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After going about in the world for many years with the tip of the trident in his body, Ani Mandavya once asked Dharma : "Oh! Lord, why is it that an innocent man like me is afflicted with the trident ?". Dharma answered: "In your boyhood you once caught small birds and pierced them with a grass reed. It is a result of that sin that you have been pierced with the trident." Mandavya replied : "The Sastras ordain that there shall be no punishment for sins committed till the age of twelve. Therefore the punishment inflicted on me is wrong. As the murder of a Brahmin is a greater sin than any other murder, may you be born as a man in the 'Sudra Caste'." By the above curse of Mandavya, Dharma was born a son of a Sudra woman. It was this child who later on became the renowned Vidura of the Mahabharata.<ref>M.B., Adi Parva, Chapter 107</ref>

After going about in the world for many years with the tip of the trident in his body, Ani Mandavya once asked Dharma : "Oh! Lord, why is it that an innocent man like me is afflicted with the trident ?". Dharma answered: "In your boyhood you once caught small birds and pierced them with a grass reed. It is a result of that sin that you have been pierced with the trident." Mandavya replied : "The Sastras ordain that there shall be no punishment for sins committed till the age of twelve. Therefore the punishment inflicted on me is wrong. As the murder of a Brahmin is a greater sin than any other murder, may you be born as a man in the 'Sudra Caste'." By the above curse of Mandavya, Dharma was born a son of a Sudra woman. It was this child who later on became the renowned Vidura of the Mahabharata.<ref>M.B., Adi Parva, Chapter 107</ref>