Dundubha

Ruru has sworn to kill every snake he sees after one killed his wife. When he encounters a dundubha snake and raises his staff, the snake does not flee. It argues that it is a snake only by smell, not a biting snake, and that Ruru's indiscriminate vow shows he cannot tell right from wrong.

Having spared the strange, articulate snake, Ruru seeks to understand it. He asks how it came to be in its current form. The dundubha reveals it was once a rishi named Sahasrapata, transformed by a Brahmana's curse.