Harivamsha 10

English (machine translation) 10

Language: English

10.1

Vaiśaṃpāyana said:
Steadfast in discipline, Satyavrata supported that wife of Viśvāmitra
with devotion, compassion, and true to his vow.

10.2

Slaying deer, wild boars, and forest buffaloes,
he tied the meat nearby Viśvāmitra’s hermitage.

10.3

Undertaking a secret vow, an observance for twelve years,
he lived by his father’s command while that king had gone to the forest.

10.4

And the sage Vasiṣṭha protected Ayodhyā, the kingdom, / and likewise the inner apartments, through the connection of a royal priest to his patron.

10.5

Satyavrata, however, whether from youth or through the force of what was destined, / constantly bore intense anger toward Vasiṣṭha.

10.6

When his dear son was then banished from the kingdom by the father, / the sage Vasiṣṭha did not prevent it, indeed for a reason:

10.7

“The completion of the marriage mantras takes place at the seventh step, / and Satyavrata has not seized [the bride] after the seventh step.”

10.8

Thinking, “Knowing dharma, Vasiṣṭha does not protect me,” O Bhārata, / Satyavrata then harbored rage toward Vasiṣṭha in his mind.

10.9

The lord Vasiṣṭha had acted then with an eye to virtue, / but Satyavrata did not understand his silent vow.

10.10

Because of the dissatisfaction which the high-souled father felt toward him, / Pākaśāsana did not send rain for twelve years.

10.11

Thinking: “By him now bearing that vow hard to bear on earth, / by which that vow was performed on earth with purpose, dear one, / the expiation for the family will indeed be accomplished,”

10.12

the lord Vasiṣṭha did not restrain him when he was forsaken by his father; / “I will consecrate his son,” such was the sage's thought.

Sustaining that initiation for twelve years, the mighty Satyavrata, / having undertaken a great silent vow, O king, / when meat was not to be found, that prince saw / the milk cow yielding all desires belonging to the great-souled Vasiṣṭha.

10.14

Through anger, confusion, and exhaustion, overcome by hunger, / falling into the ten states of passion, the king killed her, O Janamejaya.

10.14x199-1

The intoxicated, the careless, the mad, the weary, the angry, the hungry,

10.14x199-2

the hasty, the fearful, the greedy, and the lustful—these are the ten.

10.15

And he himself ate that meat and fed Viśvāmitra's sons; / hearing of that, Vasiṣṭha also became enraged with him.

10.15x200

Enraged, the lord addressed this speech to the prince:

10.16

Vasiṣṭha said: / “I would cast down your iron stake, O cruel one, / if these two stakes had not been made again by you:

10.17

by the father's displeasure, by the slaughter of your guru's milk cow, / and by the consumption of unconsecrated food—threefold is your transgression.”

10.18

Thus seeing his three stakes, the one of great ascetic heat / said, “Triśaṅku!” and because of this he is known as Triśaṅku.

10.19

When his wives had been sustained, Viśvāmitra returned; / because of that, pleased, the sage granted a boon to Triśaṅku. / Offered a boon, the prince then chose his teacher [to fulfill his wish]:

10.19x201

“May I go to heaven in this very body,” thus was the sage implored.

10.20

When that twelve-year drought had passed, / having consecrated him in the kingdom, the sage sacrificed for him; / having consecrated him in his father's realm, Kauśika sacrificed for him / while the deities and Vasiṣṭha were looking on.

10.20x203

The lord then elevated him with his physical body to heaven.

10.20x204

The one of great ascetic heat elevated him with his physical body to heaven.

10.21

His wife, named Satyarathā, born of the Kekaya lineage, / gave birth to a blameless boy, Hariścandra.

10.22

He was the king Hariścandra, remembered as the son of Triśaṅku, / the performer of the Rājasūya, celebrated as a universal ruler.

10.23

And the son of Hariścandra was renowned as Rohita, / by whom this Rohitapura was built for the achievement of kingship. / Having ruled, that royal seer, and having protected the subjects, / realizing the unreality of worldly existence, gave that city to brahmins. / Harita is called the son of Rohita, and Cañcu the son of Hārīta; / Vijaya and Sudeva were the two sons of Cañcu. / He was remembered as Vijaya because he conquered the entire kṣatriya order; / Ruruka was his son, skilled in the duties and aims of kings. / Harita was then born, righteous in the world likewise; / Rohita's son was Vṛka, and from Vṛka, Bāhu was born.

10.23x207

Together with the Śakas, Yavanas, Kāmbojas, Pāradas, and Pahlavas,

10.24

the Haihayas and Tālajaṅghas expelled that king; / for he was not overly righteous, dear one, though he lived in an age of dharma.

10.25

Bāhu's son Sagara was born with poison; / reaching the hermitage of Aurva, he was protected by the Bhārgava.

10.26

And having obtained the fiery weapon from the Bhārgava, King Sagara / conquered the earth, slaying the Tālajaṅghas along with the Haihayas.

