Niśākara

Niśākara was the son of the brāhmaṇa Kośakāra, who was the son of Mudgala. He was born with jāti-smaraṇa (the memory of all his past lives). Because of this memory he looked dull, silent and without response as a child. His family gave him up, and his father threw him into a well that was then sealed. In the Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa he later tells his past lives, as a debauched man, a tiger, a donkey, a parrot and a bull. Unchecked kāma (desire) ruled all of them. This is one of the longest teachings on karma and saṃsāra in that Purāṇa. In the end he left for Badarikāśrama to do tapas (austerity) for his final mokṣa (liberation).

Birth and the exchange with Dīvākara

Niśākara was born looking dull and without response. He sat still and neither spoke nor looked at anyone. His mother Dharmiṣṭhā decided that the child was defective and left him at the doorstep.

At that moment the rākṣasī Sūrpākṣī arrived. She took the brāhmaṇa child and left her own thin baby in his place. But her husband Ghaṭodara sent her back and warned her that stealing from a brāhmaṇa’s house was dangerous. She went back. She found that Kośakāra had used the power of mantra to bind the rākṣasa baby, and that he had got his own son back when Sūrpākṣī threw him back. Kośakāra named the rākṣasa child Dīvākara, and Dīvākara grew up in the house as a second son.

The Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa tells this in Chapter 64.

Ten years in the well

Kośakāra named his own son Niśākara. After the upanayana (the sacred thread rite) of both boys, he tried to teach them. Dīvākara learned the Vedas easily. Niśākara seemed unable to learn anything. The family mocked him and turned him away, and in the end they cast him aside. Kośakāra, in anger, threw the boy into a dry well and closed it with a boulder. Niśākara stayed there for ten years.

At last his mother passed by the sealed well and heard a voice from inside. She moved the boulder away and found her son, still looking the same. His astonished father asked why he had seemed so dull and silent. Niśākara then told the story of his jāti-smaraṇa.

This is in the Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 64.

The past lives

Niśākara remembered a long chain of births. It began with unchecked kāma in an earlier human birth in the Bṛndāraka lineage. His past lives were these:

• A learned but debauched man, in his first human life. He was sentenced to death and then went to Raurava naraka (hell).
• A tiger in a king’s cage. He spoke words of lust to the king’s wife Jitā, was killed by the guards, and then went to naraka.
• A white donkey in the house of the brāhmaṇa Agniveśya. He attacked the wife Vimati and died tangled in bamboo, and then went to naraka.
• A parrot, kept by Candravalī, the beloved of a merchant. He was killed because of lust, and then went to naraka.
• A bull in a Cāṇḍāla household. He turned back in lust toward the singing wife of his owner. His neck was caught in the yoke and he died, and then went to naraka.

After all these births and the times in naraka, he was born as the son of Kośakāra with his memories whole.

This is in the Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 64.

Leaving for Badarikāśrama

When he had told his parents the whole story of his past lives, Niśākara said that he would not enter household life. The pūrvābhyāsa (habits from earlier lives) of good qualities, such as knowledge of the śāstras and a turn toward the spiritual life, had also lasted through all the births. He would now use them for mokṣa. He bowed to his parents and asked Dīvākara to serve the family as their son. Then he left for Badarikāśrama, the holy retreat of Nara and Nārāyaṇa, to do tapas.

This is in the Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 64.

Niśākara’s story inside the larger account

In the larger account, Bali tells the story of Niśākara to Śukrācārya. He tells it to explain why a true giver cannot refuse to give, even when he is advised not to. Niśākara’s kāma-vāsanā (deep habit of desire) lasted through five births because it had been strongly formed in an earlier life. In the same way, Bali’s pūrvābhyāsa of dāna (giving) makes it impossible for him to refuse a brāhmaṇa who comes with a request. This frames Bali’s coming gift of three paces of land to Vāmana.

Sources

• Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 64