“I will first tell you about my husband,” said the female pig.

The male pig used to be gandharva whose name was Rangavidyadhara. He was an excellent singer.

The sage Pulastya had made his hermitage on Mount Sumeru. Rangavidyadhara came there and began to sing. So beautiful were the songs that the sage could not concentrate on his meditation.

“Please go somewhere else,” requested Pulastya. “Do not sing here.”

“Why should I go anywhere else?” asked Rangavidyadhara. “I am just singing and my songs do no one any harm. They please people. Why are you against singing?”

“I am not against singing,” said Pulastya. “I have got nothing against the art and I realise that it has its uses. But your songs are distracting me and I find it difficult to concentrate on my meditation. That is the reason I asked you to go and sing somewhere else.”

“If you cannot concentrate, that is your own failing,” responded the gandharva. “I know that those who can really meditate are not disturbed by anything. This forest does not belong to you. I belong here just as much as you do. If my singing disturbs you, go and find some other place for your meditation.”

Pulastya controlled his anger. Without bandying any further words, he went away. After a few days, Rangavidyadhara noticed that the sage was no longer to be seen. He found out that Pulastya had now made his hermitage in another part of the forest.

The gandharva felt like playing a trick on the sage. He therefore adopted the form of a pig and went to Pulastya’s hermitage. He tore up the ground with his hooves and gored the sage with his tusks. Pulastya was initially inclined to ignore all this disturbance, he forgave the pig as it was a wild animal. But he soon realised that the pig was none other than the gandharva in disguise. He cursed Rangavidyadhara that he would be born as a pig.

Realising that things had got out of hand, the gandharva fled to Indra and told him of his misfortune. “Please help me,” he begged the king of the gods. “I did what I did only for your sake. The sage was meditating and he was certain to acquire tremendous powers once his tapasya was accomplished. Who knows, he might then have aspired for the title of Indra.”

“I can’t unto the sage’s curse,” replied Indra. “I cant at beast mitigate its effects. When, as a pig, you are killed by King Ikshvaku, you will become a gandharva once again.”