[1] Their blood and bodily fluids were purportedly poisonous to other humans, as was mentioned in the ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, Arthashastra, written by Chanakya, an adviser and a prime minister to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupta (c. 340–293 BC).
[2] In the Skanda Purana, a girl who is born when the sun is in the constellation Chitra or the moon in the fourteenth lunar day is stated to be fated to become a Vishakanya.
[3] However, in time, "poison damsel" passed into folklore, became an archetype explored by many writers, resulting in a popular literary character that appears in many works, including classical Sanskrit texts such as Sukasaptati.
In the story Beeshkanya, Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay wrote about a girl who was supposed to be a Vishkanya and was sent to Magadha in order to assassinate the members of Shaishunaga dynasty.
In The Real Life of Sebastian Knight the author Nabokov treats his affair with Irina Guadanini through allusions to the myth of the poison damsel.