Kālanemi in the Vāmana Purāṇa

Kālanemi was a powerful asura who was slain by Bhagavān Viṣṇu while Bali ruled the three worlds. The Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa tells this in Chapter 47.

The slaying is one of the acts of Bhagavān Viṣṇu in the time between the defeat of the devas and the Vāmana avatāra (descent). In that time the asuras were strong, yet Bhagavān Viṣṇu went on acting to protect the order of the world.

Background

Bali became the ruler of the three worlds, and Indra was driven from his place. The order of the world was badly shaken. Even then, Bhagavān Viṣṇu went on acting against single asuras whose conduct threatened the world beyond what the general rule of the asuras already brought.

Kālanemi was one such asura. He was a figure of great power, and his deeds needed the direct attention of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. The Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa tells this in Chapter 47.

His name

The name Kālanemi means “the rim of the wheel of time”.

Kālanemi appears in other Purāṇic accounts too. In the Bhāgavata he is the uncle of Kaṃsa and also an earlier birth of Kaṃsa himself. He is therefore an asura enemy who returns again and again.

Sources

• Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 47
• Bhāgavata Purāṇa (for the mention of Kālanemi as uncle of Kaṃsa and an earlier birth of Kaṃsa; no chapter is given)