Vidura (विदुरः)
 |
This is a short stub article. Needs Expansion. |
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 papa (पापम्) that you have been pierced with the trident." Mandavya replied : "The Sastras ordain that there shall be no punishment for papas committed till the age of twelve. Therefore the punishment inflicted on me is wrong. As the murder of a Brahmin is a greater papa 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.[1]
Yama was once cursed by the sage Ani Mandavya. It was as a result of it that Yama was born as Vidura.[2]