Legend Of Sonepur
Sonepur has the legend that this was the actual place where, in pre-historic times, the fight ended between the lords of the forest and the water, Gaj and Grah - the elephant and the crocodile. According to the Srimad Bhagavat Purana, there was a vast lake round the Trikut hill, which had, as the name implies, three towering peaks, crowned with dense forest and infested with wild animals. There lived a huge crocodile in this lake. An elephant came with a herd to the tank to have a bath. The crocodile caught the elephant by the leg and tried to drag him into deeper water. The elephant gave a stiff resistance. The struggle continued for a thousand years and ultimately all the elephants and the crocodiles joined in the contest. The elephant, beginning to weaken, prayed to the supreme god Hari, to help him. His prayer was heard and Hari saved him from the grip of the crocodile in the presence of Hara and other gods. In Hindu mythology the crocodile is deemed to have been in its previous birth a Gandharva chief named Huhu. Huhu went to bathe in this lake with a party of Gandharva women and, it is said, in a truculent manner he caught a holy sage by the leg. The sage Dewala Muni, who had also come to have his bath, got angry and cursed the Gandharva chief and changed him into a crocodile as a punishment. Then hence forward he lived in the lake in the form of a huge crocodile until he was restored to his Gandharva life by the sacred touch of Vishnu (Hari), who, with his discus (Chakra), cut the throat of the crocodile while delivering the elephant from his jaws. On the other hand, the elephant was, in its former existence, a king of the Pandyas, Indradyumna by name, who was a very pious man of a contemplative turn of mind. One day, in a forgetful and contemplative mood, he did not pay his respects to the sage Agastya. The sage cursed him and put him in the form of an elephant. He, too, after long suffering, was saved by Hari by his touch, and was allowed to accompany him to Vaikuntha (heaven).
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