चञ्चलाक्षी

{ cañcalākṣī }

Puranic Encyclopaedia

A vidyādhara girl. Once while she was concentrating her mind in prayer over Mahālaksmī, Rāvaṇa, King of the Rākṣasas, committed rape on her, and she cursed him that he should die on account of Mahālakṣmī herself and accordingly at last he was killed by Rāma on account of Sītā, the incarnation of Mahālakṣmī. [Kaṁpa Rāmāyaṇa] .
CAÑCALĀKṢĪ   A notorious harlot who lived in dvāpara yuga. When one day at midnight she came to the appointed place to meet a paramour the latter had not arrived. While waiting impatiently there she was attacked and killed by a leopard. Emissaries of Viṣṇu as also of Yama arrived to carry away the soul of Cañcalākṣī. Yama's men argued that she had sinned throughout her life, and therefore claimed the harlot's soul. But the emissaries of Visṇu countered the argument thus: “once on her way to conduct her trade Cañcalākṣī got into a temple and munched tāmbūla in the course of which she rubbed some lime on the walls of the temple. Taking into consideration this fact of her having spent sometime thus to clean the temple wall her soul deserves to be led to Viṣṇuloka”. In the argument the emissaries of Yama were defeated and the soul of Cañcalākṣī was taken to Vaikuṇṭha by the emissaries of Viṣṇu. [Padma Purāṇa, Chapter 6] .