Raibhya's Anger

In the spring month, Yavakrīta came wandering to Raibhya's hermitage. There he saw the wife of Parāvasu, Raibhya's daughter-in-law, walking among the flowering trees. Without shame, his mind carried off by desire, he said to her, Come to me. She knew his nature, and she was afraid that he would curse her, as a man of austerity could, and she knew Raibhya's power too. So she said, Yes, and went away.

When Raibhya came home, he found his daughter-in-law weeping, and he comforted her gently and asked her what was wrong. She told him everything Yavakrīta had said, and what she had answered. As he listened, an anger rose in Raibhya that seemed to burn his heart. He tore out one of his matted locks and offered it into the sacred fire, and from it rose a woman just like his daughter-in-law. He tore out another and offered it, and from it rose a rākṣasa, a demon terrible to look at. They said to Raibhya, What shall we do? Kill Yavakrīta, he said.

The woman went to Yavakrīta and beguiled him, and took his water pot from him, and the rākṣasa came at him with his spear raised. He ran to a pond, but the pond was dry. He ran to the rivers, and all of them were dried up. Driven by the terrible rākṣasa, he ran in fear to his father's fire house. But at the door a blind śūdra, a man of the serving class who guarded the house, held him back by force, and as he stood there, the rākṣasa struck him with the spear, and he fell with his heart split open. Then the rākṣasa went back to Raibhya.