Chapter 7 — Soumini and Madayanti at Gokarna

Literal. A king of the Ikshwaku family, after killing a demon, is cursed by the demon's brother into eating human flesh; he is then cursed by Vashistha into becoming a Brahmarakshasa named Kalmashpad. He kills a Brahmin youth in the forest; the youth's wife curses him to die when he touches his own wife. Years later he meets Goutam Muni who tells him to bathe at Gokarna. He does, is freed from sin. The chapter then narrates the parallel story of a leper shudra woman whose accidental Bel-leaf offering on the Shiva linga during Mahashivaratri grants her Shivaloka.

Symbolic. Two karmic-cleansing narratives illustrating the purifying power of Gokarna. The shudra-woman story is theologically important: liberation through a single accidental act of right-relationship to the sacred, even by someone who does not know what they are doing.

Structural. Kalmashpad's cycle: 12 years as Brahmarakshasa; 12 years in the forest. The leper-woman has 1000 Brahmahatyas potentially wiped out by the sight of the linga.