*SKANDHA X. CHAP. 6.*
With evil forebodings, Nanda made his way to Vraja, for he thought
Vasudeva would not tell a lie. And he was right. By Kansa's orders, the
fierce Putana went about killing children in towns, villages and pasture
lands, for verily she was a killer of children. That wanderer of the
skies entered Gokula at will, assuming the form of a woman most
beautiful to look at. So no one stopped her passage. She moved freely
here and there and at last entered the house of Nanda. She looked like a
kind mother and Yasoda and Rohini were so much struck by her fine
exterior that they did not stop her access to Krishna. Putana placed the
child on her lap and gave him milk from her breast full of deadly
poison. The divine child knew who Putana was and what she was about. He
held fast her breast with both hands and in anger drank in the very life
juice of the Asura woman. She screamed forth "Let go", "Let go", "No
more". Her eyes expanded. She cast up and down her hands and feet again
and again in profuse perspiration. Her groans made heaven and earth
tremble and space itself resounded on all sides. At last she fell dead
like a great mountain, crushing down trees within an ambit of twelve
miles. Fearlessly the boy played on her body.
The Gopa ladies hurried to the place with Rohini and Yasoda. They bathed
the boy in cows' urine and dust from cow's feet. They pronounced the
twelve names of Vishnu (Kesava and others) over twelve parts of his
body. Then after touching water, they duly uttered the root mantras over
their own body and that of the child. Lastly they invoked Vishnu by
different names to protect the child from danger of all sorts. (The
protective mantra uttered by the mother with passes of the hand over
different parts of the body was supposed to shield the child from
danger. Latterly the custom has been to get the mantra written, with due
ceremonies, by a qualified Brahman, on the sacred bark (Bhurja) and then
to tie it round the hand.)
Yasoda then placed the child on her lap and gave him milk.
By this time Nanda had returned to Vrindabana. He saw the huge body of
the Asura woman and realised the force of Vasudeva's warning.
The people of Vraja cut the body into parts and burnt them with fuel.
The smoke was sweet-scented, as the touch of Krishna's body purifies
even the enemy.