Global InformationUttanka information
Uttanka (Sanskrit: उत्तङ्क) is a rishi (sage) featured in Hindu literature. He is described to have resided in the Maru desert. The primary source of this account is found in the Hindu epic Mahabharata.
In the earliest version, Uttanka is described as the disciple of the sage Veda. In the second version, his guru is Gautama. In both legends, he is a learned sage who goes through many hurdles in procuring the earrings demanded by his guru's wife as the fee for the teacher (gurudakshina).
Uttanka asks the king Saudasa who was cursed by Vasistha to become a cannibal for earrings without any fear and manages to receive it from his wife Madayanti, who before giving it to him warns that the earrings are celestial, and that he should not by any means put it heedlessly. If he were to do so it would be stolen by higher beings who are always looking for a chance to have them. During his return, from hunger he tries to pluck fruits from a tree and drops those earrings and a Nagas (serpents) steal the earrings, and later the gods Indra and Agni help Uttanka to retrieve them from the realm of the serpents. Uttanka is said to have advised King Janamejaya to take revenge against Takshaka, the king of the Nagas, as the latter was responsible for his father Parikshit's death by snake bite.
Uttanka is one of the few persons described to have seen the Vishvarupa (universal form) of the god Krishna. Krishna blessed Uttanka with a boon that would quench his thirst whenever he remembered him. From then on, the rare clouds that bring showers in the desert have been called "Uttanka's clouds".