Krauñca

Krauñca, simply known as Krauncha, Sanskrit: क्रौञ्च, Telugu: క్రౌంచుడు, Hindi: क्रौंच.

Krauñca has other meanings too: see all meanings of Krauñca.

Krauñca was a gandharva (a heavenly musician). A śāpa (a curse) turned him into a mūshaka (a mouse). He became the vāhana (vehicle) of Gaṇeśa and so attained moksha (liberation).

The Gaṇeśa Purāṇa gives two accounts of how Krauñca came under the śāpa. In both, the ending is the same. Krauñca becomes the mūshaka and does great damage in the āśrama of Pārāśara while the infant Gajānana lives there. The infant Gajānana catches him with his pāśa (lasso). Krauñca offers a stotra (hymn of praise) of surrender, and Gajānana accepts him as his vehicle for ever. In this way he gains the moksha that both śāpas promised.

First account: Vāmadeva

This account is told in the saṃvāda (dialogue) of Śukrācārya and Prahlāda.

Krauñca was a gandharva in the divine assembly (sabhā) of Indra. Once he stepped by mistake on the ṛshi Vāmadeva, who was also in the sabhā. Vāmadeva was furious at this lack of respect and laid a śāpa on Krauñca to become a mūshaka. The way out was part of the śāpa itself: Gajānana, the avatāra of Gaṇeśa in the Dvāpara Yuga, would take the mūshaka as his vehicle and so free him.

Second account: Saubhari

This account is told by the ṛshi Saubhari.

The gandharva Krauñca attacked Manomayī, the wife of the ṛshi Saubhari. He tried to do her violence. Saubhari was outraged and laid a śāpa on Krauñca to become a mūshaka. The way out was also part of this śāpa: Krauñca would become the vehicle of Gajānana, the Dvāpara avatāra, and gain moksha through that service.

This Saubhari is a different ṛshi from the Saubhari of the Bhāgavata, who meditated at the Yamunā and married the fifty daughters of Māndhātā.

Brahmā gave both accounts to Vyāsa.

The mūshaka at Pārāśara’s āśrama

After the śāpa made him a mūshaka, Krauñca came in time to the āśrama of the ṛshi Pārāśara. This was the same āśrama in which the infant Gajānana was being raised. The mūshaka did great damage. He gnawed through the grain stores, the vessels and other goods of the āśrama and destroyed them. The people of the āśrama were greatly troubled.

Capture and acceptance as vehicle

The infant Gajānana, still living in Pārāśara’s āśrama, answered the damage. He threw his pāśa, the divine lasso, and caught the mūshaka. Held fast and unable to escape, the mūshaka knew the divine child. He offered a stotra to Gajānana, spoke of his true nature and surrendered fully.

Gajānana accepted his surrender and made him his vāhana. The mūshaka thus became the eternal mount of Gaṇeśa, the mouse on which Gaṇeśa rides. In this way he received the moksha that both śāpas had promised.

Sources

• Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 134 (the Vāmadeva account)
• Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 135 (the Saubhari account, the capture and the acceptance as vehicle)