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The legend, as given in a slightly modified from in
the Kapila-samhita and the palm-leaf chronicles, is
that Samba, the handsome son of Krishna and Jamvavati,
was dedicated by his father behaving improperly with
his stem-mothers. Krishna thereupon cursed him; and he
became a leper as white as snow; but yielding to his
pitiful entreaties, Krishna relented so far as to
promise that he might be cured by the grace of the sun
god. Samba now began a rigorous penance in the
Maitreya woods, and there the sun-god appeared to him
and cured him of his leprosy. His beauty was
miraculously restored, and the grateful Samba
thereupon established the worship of the sun-god on
the bank of the Chandrabhaga. The Kapila-samhita
located at Konark the story of Samba and his
miraculous cure from leprosy by the help of sunray.
But the original locale of this tale was the
north-west of India, and thence it was transplanted to
Orissa in order to enhance the sanctity of Konark, or
to gain for it popular recognition as the true place
where sun-worship should be performed. |
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