Bible Encyclopedias
Kalinak

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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Kalika Purana

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in Hindu mythology, is a monstrous thousand-headed snake. Vishnu sought to capture it, riding on his giant bird, Garndha. When the serpent saw him coming it hid in the river Jumna, whose water it poisoned. When Vishnu, in his ninth Avatar, was still a boy, he decided to deliver the world from this reptile and its offspring. The reptile encircled him with a thousand fangs, but the god walked on its heads and crushed them all but one. He then sent it to the infernal regions, where its poison is used to torture the damned.