Chapter 4 - Sagara’s sons excavate the ocean; The story of Rāma

Parāśara:

Sagara had two wives, Kaśyapa’s daughter Sumati and the king of Vidarbha’s daughter Keśinī. 1 Desiring children, the two women propitiated Aurva with all their hearts, and the sage granted them the boon that 2 one wife would have a single son, who would continue the lineage, while the other would have sixty thousand sons, saying, ‘Choose whichever destiny you desire.’ Keśinī chose to have a single child, and Sumati chose sixty thousand. 3 The sage agreed, and a few days later Keśinī bore a son named Asamañjas, who would continue the lineage. Vinatā’s daughter Sumati had sixty thousand sons. 4 Asamañjas had a son named Aṃśumant. 5 From the time he was a baby, Asamañjas was ill-behaved, but his father hoped he would improve as he grew older. 6 But leaving childhood behind, his behaviour was no better, and his father gave up on him. 7 Even Sumati’s sixty thousand sons followed Asamañjas’s bad example. 8

Because these sons of Sagara, all aping Asamañjas’s poor behaviour, left the worthy path of sacrifice in this world, the gods bowed down to Kapila, the sage who embodied every branch of knowledge, who was untouched by any fault and who was an aspect of the lord, the highest spirit. The deities explained the problem: 9 ‘Lord, these sons of Sagara are copying Asamañjas’s bad behaviour. What will become of the world with followers like these? We beseech you to take bodily form to save the troubled universe.’ Hearing this, the sage replied, ‘In a few short days, they will be no more.’ 10

At about this time, Sagara began a horse-sacrifice, but during the ritual, someone stole the steed that had been guarded by his sons and hid it in a cavern beneath the earth. 12 The king sent the boys to find the beast and, following its hoofprints, each of them dug down, with great persistence, one league into the earth. 13 They finally found the horse wandering in the underworld of Pātāla. 14 They also saw the sage Kapila nearby, ceaselessly illuminating all directions with his splendour, like the lordly sun in a cloudless autumn sky. 15 Wielding their weapons, they cried, ‘Here’s the wretch who wronged us, the horse thief who spoiled our sacrifice! Kill him, kill him!’ The sage then turned his gaze upon them for just an instant, reducing them all to ashes with fire that sprang from his own body. 16

Realising that all his sons who followed the horse had been consumed by the fiery energy of the supreme sage Kapila, Sagara dispatched Asamañjas’s son Aṃśumant to retrieve the steed. 17 Aṃśumant reached Kapila by following the path dug by his uncles, and, bowing respectfully, he praised the sage. Holy Kapila said to him, ‘Go and take this horse to your grandsire. You may ask this boon of me: that your sons and grandsons may lead the Gaṅgā down to earth from the heavens above.’ 18 But Aṃśumant replied to the sage, ‘Grant me a boon that my uncles who’ve been struck down by divine punishment, even though unworthy of heaven, may be admitted to that realm regardless.’ 19 Holy Kapila replied, ‘I’ve already spoken. Your descendants will conduct the Gaṅgā down from heaven to earth. When your uncles’ bones and ashes are touched by the water of that sacred stream, they’ll ascend to heaven. Such is the efficacy of the water that flows across the toes of blessed Viṣṇu. 20 It not only yields all happiness for those who bathe there purposely, but even one whose bones, skin, sinews, hair or other body parts fall by chance to the ground in its vicinity will immediately go to heaven when they die.’ Hearing this, Aṃśumant bowed to the holy sage, and returned the horse to his grandsire’s sacrifice. 21 Once Sagara had retrieved the beast, he was able to complete the ritual. 22 Out of affection for the boys, he raised the chasm that they had dug, now named Sāgara in their honour, to the status of his own son.^[1] 23

Aṃśumant’s son was Dilīpa. 24 It was Dilīpa’s son Bhagīratha who led the Gaṅgā to earth from heaven and named it Bhāgīrathī. 25 Bhagīratha’s son was Śruta. His son was Nābhāga. His son was Ambarīṣa. His son was Sindhudvīpa. Sindhudvīpa’s son was Ayutāyu. His son was Ṛtuparṇa, the companion of Nala and expert in the game of dice.^[2] 26 Ṛtuparṇa’s son was Sarvakāma. His son was Sudāsa. Sudāsa’s son, Saudāsa, was also known as Mitrasaha. 27

