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Puranic encyclopaedia

by Vettam Mani | 1975 | 609,556 words | ISBN-10: 0842608222

This page describes the Story of Rishyashringa included the Puranic encyclopaedia by Vettam Mani that was translated into English in 1975. The Puranas have for centuries profoundly influenced Indian life and Culture and are defined by their characteristic features (panca-lakshana, literally, ‘the five characteristics of a Purana�).

Story of Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ

Son of the sage Vibhāṇḍaka.

Birth.

Vibhāṇḍaka, son of śⲹ貹 was the father of Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ. There is a strange story about him in the Ѳٲ.

Once sage Vibhāṇḍaka happened to see śī at Ѳ岹. At the very sight of her, the sage had an involuntary emission of semen. The semen fell in the water and just then a female deer came there to drink water. It swallowed the semen with water and in due course became pregnant and gave birth to a human child. But the child had the horns of a deer. Consequently Vibhāṇḍaka named the boy "Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ". Vibhāṇḍaka and Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ lived together in the ś. Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ grew up into a youth, but he had never seen anyone except his father Vibhāṇḍaka.

Rainfall in the kingdom of ṅg.

At that time, the kingdom of ṅg was ruled by dz岹, a friend of ٲśٳ. Once he cheated a 󳾲ṇa. Consequently all the 󳾲ṇas in that country left the place and emigrated to other lands. From that time there was no rain in the land of ṅg. A severe drought and famine followed. dz岹 invited devout 󳾲ṇas and consulted them how they could bring rain to the land. They told him that if he could get a Muni (sage) who had never seen women to perform a yāga, there would be rainfall in the land. The King sent his men far and wide to find a Muni who had never set eyes on a woman At last he got news that Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ, son of Vibhāṇḍaka was the sage who had never seen women. He then began to plan how Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ could be brought over to ṅg.

dz岹 called together some prostitutes and asked them whether they could bring Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ to his country. All except one of them said it was quite impossible. One of them, however, agreed to try. As desired by her, the King sent her with several other damsels.

The young women went to the forest and made a floating ś in a boat in which they sailed in the river by the side of Vibhāṇḍāka’s ś. They stopped the boat close to the ś and one of the girls entered the ś when Vibhāṇḍaka was not there. She had a talk with Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ in the course of which she used all the amorous enchantments of her sex to captivate the young Muni. She told him that she was the daughter of a Muni, living in an ś, three yojanas away. Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ felt a peculiar fascination for her and tried to please her by offering fruits etc. When she left him, he felt deeply distressed and unhappy. He was in that depressed and gloomy state of mind when Vibhāṇḍaka returned to the ś. Finding him unusually restless and dejected, the father asked him whether anyone had come there. Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ who was an entire stranger to the feminine world told his father that a handsome youth of irresistible charm had visited him during Vibhāṇḍaka’s absence. But from Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ’s description of the "youth" Vibhāṇḍaka understood that the visitor must have been a woman. But he could not guess who it was.

On another occasion, the same woman came again to the ś in the absence of Vibhāṇḍaka. At her sight Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ was enraptured and before his father’s return, they left the ś. They entered the floating ś in the boat and the woman set the boat sailing in the river. It glided slowly down the river and at last reached near the palace of dz岹. They landed there and the King married his daughter Sāntā to Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ.

To appease Vidhāṇḍaka, dz岹 sent him rich presents and much wealth. When Vibhāṇḍaka returned to his ś he was met by the King’s servants who had brought the presents and wealth. Ignoring them and their rich presents, the furious Ѳ󲹰ṣi set out to the city of , the capital of the ṅg Kingdom. At the royal command, Vibhāṇḍaka was welcomed by the people with honour. When the sage found that the whole kingdom belonged to his son, his anger was allayed. After ordering his son to return to his ś after the birth of a son, Vibhāṇḍaka left the palace. As a result of Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ’s yāga there was rainfall in ṅg and famine ended. After the birth of his child he returned to the forest as ordered by his father. (Ѳٲ ṇy Parva, Chapters 110-112).

Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ in ǻ.

King ٲśٳ of ǻ had no children for a long time. His Minister Sumantra advised him to invite Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ to perform a yāga for the purpose. dz岹 sent Ṛṣⲹśṛṅ to ǻ at the invitation of ٲśٳ. He arrived at ǻ and performed a yāga called Putrakāmeṣṭi. From the sacrificial fire there arose a dark monstrous figure, with a pot of pudding in his hand. ٲśٳ received it from him and gave one half of it to ܲ and the other half to ī. Both of them gave half of their shares to ٰܳ. Thus ٰܳ got two shares while the other two wives of ٲśٳ got only one share each. As a result ܲ and ī gave birth to a son each, while ٰܳ had two sons. ܲ’s son was named , ī’s son was Bharata and ٰܳ’s sons were ṣmṇa and ŚٰܲԲ. (ī쾱 峾ⲹṇa, ṇḍ, Chapters 14-16).

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