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कुंभक (kuMbhaka)

 
L R Vaidya
English
kuMBaka {% m. %} 1. The base of a column
2. suspension of breath by closing the mouth and the nostrils by the right hand (in Yoga phil.).
पुराणम्
English
कुम्भक १ / KUMBHAKA I. A warrior of skanda. (śalya Parva, Chapter 45, Verse 75).
कुम्भक २ / KUMBHAKA II. (Nikumbhaka). A very reputed sage. If he visited any place at dusk he left it only after a thousand years. He visited kāśī once when King divodāsa was ruling the state after having killed the rākṣasa called kṣemaka, who had lived like a king there. kumbhaka lived in a forest in kāśī with his disciples. Prosperity reigned supreme within a radius of three Yojanas from where the sage lived. Neither wild beasts nor famine infested the area.
Once a fierce famine broke out in kāśī, and the failure of rain caused great havoc. Finding it impossible to feed the cows their keepers went with their live-stock every morning to Kumbhaka's place where summer had not yet even peeped in, and after feeding their cows there, they returned home in the evening. But, one evening they led back with them the cows used by the sage for his Pūjās. When the sun set, as usual the sage sat before the sacred fire for Pūjā. But, the cow had not come. With his divine vision he found out the reason for the absence of the cow. He cursed that the region where the keepers of the cows lived be turned into a desert, and the kingdom of kāśī became a desert place, whereupon king divodāsa went to the banks of the gomatī and founded a new kingdom there. (brahmāṇḍa purāṇa Chapter 2).