Saudāsa becomes a rākṣasa

One day, Saudāsa was hunting in the forest when he saw two tigers. 28 These beasts had killed all the deer in the vicinity, so Saudāsa shot one with an arrow, 29 but, as it lay dying, it turned into a rākṣasa of terrible appearance with a hideous expression. 30 The surviving tiger–rakṣasa roared, ‘I’ll have revenge on you!’, and vanished from sight. 31 Some time later, this Saudāsa was performing a sacrifice. When the great sage and sacrificial expert Vasiṣṭha had stepped away for a moment, the tiger–rākṣasa disguised himself as the sage and said to the king, ‘When the sacrifice is over, all the food, including the meat, should be given to me to eat. Have it cooked for me, and I’ll be back in just a minute.’ So saying, he departed. 32

This same rākṣasa then disguised himself as a cook and, instructed by the king, prepared a dish of human flesh, which he presented to the sovereign. 33 Saudāsa accepted the flesh served on a golden platter and waited for Vasiṣṭha to return. When the real sage came back, the king offered him the platter. 34 But the sage said to himself, ‘How rude of the king to give this meat to me. What is it, anyway?’ Vasiṣṭha began to meditate and, realising it was human flesh, his mind spun round with fury. He cursed the king, saying, ‘You know that we ascetics can’t eat human flesh, but you gave it to me anyway! Now your heart will crave such food!’ 35 But the king snapped back, ‘It was you who ordered me to cook it!’

Wondering how he could have said such things, the sage began to meditate again. 36 With the insight gained through contemplation, he discovered the truth of the matter and took pity on the king: ‘You won’t have to eat this food for ever,’ he said, ‘Just twelve years.’ 37 The king, holding water in his cupped hands, was about to curse the sage when his consort Madayantī soothed him with these words, ‘The holy sage is our guru! You can’t curse a preceptor who is like our personal deity!’ The king couldn’t throw the cursed water on the ground for fear of damaging the crops, nor could he throw it into the air, as he worried it might disperse the clouds, so he poured it on to his own feet. 38 The water, imbued with all the king’s own anger, burned his feet so badly that they were blotched with black and white. As a result, he became known as Kalmāṣapāda, ‘Blotch-Foot’. 39 In accordance with Vasiṣṭha’s curse, every day at the sixth watch, the king became a rākṣasa and, prowling in the forest, devoured multitudes of people. 40

One day, the rākṣasa spied a sage enjoying intercourse with his wife, as became the season. The frightened couple saw the dreadful creature and tried to flee, but the rākṣasa seized the brahmin. 41 His wife pleaded with the demon repeatedly, ‘Have mercy on us! You’re the great king Mitrasaha, crown-jewel of Ikṣvāku’s lineage, not a rākṣasa at all. You understand women’s pleasure. Please don’t eat my husband before my desire has been satisfied!’ But even as she made these varied pleas, he ate the brahmin anyway, just as tigers devour their prey. 42 The brahmin’s wife, filled with rage, cursed the king, saying, ‘Because you ate my husband before I was satisfied, your end will come while you’re making love!’ With this, she entered the flames. 43

Twelve years later, the king was freed from the sage’s curse, but when he yearned for the company of a woman, Madayantī reminded him what the brahmin’s wife had said. 44 The king thereafter avoided intercourse and, being childless, asked Vasiṣṭha for a son, and the sage himself conceived a son with Madayantī. Another seven years passed by, but as the infant remained unborn, the queen struck her belly with a stone (aśman). This finally induced the child’s birth, and they called him Aśmaka. 45

Aśmaka’s descendants

Aśmaka had a son called Mūlaka. When the earth was being cleansed of kṣatriyas, Mūlaka survived by protecting (kavaca) himself with naked women (nārī). That’s why he’s also known as Nārīkavaca. 46 Mūlaka’s son was Daśaratha. His son was Ilivila. His son was Viśvasaha. His son was Khaṭvāṅga, also known as Dilīpa. It was he who, petitioned by the deities, destroyed their enemies in their war in heaven against the demigods. As he’d done this favour for the gods, they urged him to request a boon. Khaṭvāṅga said, ‘If I must accept your offer, tell me how long I’ll live.’ The deities replied at once, ‘You’ll only live for one more minute.’ Thus addressed, and imbued with the quality of lightness, he was carried down to the world of men on a comfortable sky-going chariot. On arrival, Khaḍvāṅga said, ‘My own self is no dearer to me than being in the presence of brahmins. I’ve never strayed from the traditions of my order. I’ve always seen the eternal, indivisible unity in all creation, embracing gods, mortals, animals, plants and the rest. May I, therefore, with unfaltering steps, reach the lord, the very deity on whom sages set their hearts.’ So saying, he merged into the most senior of all the gods, the lord whose form is beyond description and who is all existence, the highest spirit known as Vāsudeva, and there Khaṭvāṅga achieved absorption. 47

