Chapter 168 - Greatness of the Source of Dhārotpatti

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Sūta said:

1-4. Thus abdicating kingdom, O excellent Brāhmaṇas, Viśvāmitra went to the Himālaya mountain and performed a severe penance.

During rainy reason he lay under the open sky and during winter he lay in water. During summer he performed the austerity amidst five fires and continued thus for three hundred years.

Then for three hundred years, his diet was fruits and roots. Then, O excellent Brāhmaṇas, he remained meditating upon the supreme Absolute. Then for a long time he subsisted on scattered dry leaves thereafter.

Then for the same period, he remained on water alone for sustenance. Then for ten thousand years he remained with the sole intake of air.

Sūta said:

5. On seeing the power of penance of Viśvāmitra, the Lord of Devas thought thus: ‘Certainly this excellent king will drag me down from my position.’

6. Actuated by great fright, he came to the excellent king Viśvāmitra and spoke to him these sweet words in conciliatory terms.

Indra said:

7. O Viśvāmitra, I am very much pleased by this penance. Welfare unto you, O king, choose your boon, whatever may be the desire in your heart.

Viśvāmitra said:

8. O Śakra, if you are pleased now, grant me Brāhmaṇical status. O Purandara, know that my austerity is aimed at this.

Indra said:

9. How can a Kṣatriya become a Brāhmaṇa with the selfsame boby? A Brāhmaṇa is made by the performance of the double of twenty-four Saṃskāras (i.e. forty-eight rites). Hence request immediately for something else which is more covetable.

Viśvāmitra siad:

10. O Lord of Suras, I don’t wish to request for anything else than Brāhmaṇical status.

11. I don’t request even for your dominion of all the three worlds. Then, how can there be even the talk of other objectives! Hence, O most excellent one among Suras, do go away and rule over your realm.

12a. This is my resolve. Either I will attain Brāhmaṇical status or I will cast off my life.

12b-13a. On hearing his words and knowing his resolve, the king of Devas surrounded by gods went to heaven.

13b. Viśvāmitra then resumed the performance of the harsh penance as before.

14. O excellent Brāhmaṇas, another period of a thousand years passed by, through which King Viśvāmitra continued his austerity sustaining himself only on intake of air.

15. Brahmā himself came there along with the holy celestial sages. He spoke to the king who had got all his sins burned by means of his penance.

Śrī Brahmā said:

16. O Viśvāmitra, O most excellent one, I am very much pleased with this penance. Welfare unto you. Choose a boon. I shall grant it to you even if it is difficult to obtain.

Viśvāmitra said:

17. O Lord, if you are pleased with me, if a boon has to be granted to me, then grant Brāhmaṇical status to me. Nothing else is eagerly sought after by me.

Brahmā said:

18. How can Brāhmaṇical status be granted to one begotten by a Kṣatriya? Why do you express such a desire as is opposed to the injunction of the Śruti and Smṛti?

19. This is what has never occurred on the surface of the earth and will never occur at all.

Viśvāmitra said:

20. Go away, O Lord of the chiefs of Devas, to the excellent Brahmaloka. I will either attain the Brāhmaṇical status or cast off my life.

21-24. Then Ṛcīka who was in the middle of the celestial sages spoke these words: “O Lord, for the birth of this king Caru was prepared by me with Brāhmya Mantras. All round thereof, Brahma-Sarvasva (everything Brāhmaṇical) was used by me. So indeed, O Four-faced One, he is a Brāhmaṇa though born of a Kṣatriya.

Hence, O Pitāmaha, proclaim him a Brāhmaṇical sage; though he was in the administrative post of a realm, he used to perform excellent rites befittting a Brāhmaṇa.

It is the power of the Brāhma Mantras. Hence, call him a Brahmarṣi so that all of us can glorify Viśvāmitra as the most excellent Brāhmaṇa.”

25-26a. Then Brahmā meditated for a long time. He thought of him as born of Brāhmya Mantras and refulgence. He then said: “You have been transformed into a Brāhmaṇa by me. At my instance leave off this terrible penance very difficult to perform.”

