अष्टावक्रaṣṭāvakraN. of a celebrated Brāhmaṇa son of the great sage Kahoḍa. [Kahoḍa married a daughter of his preceptor…
[अष्टकृत्वः अष्टसु भागेषु वा वक्रः]
Name of a celebrated Brāhmaṇa son of the great sage Kahoḍa. [Kahoḍa married a daughter of his preceptor Uddālaka, but he was so devoted to study that he generally neglected her. When once she was far advanced in pregnancy, the unborn son was provoked at his father's neglect of her and rebuked him for his absorption in study to the neglect even of his wife. The sage was very angry at this impertinence and condemned him to be born crooked; so he came forth with his eight (aṣṭa) limbs crooked (vakra); whence his name; यस्मात्कुक्षौ वर्तमानो ब्रवीषि तस्माद्वको भवितास्यष्टकृत्वः Mb. when Kahoḍa was drowned into a river as the result of a wager in a dispute with a Buddhist, young Aṣṭavakra defeated the sage and delivered his father, who, being pleased, directed his son to bathe into the Samaṅgā river, on doing which the lad became perfectly straight, See Mb. Adhyāyas 132-34 of the Vanaparvan.]
