azwAvakraH [ azwakftvaH azwasu BAgezu vA vakraH ] N. of a celebrated Brāhmaṇa, son of the great sage Kahoḍa. [Kahoḍa married a daughter of his ( pb ) preceptor Uddālaka, but he was so devoted to study that he generally neglected her. When once she was far advanced in pregnancy, the unborn son was provoked at his father's neglect of her and rebuked him for his absorption in study to the neglect even of his wife. The sage was very angry at this impertinence and condemned him to be born crooked; so he came forth with his eight (ashṭa) limbs crooked (vakra); whence his name; yasmAtkukzO vartamAno bravIzi tasmAdvakro BavitAsyazwakftvaH Mb. When Kahoḍa was drowned into a river as the result of a wager in a dispute with a Buddhist, young Ashṭāvakra defeated the sage and delivered his father, who, being pleased, directed his son to bathe into the Samaṅgā river, on doing which the lad became perfectly straight].