Mayūrabhaṭṭa

As preserved in later accounts, Mayūrabhaṭṭa was a 7th‑century Sanskrit poet who suffered from leprosy and undertook a penance at the famous Sūrya (Sun) temple at Deo in present‑day Aurangabad district, Bihar. He vowed to compose one hundred verses in praise of Sūrya, tying one hundred threads to the peepal tree in front of the shrine and untieing one thread after composing each verse. The narrative relates that a Brahmarākṣasa on the tree impeded his work by repeating his verses, but that by adapting his chanting he completed the Sūryaśataka; tradition says that, by virtue of the completed devotional corpus and divine grace, he was cured and the Brahmarākṣasa was freed from its phantom form.

Sources do not provide an extended physical description of Mayūrabhaṭṭa; he is attested as a learned poet and is described in the narrative as suffering from leprosy. Verse material from the Sūryaśataka (verse 6, as cited in the account) depicts leprous suffering (bodies festering with wounds, emaciated limbs, indistinct speech), which the tradition links to Mayūra's condition, but no detailed anthropomorphic portrait is given in the source.

Mayūrabhaṭṭa is represented as a skilled poet and ritual supplicant: composing and reciting the Sūryaśataka is portrayed in the tradition as the central devotional/penitential act that, once completed, brought about his cure. In the narrative he also employed a tactical vocal adaptation—chanting 'from his nose'—so that a tree‑dwelling Brahmarākṣasa, said to 'have no nose,' could not mimic and thereby interrupt his recital. These are reported elements of the story rather than independently attested supernatural powers.