Part 10: Incarnation as Viśvabhūti

Now, there was a king named Viśvanandin in Rājagṛha. By his wife, Priyaṅgu, he had a son, named Viśākhanandin; and the king had a younger brother, named Viśākhabhūti, who was crown prince. The crown prince had a wife, named Dhāriṇī. By good karma acquired in former births, Marīci’s soul was born as Viśvabhūti, son of Viśākhabhūti by Dhāriṇī.

When Viśvabhūti had grown up, he was playing (one day) with his harem in the garden Puṣpakaraṇḍaka, like a young god in Nandana. But Viśākhanandin, the king’s son, who wished to play, stood outside the garden. Slave girls, who had gone for flowers, et cetera, saw the two in this situation. When Priyaṅgu learned about it from them, angered, she went to the anger-house.^[1] At her desire the king had the marching-drum beaten. The king said deceitfully to the assembly:

“The vassal, Puruṣasiṃha, is arrogant. Therefore, I shall go to conquer him.”

When he heard this, Viśvabhūti, guileless, came from the garden, stopped the king (from going) from devotion and made the march himself. When he had gone and seen that Puruṣasiṃha was obeying orders, he returned and went to the garden Puṣpakaraṇḍaka. “Viśākhanandin is inside,” the gatekeeper told him; whereupon he reflected, “I was enticed from Puṣpakaraṇḍaka by a trick.”

Angered, he struck a wood-apple tree with his fist and, pointing to the ground covered with its fallen fruit, said to the gate-keeper:

“I would make all their heads fall too, like that, if I did not have great devotion to my elder father.^[2] Enough for me of pleasures beginning with such deceit.” So saying, he went to Muni Sambhūti’s feet and took the vow.

When the king heard that he had become an ascetic, he went with his younger brother, bowed, asked for forgiveness, and begged him for the sake of the kingdom. The king ascertained that Viśvabhūti was unwilling (to go back) and went home. But he (Viśvabhūti) then wandered elsewhere with his guru.

One day, wandering alone by permission of his guru, emaciated by penance, he went to the city Mathurā. At that time Viśākhanandin went to marry the king of Mathurā’s daughter. Viśvabhūti entered the city at the end of the month to break his fast and went to the vicinity of Viśākhanandin’s camp. Men pointed him out, saying, “There is Prince Viśvabhūti,” and Viśākhanandin was at once enraged with him, like an enemy, on sight of him. Just then Viśvabhūti fell, knocked over by a cow. He (Viśākhanandin) laughed, saying, “Where is your strength that makes wood-apples fall?” Viśvabhūti seized the cow by the horns and whirled it around angrily. He made the nidāna,^[3] “May I have great strength for killing him in another birth as a result of this severe penance.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

A room for an offended queen.

[2]:

I.e. his uncle.

[3]:

A nidāna is a wish for a reward for penance. It is often made to injure some one in a future birth.