Kuṭhodarī

Kuṭhodarī was a rākṣasī of huge size. She was the daughter of Nikumbha and the granddaughter of the mighty Kumbhakarṇa, the brother of Rāvaṇa, who was slain by Bhagavān Rāma. At the time of Bhagavān Kalki’s campaign, she lay near the Himalayan peaks, nursing her enormous son Karaṃja.

Her body stretched across the mountains from the peaks down to the foothills. The milk from her breast flowed as the river Kṣīranadī. When Bhagavān Kalki marched to meet her, she swallowed him and all his advance force. He lit a fire inside her belly and cut his way out with the sword of Bhagavān Śiva. Kuṭhodarī fell and died. Her son Karaṃja attacked in grief, but the Brahmāstra killed him.

Her family

Kuṭhodarī belonged to the best-known rākṣasa family of the Tretā age.

• Grandfather: Kumbhakarṇa, Rāvaṇa’s huge brother, who was slain by Bhagavān Rāma in the siege of Laṅkā.
• Father: Nikumbha, the son of Kumbhakarṇa.
• Husband: Kākañju (also written Kākaṃju).
• Son: Karaṃja (also called Vikaṃja in some passages). She was nursing him when Kalki came.

Her family thus ties her to the main enemy family of the Rāmāyaṇa. The line of Kumbhakarṇa lived on after the war of Laṅkā. Its descendants carried the rākṣasa way of life into the Kali age.

The Kalki Purāṇa gives this in Tritīyāmśa, Chapter 2.

Her size

The Kalki Purāṇa describes Kuṭhodarī as a being of enormous size, like the great asuras of the Purāṇas.

• Her head rested on the Himalayan peaks.
• Her feet reached the Niṣadha mountain range, far to the south.
• She lay like a mass of cloud that had taken the shape of a woman and settled across the mountain ranges.
• Her breath went out like great winds that threw elephants off their paths.
• Lion packs slept undisturbed in the hollows of her ears.
• Deer with their young grazed at the roots of her hair as if in a meadow.

The Kalki Purāṇa gives this in Tritīyāmśa, Chapter 2.

The Kṣīranadī

While Kuṭhodarī nursed her son Karaṃja, the milk from her breast flowed in such a great stream that it made a whole river, the Kṣīranadī (the river of milk). The river was white as a conch shell and bright as moonlight. It rushed along very fast, with plenty of foam.

The Vālakhilya ṛṣis (seers) who told Kalki that she was there said: “After seven ghaṭikās, a second such river would begin from her other breast.” A ghaṭikā is a measure of time. Karaṃja himself, who needed so much milk, must have been of astonishing size.

The Kalki Purāṇa gives this in Tritīyāmśa, Chapter 2.

The meeting with Kalki

The frightened Vālakhilya ṛṣis told Kalki about her at Cakratīrtha. He set out at once with his army. When he reached the Himalayan foothills, even his battle-hardened warriors who had fought at Kīkaṭapura turned pale at the sight of the Kṣīranadī flowing in the valley below. Kalki sent the main army down below and went forward with a chosen force.

He found Kuṭhodarī lying on a shelf of the mountain and began to rain arrows on her. The arrows struck her huge body “like drops of water on a rock.” But the noise was enough to wake her.

Kuṭhodarī rose with a sound that shook the sky. Her terrible roar fell on the soldiers below, and they collapsed unconscious. She opened her huge mouth, “wider than a mountain cave,” and breathed in with the force of a great whirlpool. The breath drew in Kalki’s whole advance party: elephants, horses, chariots, soldiers and Kalki himself. She swallowed them all.

The devas watching from the sky cried out in grief. The ṛṣis began japa (the quiet repeating of a mantra) for Kalki’s safety. The army camp below wept. The rākṣasas rejoiced.

The Kalki Purāṇa gives this in Tritīyāmśa, Chapter 2.

Kalki’s escape and her death

Inside Kuṭhodarī’s belly, Kalki gathered his mind. He remembered his divine nature. In the darkness of her stomach he made a fire. He fed it with arrows, wooden parts of the chariots, leather and fibres, and it grew into a great blaze. Then he drew the khaḍga (sword) set with jewels that Bhagavān Śiva had given him, and he cut outwards with great force. Her belly split wide open.

Kalki came out first, drenched in blood, sword in hand. Behind him the horses and elephants came through the wound. Some came through the torn belly and some through other openings of the rākṣasī‘s body. The soldiers and Kalki’s brothers came out in blood and fire, shaken but alive.

Kuṭhodarī fell with a sound like a mountain collapsing, and the earth shook. She died. The devas showered flowers.

The Kalki Purāṇa gives this in Tritīyāmśa, Chapter 2.

The death of her son Karaṃja

Kuṭhodarī’s son Karaṃja was huge in his own right. His chest was garlanded with elephants, and serpents were wound about him as ornaments. He carried the pride of his family. He had seen his mother die, and he charged forward with bare hands. He overwhelmed the soldiers by his force and size.

Kalki called up the Brahmāstra, the supreme weapon that Paraśurāma had given him during his education, and let it go. The Brahmāstra cut off Karaṃja’s head and threw it to the ground. Karaṃja fell.

The devas showered flowers again. Kalki then went on to Haridvāra, where the great assembly with Maru and Devāpi was waiting.

The Kalki Purāṇa gives this in Tritīyāmśa, Chapter 2.

Sources

• Kalki Purāṇa, Tritīyāmśa, Chapters 1–2