On seeing that Goutama had fallen into their trap, the deceitful sages accused him of killing a cow. This was a terrible sin and the sages used this as a pretext for leaving Goutama’s hermitage.

As penance for his supposed sin, Goutama went to the Himalayas and prayed to Shiva. Pleased at the sage’s prayers, Shiva gave Goutama a strand of his matted hair. Goutama brought this back to his hermitage and from the hair flowed out the sacred river Godavari Ganga. At the touch of its waters, the dead cow revived and it was only now that Goutama realised that he had been tricked by the deceitful sages.

The seven great sages (saptarshi) had come to Goutama’s hermitage to admire the wonderful new river that Goutama had created by Shiva’s grace. In the presence of the seven great sages, Goutama cursed the wicked sages.

“You will no longer be regarded as brahmanas,” he told them. “You will no longer be permitted to perform the religious rites of the Vedas”.The sages begged Goutama to reduce the severity of the curse, but Goutama told them that the only person who could do this was Shiva himself. The sages therefore went to meet Shiva in Mount Kailasa and Shiva modified the conditions of the curse. As penance for their sin, it was now decided that the evil sages would be born as liars and cheats in kali yuga.

“But kali yuga is going to be a terrible time”, pleaded the sages. “Please give us something that will make the burden more bearable for us.”

Shiva gave the sages a text known as the Shiva samhita. He also told them that not all of them would be born as evil men. Some of them would be of good conduct. But the majority of them would be evil and would end up in hell.

This is the curse that lies behind kali yuga.