Vishnu adopted the form of a beautiful woman and started to live in nandanakanana. When Vihunda caught sight of the woman he was stricken with love for her.

“Please marry me,” he said.

“I certainly will,” replied Vishnu. “There is however, a condition. You will first have to worship Shiva with seven crores of kamoda flowers. Once that has been done, you will have to make a garland of these flowers and give it to me. I will marry you then.”

Vihunda agreed to this condition. But try as he might, he could not find any kamoda tree from which kamoda flowers might be obtained. No one seemed to know anything about such a tree. Finally, Vihunda resorted to the sage Shukracharya, who is all-knowing.

“A kamoda flower is not obtained from a tree,” said Shukracharya. “There is a woman named Kamoda. When she laughs, fragrant yellow flowers emerge from her laughter. If one worships Shiva with these flowers, all one’s wishes are fulfilled. But when Kamoda cries, the flowers that emerge are odourless and red. These should never be touched.”

“Who is this woman Kamoda?” asked Vihunda. “And where do I find her?”

“She can be found on the banks of the Ganga,” replied Shukracharya. “As for who she is, she was born from the churning of the ocean.”

(The story of the churning of the ocean (samudra manthana) is not repeated in the Padma Purana. It can be found in the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and several Puranas.)

The gods had no intention of allowing Vihunda to obtain the flowers that emerged when Kamoda laughed. Their plan was that the demon would use the flowers that emerged when Kamoda cried and thus bring about his own downfall. They therefore sent the sage Narada to Vihunda. Narada persuaded Vihunda that three was no need to go to the place where Kamoda was, to obtain the flowers. The flowers would float by on the water of the Ganga and all that the demon would have to do was to collect them as they passed by.

Narada then plotted to make Kamoda cry. He went and told her that Vishnu was about to be born on earth (in one of his incarnations). The thought of Vishnu leaving heaven so depressed Kamoda that she started to cry. Flowers emerged from these tears and floated down the Ganga to where Vithunda was waiting. Not realising that these were flowers that had emerged from tears and not from laughter, Vihunda collected and used them to worship Shiva. This act so angered the goddess Parvati that she slew Vihunda with a sword.

(This last part is rather cursorily described. The two types of flowers also differed in colour and fragrance. It is therefore not quite clear why Vihunda could not differentiate between the two.)