ASHTAVAKRA SAMHITA

the story of ASHTRAVAKRA AND JANAKA IS FOUND IN MAHABARATHA. when Ashtavakra was in his mother's womb his father KAHOR was sitting beside his wife SUJATA, and was reciting vedas. To their surprise , the child in the womb cried out."father, i learnt all the vedas through ur grace lying in my mother;s womb, but i am sorry to say that u often make mistakes in ur recitation.Kahor took this  as a grave insult and cursed his son saying he would be born with eight bends.Accordingly the child was born with twisted form and was named ASHTAVAKRA. KAHOR one day went to JANAKA'S COURT to beg money from king. The king had a great scholar in his court called Vandin who was the son of  king varuna. KAHOR WAS DEFEATED BY VANDIN  in vedic debate. As a result he was sent into the depths of the sea,  and was engaged there as a priest taking part in a sacrifice performed by Varuna. Time passed when Ashtavakra was 12, he heard the sad plight of his father. Accompanied by his uncle SVETAKETU, He went to janaka's court. He was not allowed, but when he showed his extraordinry knowledge of vedas, he was cordially welcomed by Janaka.At once he entered into a debate with Vandin and defeated him in the debate.He then rescued his father from grip of varuna. Kahor was very much pleased with son's achievement and wished to withdraw the curse he had put on his son before his birth.He therefore told ASHTAVAKRA to bathe in river SAMANGA, and the son obeyed, and when he came out of the river all his limbs were straight[ all the bends were removed].but his name continued as  ASHTAVAKRA. sage ASHTAVAKRA was later on Janaka's guru, and the dialogues between Janaka and Ashtavakra was known as Ashtavakra samhita or Ashtavakra GEETA. T his work is fully loaded vedanta tatwas and it talks about the ultimate truth of Brahman.