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Sagara’s Sixty Thousand Sons
Sagara, king of Ayodhya, had two queens. One was Sumati, daughter of Kashyapa; the other was Keshini, daughter of the king of Vidarbha. For a long stretch of years no child came to either of them, so the two of them turned to the worship of Aurva, the great sage of Bhrigu’s line. The rishi was pleased, and he granted them a boon. “To one of you will come a single son who carries the dynasty forward,” he said, “and to the other, sixty thousand sons. Let each ask for what she most desires.” Keshini asked for the one son who would carry the line, and Sumati for the sixty thousand. In time Keshini gave birth to Asamanjas, and Sumati to sixty thousand strong sons.
Asamanjas was cruel from his earliest childhood. His father supposed that manhood would settle him, and when it did not, he cast the boy out. Meanwhile the sixty thousand brothers began to copy the very conduct of Asamanjas, and their violence began to destroy the path of righteousness throughout the world. In their alarm the gods sought refuge with Kapiladeva, who was a portion of the Lord Purushottama himself. The Lord told them that within a few short days these sons would all be destroyed.
The Sacrificial Horse and Kapila’s Gaze
About this time Sagara began an ashvamedha, the horse sacrifice. The horse that had been set loose under the guard of his sons was stolen by someone who slipped down into a fissure in the earth. Following the marks of its hooves, the sixty thousand princes dug up the ground a full yojana at a stretch, and as they dug they came at last to Patala, the underworld. There they saw their horse wandering free, and a little way off a great sage seated with his head bowed, radiant as the autumn sun. This was Kapiladeva.
“Here is the one who wronged us, here is the thief of our horse. Kill him.” Shouting this, they snatched up their weapons and rushed at him. The Lord Kapila did no more than shift his eyes toward them, and every one of them burned to ash in a fire that rose out of their own bodies.
Anshuman and the Promise of the Ganga
When the horse did not return, Sagara sent Anshuman, the son of Asamanjas. Anshuman made his way to Kapila along that same dug-out passage and praised him with full devotion. The Lord, well pleased, said: “My child, take this horse and give it to your grandfather, and ask for whatever boon you wish. Your grandson will bring the Ganga down from heaven to earth, and at the touch of her water your ancestors will rise to heaven. Such is the glory of that water, sprung from the nail of Vishnu’s foot, that even the touch of a dead man’s bone, his skin, or a single limb of his carries him to heaven.”
Anshuman returned with the horse, and Sagara completed the sacrifice. The vast pit his sons had dug he took, out of a father’s love, to be a son of his own, and from this the ocean received the name Sagara. Anshuman’s son was Dilipa, and Dilipa’s son was Bhagiratha. Bhagiratha brought the Ganga down from heaven to earth and gave her the name Bhagirathi. In this way the promise Kapila had made was fulfilled, and the sons of Sagara were delivered.
This same story of the Ganga’s descent appears in the Ramayana and in the Shrimad Bhagavata as well, though the telling in the Vishnu Purana keeps to its own brief manner.
From Bhagiratha to Rama
From Bhagiratha onward this solar dynasty flowed through many kings. In this same line came Saudasa, who through the trickery of a demon fell under the curse of his guru Vasishtha and roamed the forest for a time as a man-eater. When the water of the curse spilled onto his own feet, his soles turned mottled, and from this he took the name Kalmashapada. For seven years no son was born from the womb of his queen Madayanti, so he struck the womb with a stone; the son who came of this was named Ashmaka, and the line carried on.
Further along this current came a king named Khatvanga. Having helped the gods in their war with the asuras, when he was offered a boon he asked only how long he had left to live. The gods told him that a single muhurta remained. He returned at once by his celestial car to the world of mortals, fixed his mind on the Lord Vasudeva, and in that very instant dissolved into him. The seven rishis sing even today that no other king has been the equal of Khatvanga, who in a lifespan of one muhurta won all three worlds by his wisdom and his truth. From Khatvanga came Dirghabahu, then Raghu, Aja, and Dasharatha.
A Brief Life of the Lord Rama
It was in this Dasharatha that the Lord, for the sake of the world’s continuance, descended through portions of himself in four forms: Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, and Shatrughna. While still a boy, guarding the sacrifice of Vishvamitra, Rama killed Tataka, flung Maricha into the sea on a wind that was his arrow, and destroyed Subahu and the other demons. In the court of Janaka he broke the bow of Mahadeva, won Sita, who was born of no womb, as his wife, and quieted the proud strength of Parashurama.
Then, holding to his father’s word, he set aside all desire for the kingdom and went to the forest with Lakshmana and Sita. There he killed Viradha, Khara, Dushana, Kabandha, and Bali, built a bridge across the sea, wiped out the whole demon race and slew Ravana, and brought home to Ayodhya the Sita who had proved herself spotless by walking into the fire. O Maitreya, the joy of his coronation could not be described in a full hundred years. Amid the praises of Brahma, Indra, and all the host of gods, and of the sages Vasishtha, Valmiki, and the rest, with the Vedas ringing out, Shri Rama ascended the throne and reigned for eleven thousand years. Two sons were born to him, named Kusha and Lava. Later Bharata conquered the world of the gandharvas and killed thirty million of them, and Shatrughna killed the demon Lavana, son of Madhu, and founded the city of Mathura. At the last, all four brothers gathered up their play on earth and departed for heaven.
The Videha Story of Nimi
Ikshvaku had a son named Nimi. He began a sacrifice that would take a thousand years to complete, and chose Vasishtha to serve as his hota, the officiating priest. Vasishtha said, “Indra has already chosen me for a sacrifice of five hundred years. Wait that long, and then I will come.” The king gave no answer. Taking the silence for consent, Vasishtha left for Indra’s sacrifice, and at that very time Nimi began his own rite with Gautama and other priests as his hotas.
The moment Indra’s sacrifice ended, Vasishtha returned to find that the king had handed his rite to Gautama and lay asleep. In his anger he cursed the sleeping Nimi: since the king had shown disrespect, let his body fall. When Nimi woke, he answered the curse in kind: since this guru had cursed him unawares, saying nothing while he slept, let the guru’s body perish as well. Having spoken, the king gave up his own body. Vasishtha’s consciousness entered into the radiance of Mitra and Varuna, and when he beheld Urvashi he took on a second body. As for Nimi’s body, kept safe with fragrant oils, it stayed so fresh that he seemed to have died only that moment.
When the sacrifice was complete, the gods came to take their share, and at the urging of the priests they offered Nimi a boon. The king said, “You are the ones who take away the sorrows of the world. There is no sorrow like the parting of body and soul. For this reason I do not wish to take on a body again; I wish only to dwell in the eyes of all living beings.” The gods set him within the eyes of every creature, and from that time living beings began the closing and opening of their eyelids.
Nimi had left no son, and for fear of the anarchy to come the sages churned his body with the arani, the fire-sticks. From it a prince was born. Because he was thus brought to birth he was called Janaka; because his father had become videha, without a body, he was called Vaideha; and because he sprang from the churning he was called Mithi, and from him his city took the name Mithila. In this line of Janaka came, later, Siradhvaja, who was plowing the sacrificial ground in his longing for a child; from the furrow of that plow (sita) he received a daughter named Sita. The line ran on to a king named Kriti, and these Maithilas nearly all made the knowledge of the self their refuge.
Source: Vishnu Purana (Gita Press, Gorakhpur)