Also known as Mandavya. Mandavya was a famous sage. Once he started a vow of silence beneath a tree in front of his ashram, and stood there with his arms held high for a long time. A few robbers passed that way carrying the money they had stolen from the king of the land. Since the soldiers were in hot pursuit, they hid the money in Mandavya’s ashram. The soldiers recovered the money from the ashram and started questioning Mandavya, who didn’t speak a word. Meanwhile, they also found the robbers and thought that Mandavya was also part of their group. The soldiers took all of them to the king, who sentenced them to capital punishment. The soldiers took them all to an open place and stuck tridents into them. The robbers died, but even after a long while, Mandavya survived. According to Mahabharata Anushasanaparva verses 46-51, Shiva appeared before Mandavya and blessed him with a long life. Several sages too came to him in the form of birds and enquired about his condition. The king came to hear about this, and immediately approached Mandavya and asked for forgiveness. They tried to remove the trident from his body but were unsuccessful. According to Mahabharata Adiparva Chapter 107, finally the trident was broken and only the tip (ani) remained lodged in Mandavya’s body. Thus he came to be known as Animandavya.

After Animandavya had lived for several years with the trident tip lodged in his body, he once asked Kala why he received this punishment. Kala told him that in his childhood, he had caught birds and strung them to a bush. This was his punishment. Animandavya countered that according to custom, all crimes committed before the age of twelve were to be pardoned. He cursed Kala that since he had been punished unjustly, Kala would be born as a shudra. According to Mahabharata Adiparva Chapter 107, this was why Vidura was born of a shudra woman.

Shilavati was the wife of Ugrashravas, son of Atri. She was famous for being the most virtuous wife ever. Once Ugrashravas became ill but harboured a wish to visit a brothel. He was unable to walk the way and Shilavati carried him there. They had to pass through the place where Animandavya stood, struck with the trident. Animandavya came to know what had transpired and cursed that Ugrashravas would die before sunrise. Shilavati countered that she would then became a widow, and cursed that the sun would never rise henceforth. The sun didn’t rise the next day. It caused a huge amount of turmoil with the world’s functioning. The devas approached Atri and coaxed Anasuya, Atri’s wife to get Shilavati to withdraw her curse. According to Brahmandapurana Chapter 42, the sun rose and Ugrashravas died.

As per Mahabharata Udyogaparva Chapter 83, once when Krisha was on his way to Hastinapura to visit the Pandavas, he met a group of sages. One of them was Animandavya.

Once the king of Videha called Animandavya and spoke to him about the finite nature of the world and advised him to work towards the soul’s development. According to Mahabharata Shantiparva Chapter 276, verses 3-14, Animandavya was impressed enough to heed his advice, and soon attained moksha.