta of the forest. He lived far from Vedic ritual, yajña and learned brāhmaṇa life. In making his living he had done every kind of pāpa (sin). He killed animals every day, ate forbidden food, and lived without śrāddha, pilgrimage or any vow. By no usual measure would anyone have thought him fit for divine grace. (Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 33)

On the night of Śivarātri, Caṇḍa was hunting in the forest. He sat in a bilva tree above a small Śiva Liṅga and waited quietly in the dark for animals to come and drink at the water nearby. He sat still for hours, watching. His hands pulled off bilva leaves without his noticing and dropped them. The leaves fell on the Liṅga below.

He stayed awake all night. He did it not from devotion but because a hunter must stay alert. At some point, in his thirst, he spat water from his mouth, and the water fell on the Liṅga.

By dawn he had done these things:

• Offered bilva leaves, the most sacred leaf for the pūjā of Bhagavān Śiva, to the Liṅga without meaning to
• Kept a vigil through the whole night of Śivarātri
• Kept a fast
• Sprinkled water on the Liṅga from his mouth

Each of these is a usual part of keeping Śivarātri, and Caṇḍa had done all of them without knowing it. (Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 33)

Taken to Kailāsa

At sunrise on Caturdaśī, the messengers of Bhagavān Śiva came to the tree and greeted Caṇḍa with respect. They told him that his Śivarātri worship was complete in form, even though he had not meant it, and had won him liberation at once.

He was taken straight to Kailāsa and made a dvārapāla (doorkeeper) at the home of Bhagavān Śiva, a place of lasting honour.

The chapter teaches that on Śivarātri, Bhagavān Śiva counts even acts done by accident near his Liṅga as worship. So the Śivarātri vrata (vow) is open to all, whatever their birth, rank, learning or past conduct. (Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 33)

The account of Duḥsaha

The second account is about Duḥsaha. His mother was a brāhmaṇa woman and his father was a caṇḍāla, and he carried the mark of this mixed birth. One Śivarātri night he was walking near a place where a Śiva-śāstra was being recited. He was not one of those taking part. He was only passing by. By chance he heard parts of the sacred teaching. (Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 33)

Even this chance hearing of the Śiva-kathā (the account of Bhagavān Śiva) on Śivarātri changed him. Duḥsaha died and was reborn as Vicitravīrya, a king of a royal line. He had great beauty and intelligence, and he was devoted to Bhagavān Śiva by nature. He did not clearly remember his earlier life, but his devotion to Bhagavān Śiva was in him from birth as a deep saṃskāra (impression) that could not be wiped away.

The Kālacakra teaching

The chapter ends with a teaching on the Kālacakra, the wheel of time, and the tithis. Each tithi of the lunar fortnight belongs to one deva. Worship done on the tithi of that deva has more power and its own fruits.

(Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 33)

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 33