The Curse

One day, Viśvāmitra said, when the sage had gone some distance away, Indra, the husband of Śacī, knowing that he was away, took on the form of the sage and came to Ahalyā and said to her: Those who desire do not wait for the proper season, my lady. I want to lie with you, slender one. She knew him for Indra in the sage's form, and in her folly, curious about the king of the gods, she consented. Afterwards she said to him, I am content, best of the gods. Go quickly, my lord. Protect yourself and me, always. Indra smiled and said, I am satisfied too; I will go as I came. And he left the hut.

As he came out, hurrying, afraid of Gautama, he saw the great sage coming in, wet from his bath, blazing like fire, carrying firewood and kuśa grass, a man whom neither gods nor demons could withstand. Indra saw him and his face went pale with fear. Gautama, whose conduct was always pure, saw the evildoer, Indra in the guise of a sage, and said to him in anger: You evil-minded one, you have taken my form and done what should never be done. You will lose your testicles. And the moment the angry sage had spoken, Indra's testicles fell to the ground.

Then he cursed Ahalyā: You will live here for many thousands of years, living on air, eating nothing, doing penance, lying on ashes, unseen by any creature, in this hermitage. When Rāma, the son of Daśaratha, comes to this terrible forest, you will be made pure. When you have welcomed him as your guest, wicked woman, you will be free of greed and delusion, and you will take your own form again, gladly, in my presence. Having said this to the woman who had done wrong, Gautama left the hermitage and went to practise austerity on a peak of the Himālaya.