after setting off to wage war against the evils of the world with his armies, emperor parikshit, the grandson of arjuna, came across a sudra dressed as a king who was beating a cow and an ox with a club. parikshit immediately lead his chariot over to the scene and angrily berated the sudra for abusing the sacred cow and her mate. however, this was no ordinary sudra and these were no ordinary bovine, for the sudra was kali and the cow and ox were embodiments of the earth goddess and dharma. the emperor noticed the ox was standing on one of his legs because the other three had been broken by kali. dharma explained his four legs represented "austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness", but he had only the leg of "truth" to stand on since the other three had been broken by kali over the preceding yugas. kali was intent on breaking all the legs that supported the reign of dharma so he could effect the expansion of his own dark reign on earth. the earth goddess cried for she had once been plentiful, but when krishna ascended to heaven, she was forsaken and all of the prosperity left from the world. she feared evil kings like kali would continue to lay waste to the earth.