Reading Notes: Krishna Part B

CHAPTER 11. Nriga and Paundrika. (Chameleon Story)

Krishna's son, Samba, and his friends were walking through the woods, they came across a well. Upon inspection, they realized that there was no water in the well, only a huge chameleon in the bottom. Having never seen a chameleon that size before, they decided to capture it and take it back home. They had no problem getting to the bottom of the well or tying a rope to it so they could pull it up, but as soon as they tried to pull, it would pull back. The chameleon was too strong for them to get it on their own, so they went back to Dwarka and got Krishna. Krishna went with them to the well and easily pulled up the chameleon. When Krishna took the chameleon into his hand, though, it transformed into a man. The princes were amazed and Krishna asked the chameleon to tell his story. 

The man told the story of what happened to him. Turns out that the chameleon was once a King named Nriga. As a king, Nriga was very generous. He gave Brahmins many gifts. He gave many gifts but usually he gave cows. He got in trouble because he gave a cow to a brahmin and the cow ran away and came back to him. Without knowing this, he gave the cow to a different brahmin the next day. The first brahmin was of course upset about this and wanted the cow back. The two brahmin's argued about who deserved the cow, and to make up for it, Nriga offered either of them 100000 cows for it, but neither would take them, they only wanted the original. Eventually the first brahmin took the cow away, and the second left angrily. As the years went by, Nriga grew old and died. When he died, Yama, the God of Death, said that he had to pay for his mistake. He gave Nriga the option of punishment or fruits of good deeds first and Nriga picked punishment. He was sentenced to live as the chameleon and Krishna's touched had released him from his sentence. 

Bibliography: source Shri Krishna of Dwarka and Other Stories by C. A. Kincaid (1920)

Image Info: source, Pixabay, Chameleon