People hear this verse about King Khaṭvāṅga sung by the Seven Sages long ago:

‘There’ll never be another in the world like Khaṭvāṅga, who came from heaven down to earth to live for just one minute. With his intellect and generosity, he was one with all three worlds.’ 48

The story of Rāma

Khaṭvāṅga’s son was Dīrghabāhu. His son was Raghu. His son was Aja. His son was also called Daśaratha. For the preservation of the world, Lord Viṣṇu, who has a lotus at his navel, manifested aspects of himself as the four sons of Daśaratha in the forms of Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Bharata and Śatrughna. When Rāma was just a boy, while journeying to protect Viśvāmitra’s sacrifice, he slew the demoness called Tāṭakā. 49 At the sacrifice itself, he drove off the rākṣasa Mārīca with a shower of arrows. He killed the other rākṣasas led by Subāhu, and cleansed Ahalyā of her sins with just a glance. In the palace of Janaka, he lifted Śiva’s bow, snapped it easily and won King Janaka’s daughter Sītā, born of Earth, as reward for his prowess. 50 He stripped the courage, strength and pride from Paraśurāma, who destroyed the kṣatriyas, and consumed the clan of Haihayas like a fire. 51 On his father’s orders, Rāma entered the forest with his wife and brother, giving not a thought to the sovereignty he’d relinquished. 52 There he slew Virādha, Kharadūṣaṇa, Kabandha and other rākṣasas, as well as Vālin, king of monkeys. 53 Rāma built a bridge across the sea and destroyed the race of rākṣasas. He then returned to Ayodhyā with King Janaka’s daughter Sītā, who’d been seized by ten-headed Rāvaṇa and whose blemish was removed after that rākṣasa’s demise. Sītā’s purity was confirmed when she passed unharmed through fire, while all the deities sang her praises. 54

Bharata, too, slew thirty million fearsome gandharvas in order to subdue their realm. Śatrughna killed the brave and powerful rākṣasa lord named Lavaṇa, son of Madhu, and occupied his capital, Madhurā. 55 By these and other feats of unequalled strength and courage, Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Bharata and Śatrughna destroyed those wicked beings and guaranteed security for all the world. Having done so, they ascended again to heaven. 56 The inhabitants of Rāma’s kingdom, Kosala, loved all four brothers, each an aspect of Viṣṇu, and, with their hearts devoted to the lord, they, too, achieved that heavenly state. 57

Rāma’s descendants

Rāma had two sons, Kuśa and Lava. Lakṣmaṇa’s sons were Aṅgada and Candraketu. Takṣa and Puṣkara were Bharata’s sons. Subāhu and Śūrasena were the sons of Śatrughna. Kuśa’s son was Atithi. Atithi’s son was Niṣadha. Niṣadha’s son was Nala. His son was Nabhas. Nabhas’s son was Puṇḍarīka. His son was Kṣemadhanvan. His son was Devānīka. His son was Ahīnagu. His son was Ruru. His son was Pāriyātra. Pāriyātra’s son was Dala. Dala’s son was Chala. His son was Uktha. Uktha’s son was Vajranābha. His son was Śaṅkhanābha. His son was Vyutthitāśva. He had a son, Viśvasaha. 58 His son was Hiraṇyanābha, the great ascetic master and disciple of the sage Jaimini, from whom Yājñavalkya learned the art of yoga. 59 Hiraṇyanābha’s son was Puṣya. His son was Dhruvasaṃdhi. His son was Sudarśana. His son was Agnivarṇa. His son was Śīghraga. His son was Maru, who, having established his ascetic practice, dwells in the village of Kalāpa to this very day. In some future age, he will reestablish the kṣatriya order in the Solar Dynasty. His son was Prasuśruta. His son was Susandhi. His son was Amarṣa. His son was Mahasvant. His son was Viśrutavant. His son was Bṛhadbala, who was slain by Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna, in the Bhārata war. 60

I’ve given you a summary of the kings of Ikṣvāku’s lineage. By hearing their accomplishments, you’ll be freed from all misdeeds. 61

So ends Chapter Four in Book Four of the glorious Viṣṇu Purāṇa.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

I have had to add some words of explanation to this translation. Later, this chasm filled with water and formed an ocean, known as sāgara in Sanskrit.

[2]:

Nala is a famous character in the Mahābhārata.