Indradyumna

In Hindu mythology, a righteous king
who is a great devotee (bhakta) of the
god Vishnu. He has been cursed to
become a giant elephant by the sage
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Indradyumna
Agastya, who becomes angry when the
king, deep in meditation, fails to greet
the sage with proper respect. After much
pleading, Agastya decrees that the curse
will be broken when Vishnu touches the
elephant on the back. As a result of this
curse, Indradyumna roams the earth as
an elephant for many years.
On one occasion when he is drinking at a lake, his hind leg is seized by a
giant crocodile. The crocodile is actually a gandharva or celestial musician
named Huhu, whom another sage had
cursed to become a crocodile. Their
struggle lasts for a thousand years, with
the elephant unable to get free, and the
crocodile unable to overpower the elephant. Finally Vishnu himself appears,
kills the crocodile, and restores
Indradyumna to his previous form. The
release of Indradyumna from both the
curse and the crocodile is known as
Gajendramoksha, the “release of the
elephant king.”