SRIMAD MAHABHARATA - AADI PARVA - SAMBHAVA (UPA) PARVA - PART 107

"Janamejaya said, 'What did the Dharmadeva do for which he was cursed? Who was the Brahmana Rishi from whose curse the Deva had to be born in the Shudra varna?'

"Vaishampaayana said, 'There was a Brahmana known by the name of Maandavya. He was knowledgeable with all duties and was devoted to Dharma, truth and Tapas. The Maharishi used to sit at the entrance of his ashrama at the foot of a tree, with his arms upraised in the observance of the vow of silence (Mouna vrata in Sanskrit). As he sat there for years together, one day there came into his ashrama a number of robbers loaded with spoil. O bull in Bharata's race (Janamejaya), those robbers were then being pursued by a superior body as guardians of the peace. The thieves, on entering that ashrama, hid their booty there, and in fear concealed themselves near that place before the guards came.

"But scarcely had they thus concealed themselves when the constables in pursuit came to the spot. O king (Janamejaya), the latter observing the Rishi (Maandavya) sitting under the tree, questioned him saying, 'O best of Brahmanas, which way have the thieves taken? Point it out to us so that we may follow it without loss of time.' 

"O king (Janamejaya), thus questioned by the guardians of peace the Rishi said not a word, good or otherwise, in reply. The officers of the king, however, on searching that ashrama soon discovered the thieves concealed thereabout together with the plunder. Upon this, their suspicion fell upon the Muni, and accordingly they seized him with the thieves and brought him before the king. The king sentenced him to be executed along with his supposed associates.

"The officers, acting in ignorance, carried out the sentence by piercing the celebrated Rishi. Having pierced him, they went to the king with the booty they had recovered. But the Dharma Rishi, though pierced and kept without food, remained in that state for a long time without dying. The Rishi by his power of Tapas not only preserved his life but summoned other Rishis to the scene. They came there in the night in the forms of birds, and seeing him engaged in Tapas meditation though fixed on that stake, became plunged into grief. Telling that best of Brahmanas who they were, they asked him saying, 'O Brahmana (Rishi Maandavya), we desire to know what has been your sin for which you have thus been made to suffer the tortures of piercing!'"