Kandu is a distinguished Indian sage, who practised religious austerities on the lovely borders of the Gomuti River.
Indra sent the nymph Pramlocha to disturb his meditation. Kandu was attracted with the beauty of Pramlocha and diverted himself from his devotions. Kandu and Pramlocha started living together in the valley of Mandura and continued living for a hundred and fifty years, spending the life in enjoyment. Then the nymph Pramlocha requested permission from the sage to return to heaven but the sage was still fond of her and did not let her go. Pramlocha continued to reside for another hundred years. Then she again wished to return to the abodes of the gods, and again the Muni desired her to remain. The same situation occurred many times.
On one occasion the Kandu was going forth from his cottage in a great hurry. The nymph, Pramlocha asked him where he was going. Kandu replied that the day is ending and he will have to perform the Sandhya worship quickly. Pramlocha answered him and said that the sage lives for many years then why he is he saying that the day will end. Kandu could not understand why she was saying so.
Kandu thought the he had met with Pramlocha by the river side at dawn and spent a blissful day with her. Pramlocha revealed the truth to him that she met Kandu at morning dawn, but several hundred years have passed since the time of her arrival. The Muni, on hearing this, was surprised and asked her how long he had enjoyed the society. Pramlocha replied, that they had lived together nine hundred and seven years, six months, and three days. The Muni enquired whether she was speaking the truth. To this the Apsara replied that she would not dare to lie to Kandu as he is a sage.
Kandu after accepting the truth began to rebuke himself bitterly. He said that by spending so many years with Pramlocha his penance and austerities have been interrupted. The sage criticized himself and thought that the treasure of the learned and the self-righteous has been stolen from him. His judgment has been blinded. Kandu realized that the Apsara was sent by someone to lure him. Brahma is beyond the reach of those agitated by the waves of infirmity. The pious sage, Kandu having thus reviled himself, turned to the nymph Pramlocha, who was sitting and ordered her to leave his hermitage and go elsewhere. He will never punish her by reducing her to ashes by the fire of his wrath as she was committed to her and he loved her.
The Hindu mythology states that Pramlocha was an Apsara, a female spirit of the clouds and waters. Thus when Rishi Kandu asked her to depart then Pramlocha stood trembling and drops of perspiration started from every pore. Pramlocha left his hermitage and flew away passing through the air, wiped the perspiration from her person with the leaves of the trees. The nymph went from tree to tree, and as with the dusky shoots that crowned their summits she dried her limbs. The child she had conceived by the Rishi was covered with moisture and came forth from the pores of her skin in drops of perspiration. The trees received the living dews, and the winds collected them into one mass. Then Lord Soma matured that mass of dews by his rays and gradually it increased in size, till the exhalation that had rested on the tree tops. The mass formed a lovely baby girl named Marisha. Marisha represents the second root-race or sweat-born.
