The Guardian of the Lotus Lake

When the king heard that the seers had refused his gift, he grew angry, and he went home and offered oblations into his sacred fire with fierce rites, one by one, to take revenge. Out of the fire rose a fearsome being, a kṛtyā, like the night of destruction, and the king named her Yātudhānī. She stood before him with folded hands and asked, What shall I do? The king said, Go to the seven seers and to Arundhatī, and to the serving woman and her husband. Learn their names and hold them in your mind, and destroy them all.

The seers were wandering in the forest, eating roots and fruits, when they met a wandering ascetic, fat in every limb, named Śunaḥsakha, which means the friend of the dog. Arundhatī saw how well fed he was and said to the seers, You will never look like that. Each seer gave his reason why the man was fat and they were thin: he does not keep the fire morning and evening, said Vasiṣṭha; he has not lost his learning through hunger, said Atri; he does not have four brothers begging, give, give, said Kaśyapa. The ascetic came up to them and clasped their hands, and from then on he went with them, and they gathered roots and fruits together.

One day they came to a lotus lake with clear water and lovely flowers, with only one way down into it, and on its bank stood Yātudhānī, guarding it. Who are you, standing here alone? the seers asked her. What do you want? She said, Whoever I am, you need not ask. Know that I guard this lake. The seers said, We are all starving, and we have nothing else. With your leave we will take some lotus stalks. Yātudhānī said, You may take them, on one condition: each of you must tell me his name. Then take them, and be quick.

Atri understood that she was a kṛtyā sent to kill them, and he told her his name with its meaning, and she said, Your name as you explain it is hard to hold in the mind. Go down into the lake. So it went with each of them. Vasiṣṭha told her, I am Vasiṣṭha, for I am the best, variṣṭha, and I dwell, vas, in homes. Kaśyapa, Bharadvāja, Gautama, Viśvāmitra and Jamadagni each told her his name and what it meant, and each time she said, This is hard to hold in the mind. Go down into the lake.

Then Arundhatī spoke. I hold to the earth that holds and bears all things, she said, and I stay close beside my husband. Because I keep to my husband's mind, anurundhatī, know me as Arundhatī. And Yātudhānī said, Your name as you explain it is hard to bear in mind. Go down into the lake. Gaṇḍā and Paśusakha told their names, and she said the same to them. She could hold none of their names in her mind, and so she could do them no harm.

Last of all came the ascetic, Śunaḥsakha. I cannot say my name the way these have said theirs, he told her. Know me as the friend of the friend of the dog. She said, You have spoken your name unclearly. Say it once more. He answered, I have said my name once, and you did not grasp it. So, struck by my triple staff, go to ashes at once. He struck her on the head with his staff, which was like the staff of Brahman, and she fell to the ground and turned to ashes. Then he planted his staff in the ground and sat down on the grass.

The seers went down into the lake and gathered lotus stalks and flowers as they wished, and they laid the stalks on the bank in bundles and went into the water to offer water to the ancestors. When they came out, the stalks were gone. Who has taken the stalks from us, starving as we are? they said, and they suspected one another, and agreed that each should swear an oath.

Each seer cursed the thief with the things he held most shameful. And Arundhatī said, Let the woman who has stolen the stalks speak ill of her mother-in-law every day, and be unhappy with her husband, and eat sweet things alone. Let her eat barley-meal at nightfall in the middle of her kinsfolk's house, and be unfortunate, and never bear a son.

Then Śunaḥsakha swore his oath: Let the one who stole the stalks give his daughter to a priest of the Yajurveda, or to a singer of the Sāmaveda who has kept his student vows, and let him study the Atharvaveda and bathe at the end of his learning. The seers said, What you have sworn is just what every brahmin wishes for. It was you who stole the stalks, friend of the dog. He said, It is true. I took them, and hid them here; look. I did it to test you, holy ones, and I came here to protect you all. This Yātudhānī was a kṛtyā sent by Vṛṣādarbhi, furious, to kill you, and I have killed her. Know that I am Indra. Because you did not give in to greed, worlds that never fail are yours. Rise, and come to them at once. The seers were glad, and they went with Indra, the king of the gods, to heaven.