Kahoḍa
Kahoḍa, simply known as Kahoda, Sanskrit: कहोड, Telugu: కహోడుడు, Hindi: कहोड.
Kahoḍa (also written Kahoda) is a ṛshi named in two places. The Padma Mahā Purāṇa names him as the son of Pippalāda Maharshi, a ṛshi of the Śābhramatī river. The Mahābhārata tells of a Kahoḍa who was the father of the ṛshi Ashṭāvakra.
Son of Pippalāda and the slaying of Kolāsura
The Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa says that Kahoḍa was the son of Pippalāda Maharshi. His lineage is described as running from Dadhīci Bhārgava to Rudra, through the ṛshi of the Śābhramatī who was born from an aśvattha tree.
Kahoḍa followed his father’s path. He kept up the tapas (austerity) at the Pippalādatīrtha, on the bank of the Śābhramatī, near the Dugdheśvara tīrtha (a holy place).
By the force of his tapas he produced a Kṛtyā. A Kṛtyā is a fierce female power, called up for a purpose. She was sent against the asura Kolāsura and killed him. Pippalāda himself had produced the first Kṛtyā. Kahoḍa, who kept up the tapas at the same tīrtha, produced the one that ended the matter.
Home at Agnipāleśvara
Kahoḍa lived at the Agnipāleśvara tīrtha on the Śābhramatī. The name joins agni (fire) and pāla (guardian). The Uttara Khaṇḍa gives the greatness of the Śābhramatī in Chapters 135 to 150, and Agnipāleśvara is one of its tīrthas.
Kukardama’s preta
The Padma Mahā Purāṇa also remembers Kahoḍa as the compassionate ṛshi who met the preta (a restless spirit of the dead) of King Kukardama of Piṇḍāraka at the Agnipāleśvara tīrtha. He did not turn away from it. He told it to perform śrāddha (rites for the ancestors) at the Śābhramatī, and by this the spirit was set free. The Śābhramatī has the power to free such spirits when they come to it through the ancestral rites.
The Mahābhārata account: father of Ashṭāvakra
The Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata (Chapters 132 to 134) tells of a Kahoḍa who was a disciple of Uddālaka. He married Uddālaka’s daughter.
While his wife was carrying a child, the child in the womb corrected Kahoḍa’s recitation of the Veda. Kahoḍa was ashamed and angry. He gave the unborn child a śāpa (a curse): the child would be born with eight bends in his body. So Ashṭāvakra was born bent in eight places. This is in Chapter 132.
Kahoḍa then went to the court of King Janaka to seek the king’s support. There he accepted a debate challenge from Vandi, the son of Varuṇa, who was kept at the court as a scholar. Kahoḍa lost. He was sent into the ocean, where he was kept alive as part of Varuṇa’s gathering for a yajña (a fire ritual).
He stayed in the ocean until his son Ashṭāvakra came to Janaka’s court at the age of twelve. Ashṭāvakra defeated Vandi and won the release of the scholars. Varuṇa’s yajña had ended, and all the scholars came up out of the ocean.
Kahoḍa met his son again. He told Ashṭāvakra to bathe in a sacred river, and by this he removed the śāpa and straightened the eight bends. This is in Chapter 134.
Sources
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapters 139 and 157
- Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 132–134