Puranic encyclopaedia
by Vettam Mani | 1975 | 609,556 words | ISBN-10: 0842608222
This page describes the Story of Baka included the Puranic encyclopaedia by Vettam Mani that was translated into English in 1975. The Puranas have for centuries profoundly influenced Indian life and Culture and are defined by their characteristic features (panca-lakshana, literally, ‘the five characteristics of a Purana�).
Story of Baka
A demon. The ṇḍ escaping from the trap of Arakkilla (lac-house) through a secret tunnel went to the village 첹 on the banks of the river Ҳṅg and stayed there in the house of a brahmin. Baka was a demon who was terrorising the villagers there. He used to come to the village freely and carry away people for his food. Because of this nobody lived in peace and so they all joined together and decided to send one man daily with plenty of other eatables to the demon in this cave. Days went by like that and one day the turn came to the brahmin who was sheltering the ṇḍ. That brahmin had besides his wife one son and a daughter. The problem arose as to who should go to the demon. The father was willing but the wife did not want him to go and vice versa. The children began to cry and hearing the noise ܲԳī, mother of the ṇḍ, went there to enquire and learned the tragic story of the family. She immediately went to ī and acquainted him with the problem before the brahmin. ī at once volunteered to go to the demon deciding to kill the man-eater and thus putting an end to his depredations.
ī started on his journey to the demon carrying a cartload of rice and curry. Deliberately ī arrived at the place of the demon very late. Baka rolled his eyes in anger at the sight of the late-comer. But ī without heeding him sat in front of the demon and started eating the rice and curry. Baka charged at ī with fury but ī defended and a battle ensued in which Baka was killed and he fell dead like a mountain-head dropping down.* (Chapters 157164, Ādi Parva, Ѳٲ).
*) ī, a demon, was the brother of Baka. (Śǰ첹 23, Chapter 11, ṇy Parva, Ѳٲ). f It is in the 10th Skandha of 岵ٲ that the story of this Baka occurs. But in the vernacular translation of the same the story is not so clear. Hence the original in Sanskrit is quoted below:
"sa vai bako 峾 mahānasuro bakarūpadhṛk āgatya kṛṣṇam tīkṣṇatuṇḍo 'grasadbalī kṛṣṇam mahābakagrasta� dṛṣṭvā rāmādayo 'rbhakā� babhūvurindriyāṇīva ṇa� ٲ�."