Kalmāshapāda in the Vishṇu Purāṇa

Kalmāshapāda was a king of the Solar dynasty, the Ikshvāku Vaṃśa. He is also called Mitrasaha and Saudāsa. The Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa tells his story in its Caturthāṃśa (fourth part), Chapter 4.

His name means “spotted feet” (kalmāsha, spotted; pāda, foot). He got it when he lifted water to give a śāpa (a curse) to the ṛshi Vasishṭha, but his wife Madayantī stopped him. He poured the water on his own feet instead, and it burned them. The most important event of his life was twelve years as a rākshasa, after Vasishṭha’s śāpa. In that time he ate human flesh, and a brāhmaṇa’s wife gave him a second śāpa.

Identity and lineage

Kalmāshapāda belongs to the Ikshvāku Vaṃśa. The Vishṇu Purāṇa gives this line: Triśaṅku, Rohitāśva, Bāhu and Sagara. The line then comes down from Sagara to Saudāsa (Mitrasaha), who is Kalmāshapāda. The names between Sagara and Saudāsa are not given here.

He is an ancestor of Khaṭvāṅga, and in the end of Daśaratha and Rāma.

The hunt and the rākshasa

Mitrasaha was hunting in the forest. He saw two great tigers that were eating all the animals there. He shot one of them with an arrow. As the tiger died, it changed into a rākshasa with a fearful form. This showed that it had been a rākshasa in the shape of a tiger all along.

The second tiger-rākshasa disappeared. Before he went, he said, “I will take revenge for this.”

Vasishṭha’s śāpa

Some time later, Mitrasaha performed a yajña (a fire ritual). Vasishṭha was expected to come at the end of it. But the second rākshasa took the form of Vasishṭha and came first. He ordered the cooks to cook human flesh and serve it to the king. The cook thought the order came from Vasishṭha. So he prepared human flesh and gave it to the king. Mitrasaha did not know what it was. He took the dish and waited for Vasishṭha to return.

When the real Vasishṭha came, Mitrasaha offered him the dish. Vasishṭha saw through his yogic sight that the food was human flesh. He was very angry. He said, “You know that such flesh cannot be given to tapasvis (ascetics) like me, yet you offer it. May your craving for this very impure food take hold of you!” So he gave Mitrasaha a śāpa: the king would crave human flesh.

Mitrasaha was shocked. He took water in his hand to give a śāpa in return. His wife Madayantī held him back. She said, “Do not give a śāpa to our guru! This man is our kuladevatā (family deva) and our ācārya (teacher). It is not right to give him a śāpa.”

The king could not give the śāpa to Vasishṭha, so he had nowhere to pour the water. He poured it on his own feet. The water carried the heat of his anger, and it burned his feet. They became spotted and discoloured. This is how he got the name Kalmāshapāda, “the one with spotted feet.”

Twelve years as a rākshasa

Under Vasishṭha’s śāpa, Kalmāshapāda spent twelve years in the forest with the nature of a rākshasa. He ate human beings.

Once he saw a brāhmaṇa and his wife together in the forest. They saw the frightening rākshasa form of the king and ran away. The king caught the brāhmaṇa. The brāhmaṇa’s wife begged him with many pleas. She said, “Have mercy! Do not kill my husband. You are a king of the Ikshvāku line, a descendant of great kings who followed dharma.” But the rākshasa nature was stronger. Kalmāshapāda ate the brāhmaṇa as a tiger eats its prey.

The brāhmaṇī’s śāpa

The brāhmaṇa’s wife was full of grief and anger. She said, “You have eaten my husband while I was still with him, before we were satisfied in our married happiness. When desire for union with a wife moves you, you will die.” After this śāpa she entered the fire (agni-praveśa).

Freedom from the śāpa and the birth of Aśmaka

When the twelve years were over, Kalmāshapāda was free of Vasishṭha’s śāpa. He became again a good king. But the brāhmaṇī’s śāpa still held, so he could not go near his wife.

He had no heir. He asked Vasishṭha to give him children. Vasishṭha himself performed garbhādhāna (the rite for conceiving a child) with Madayantī. Even so, no child came for seven or eight years. Madayantī lost patience and struck her womb with a stone. A son was born from this. He was born after being struck with aśma (a stone), so he was named Aśmaka.

Aśmaka’s son was Mūlaka. Women protected Mūlaka when Paraśurāma went through the earth destroying the warrior kings. For this he was named Nārīkavaca.

Sources

• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Caturthāṃśa, Chapter 4