Gods Grant Boon to Kuvalashva
After Dhundhu's death, the gods appear before King Kuvalashva and offer him a boon. He does not ask for power or wealth. He asks for something else entirely — and the gods grant it.
The battle was over. Dhundhu was dead. The thirty gods and all the great rishis (seers) gathered around King Kuvalashva, delighted beyond measure. They wished to grant him a boon.
Kuvalashva joined his hands in salutation. He prostrated himself before them. And then he spoke.
"Grant me the boon that I may donate my riches to the best of the brahmanas (priests and scholars). Grant that I may be invincible against my enemies. May I enjoy friendship with Vishnu. May I not exhibit enmity towards any being. May my mind always be devoted to dharma (righteousness). And may I have an eternal abode in heaven."
He had asked for nothing for himself — no wealth, no power, no immortality. He had asked to be generous, to be protected, to be a friend to the divine, to harm no one, to live rightly, and to find a home beyond this world.
The delighted gods, together with the rishis, the gandharvas, and the intelligent Utanka, told the king that it would be that way. They pronounced various other auspicious benedictions upon him and returned to their abodes.
Kuvalashva had three sons who survived the battle — Dhridhashva, Kapilashva, and Chandrashva. From them, the great lineage of the Ikshvakus continued. And from that day, King Kuvalashva was known by a new name: Dhundhumara — the slayer of Dhundhu.
Markandeya, finishing the account, told Yudhishthira that this story was sacred, associated with Vishnu's praise. The man who listens to it, he said, has dharma in his soul and begets sons. By listening to it on full moon days or days of the new moon, one obtains a long life, becomes persevering, has no fear of disease, and is devoid of afflictions. Aranyaka Parva, Chapter 492