ABSTRACT
This Story of Goœâla is sometimes also titled the Teya-nisagga, i.e. ‘The Emission of Fiery Lustre’,13 because of the role fiery energy (tejo-leœyâ)14 plays in it. In this narrative, based on a folkloristic semi-magical belief that certain ascetics can accumulate power either in hot or cold form and use it for their own purposes, mostly as a deadly weapon against others, burning them to death for instance, the fiery energy, as the acounts go, is often accumulated and its powers are effectively used by various recluses, including Goœâla.
