Hometown Mandapeta in East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh was known in earlier times as Mandavyapuram. Folklore story has it that the name Mandavyapuram was derived from the divine presence of Sage Mandavya in this place. While reading Mahabharata written by Shri Rajagopalachari, first Governor General of independent India, I came across the interesting story of Sage Mandavya. The story is reproduced below:
When Mandavya rishi was immersed in his penance, a thief, who had stolen valuables from the king's palace, entered his ashram thinking that it would be a convenient place to hid himself. The soldiers came to the ashram tracking his footsteps. They asked the Sage "Did you see the thief pass by? where did they go?" The sage who was absorbed in yoga, remained silent. The solider repeated the question. But the sage did not hear anything. In the meantime, they discovered the stolen goods lying there. They reported this to their commander. Later, they found the thief as well in the ashram. The commander thought" :Now I know the reason why the brahman pretended to be a silent sage. He is indeed the chief of these thiefs. He has inspired the theft". Then he orders his soldiers to guard the place, went to the king and told him that the sage Mandavya had been caught with the stolen goods.
The king was very and angry at the audacity of the chief of the robbers who had put on the garb of a brahmana sage, the better to deceive the world. Without pausing to verify the facts, he ordered the wicked criminal, as he thought him, to be impaled.
The commandeer returned to the hermitage, impaled the Sage Mandavya on a spear and handed over the stolen things to the king.
The virtuous sage, though impaled on the spear, did not die. Since he was in yoga when he was impaled he remained alive by the power of yoga. Sage who lived in other parts of the forest came to his hermitage and asked Mandavya how he came to be in that terrible pass.
Mandavya replied: "Whom shall I blame? The servants of the king, who protect the world. have inflicted this punishment."
The king was surprised and frightened when he heard that the impaled sage was till alive and that he was surrounded by the other sages of the forest. He hastened to the forest with his attendants and at once ordered the sage to be taken down from the spear. then he prostrated at his feet and prayed humbly to be forgiven for the offence unwittingly committed.
Mandavya was not angry with the king. He went straight to Lord Yama/Dharma, the divine dispenser of justice and asked him: "What crime have I committed to deserve this torture?"
Lord Yama, who knew the great power of the sage, replied in all humility: "O sage, you have tortured birds and bees. Are you not aware that all deeds, good or bad, however small, inevitably produce their results, good or evil?"
Mandavya was surprised at this reply of Lord Yama and asked: "When did I commit this offence?"
Lord Dharma replied: "When you were a child."
Madavya then pronounced a curse on Dharma: "This punishment you have decreed is in far excess of the mistake committed by a child in ignorance. Be born, therefore, as a mortal in the world".
Lord Dharma who was thus cursed by the sage Mandavya incarnated as Vidura and was born of the servant-mad of Ambalika, the wife of Vichitravirya, whose other sons were Dhritharasthra and Pandu.
In "The Children of the Immortal : A Quest into Hindu Identity" written by Keshav Prasad Varma, it was mentioned that Sage Mandavya was able to convince Lord Yama that though his act as a child was misconduct, the punishment given was not commensurate given the fact that he as a child was innocent and not expected to understand the full implications of ethics, and therefore, the acts of a child ought to be dealt with leniency. He succeeded in obtaining a ruling from Lord Yama that an act committed by a child, even in mischief, would henceforth not attract Law of Karma.
Interestingly, jurisprudence of juveniles perhaps owes its origin to these insightful deliberations.
Proud to belong to Mandavyapuram which was once upon a time the abode of Sage Mandavya!
In "The Children of the Immortal : A Quest into Hindu Identity" written by Keshav Prasad Varma, it was mentioned that Sage Mandavya was able to convince Lord Yama that though his act as a child was misconduct, the punishment given was not commensurate given the fact that he as a child was innocent and not expected to understand the full implications of ethics, and therefore, the acts of a child ought to be dealt with leniency. He succeeded in obtaining a ruling from Lord Yama that an act committed by a child, even in mischief, would henceforth not attract Law of Karma.
Interestingly, jurisprudence of juveniles perhaps owes its origin to these insightful deliberations.
Proud to belong to Mandavyapuram which was once upon a time the abode of Sage Mandavya!