26b-27. When he was proclaimed by Brahmā, “You are a Brahmarṣi”, he was proclaimed so by Ṛcīka and other celestial sages.

28-29. Vasiṣṭha, the excellent sage, was also among them. He angrily announced, “I will not at all proclaim him thus. Knowing (full well) that he was begotten by a Kṣatriya, O Grandfather, out of courtesy to Ṛcīka, you proclaim him to be so (a Brāhmaṇa).”

30. Though importuned in diverse ways by Pitāmaha, and the sages including Nārada, Vasiṣṭha, the excellent sage, did not relent. He left all those excellent Brāhmaṇas and went away.

31. The excellent sage arrived in the land called Ānarta at Hāṭakeśvara Kṣetra near Śaṅkha Tīrtha.

32. The meritorious Brahmaśilā and the Śvetadvīpa are there. The splendid river Sarasvatī that dispels sins is also present there.

33. He built a penance-grove there and performed an elaborate penance. The revengeful Viśvāmitra also came there with an intention of killing him.

34. Far from Vasiṣṭha’s hermitage in the southern quarter he set up his penance-grove and began to think about finding his vulnerable points.

35. Though he waited thus for a long time, he could not discover any. Thereupon, black magic began to be practised by him against Vasiṣṭha.

36. What has been laid down in the Sāmaveda as a means of killing by means of employing Sāman Mantras, he performed Homas in the sacred fire by uttering those deadly Mantras.

37. A terrible Śakti arose from the sacred fire. She was hideous-looking with hair dishevelled. She was riding on the shoulders of a monkey and making Kilkila (chattering) sounds.

38-39. She had various weapons. She appeared like another Yamajihvā (Yama’s tongue). She said: “Tell, O leading Brāhmaṇa, what job on your behalf shall I carry out? At your bidding I shall destroy the entire group of the three worlds.”

Viśvāmitra said:

40. I have a formidable foe here. He is a base sage named Vasiṣṭha. Do go there and kill him quickly. You have been created for that purpose.

41. On being told thus by the intelligent Viśvāmitra, she set off facing the northern quarter towards the hermitage of Vasiṣṭha.

42. In the meantime, O Brāhmaṇas, there occurred many great evil omens in the hermitage of Vasiṣṭha.

43. A great comet fell down hitting against the solar disc. A shower of blood with bones mixed fell there.

44. A vixen howled coming up to the illuminated spot. Vasiṣṭha, the great sage, saw her as well as the great ill omens.

45. When he closely scrutinized the form shrouded in wreaths of flames, he understood everything by means of the divine vision.

46. (He said to himself:) ‘This is the Śakti employed by Viśvāmitra for killing me. She is in the form of a Kṛtyā (Evil Spirit) caused by the excellent Mantras of the Sāmaveda.’

47. She was addressed, “Stop! Stop!” by him (Vasiṣṭha). Suddenly she stood motionless. By means of his own Mantras taken from the Atharva Veda, she was rendered immobile and paralysed.

48-49. She then assumed the form of a woman and said to the great sage: “It is the Sāmaveda that is the most important of all the Vedas. The intelligent sage Viśvāmitra created me on the basis of the injunctions therein. Do not make my blow ineffective, O sage. Do endure it. Through a gentle touch I shall avoid death unto you.”

Vasiṣṭha said:

50. If it be so, do not touch my vulnerable points. Make a gentle touch, O splendid one. Out of pity for you I have withdrawn the Atharva Mantras.

51. Then the terrible Śakti employed by Viśvāmitra gently touched a part of his body and fell on the ground.

52-54. Vasiṣṭha who was pleased thereby spoke these sweet words to her: “From now onwards, people with great concentration will perform your adoration, O highly esteemed one. They will be endowed with great devotion. Those who have great faith and worship you on the eighth lunar day in the bright half of the month of Caitra, shall be free from ailments for a year thereafter! Hence at my instance you must stay here always.”

Sūta said:

55-56. On being told thus by the noble-souled Vasiṣṭha the goddess stays there itself at his instance from the same moment. She regularly gets the adoration performed specially by the Nāgaras. She is well known by the name Dhārā. She accords happiness unto the devoted folk.