10.27

The imperishable one abolished the dharma of the Śakas and the Pahlavas, / O best of Kurus, and of the kṣatriyas and Pāradas, being a knower of dharma.

10.28

Janamejaya said: / How was that imperishable Sagara born together with poison? / And why, being enraged, did the imperishable king

10.29

abolish the hereditary dharma of the Śakas and other mighty kṣatriyas? / Tell me all this in detail, O one rich in ascetic heat!

10.30

Vaiśaṃpāyana said: / The kingdom of Bāhu, who had fallen into addiction, dear one, was indeed seized / by the Haihayas and Tālajaṅghas together with the Śakas, O lord of the people.

10.31

The Yavanas, Pāradas, Kāmbojas, Pahlavas, Khaśas, / Kātisarpas, Māhiṣikas, Pārada-Taṅkaṇas, and Śakas— / these five hordes showed their valor on behalf of the Haihayas.

10.32

Deprived of his kingdom, that King Bāhu went to the forest, / and, followed by his wife, afflicted with sorrow, he gave up his life breaths in the forest.

10.32x209-1

When he, grown old, reached death, his wife was about to die after him,

10.32x209-2

but was prevented by Aurva, who knew she bore offspring.

10.33

His wife, a Yādavī, pregnant, had followed behind him; / and previously, poison had been given to her by her co-wife.

10.34

Having prepared her husband's funeral pyre in the forest, she was mounting it; / the Bhārgava Aurva restrained her out of compassion, dear one.

10.35

And in his hermitage she brought forth that imperishable fetus together with the poison, / a mighty-armed king named Sagara.

10.36

Aurva, having performed for that great-souled one the birth rites and the rest, / and having taught him the Vedas and the treatises, then bestowed the weapon— / the fiery weapon, highly auspicious, hard to endure even for the immortals.

10.37

Endowed with that weapon's power in battle and with strength, / he swiftly struck down the Haihayas, as the enraged Rudra strikes beasts, / and gathered fame in the worlds, the foremost of the famous.

10.38

Then the king resolved to utterly destroy
the Śakas, Yavanas, Kāmbojas, Pāradas, and Pahlavas.

10.39

Being slaughtered by the heroic, noble Sagara,
they fled for refuge to the wise Vasiṣṭha and bowed down.

10.40

Vasiṣṭha, radiant with glory, saw them, bound them by an agreement,
and restrained Sagara, granting them safety at that time.

10.41

Hearing his own vow and the word of his guru,
Sagara destroyed their dharma and changed their attire.

10.42

Shaving half the head of the Śakas, he dismissed them;
and all the head of the Yavanas, and likewise of the Kāmbojas;

10.43

the Pāradas were made to have loose hair, and the Pahlavas to wear beards;
they were deprived of recitation of the Veda and the vaṣaṭ-call by that noble king.

10.44

The Śakas, Yavanas, Kāmbojas, and Pāradas, O lord of subjects,
the Kolisarpas, Māhiṣakas, Darvas, Colas, together with the Keralas—

10.45

all these were kṣatriyas, dear friend; their dharma was cast off
by the noble Sagara at the word of Vasiṣṭha, O king.

10.45x210-1

And the Khaśas, the Ṣāras, the Cīnas, the Madras, and the Kiṣkandhakas,

10.45x210-2

and the Kauntalas, the Vaṅgas, the Śālvas, and the Kauṅkaṇakas.

10.46

That righteous victor of a king, having conquered this earth,
consecrated for the horse sacrifice, set the horse roaming free.

10.47

As he let it roam, that horse was stolen near the shore
at the southeastern sea, and was led into the earth.
Puraṃdara seized the horse released as the victim at his sacrifice;
having stolen it and tied it beside Kapila, he went back to his city.
The proud sons of Sumati, carrying out their father’s command—
those sixty thousand, intent on guarding the horse—
then that king had them dig up the region with his sons.

10.48

Then, as the great ocean was being dug up there, they reached
that primal Puruṣa, the god Hari, Kṛṣṇa, Prajāpati,
Viṣṇu sleeping in the form of Kapila as Puruṣa at that time.

10.48x212-1

Searching for the horse, they dug the earth all around.

10.48x212-2

In the northeastern direction, they saw the horse beside Kapila.

10.48x212-3

"Here sits the thief, the stealer of the horse, his eyes closed!

10.48x212-4

Kill him, kill the sinner!" Thus the sixty thousand,

10.48x212-5

struck with blows of their fists; then the silent sage opened his eyes,

10.48x213-1

the creator of all beings, the Sādhya, Nārāyaṇa.

10.48x213-2

Approaching him, saying, "This is that thief!

10.48x213-3

Let him be seized! Let him be bound, this evil-minded stealer of our horse!"

10.48x213-4

Then, raising a noose to seize that one of great splendor,

10.48x213-5

impelled by Time, all the sons of Sagara advanced.

10.48x214

All the sons of Sagara saw him and rushed at him with weapons.

10.49

By the blazing fire rising from his eye as he awoke,
they were all burned up, O great king, but four remained:

10.50

Barhaketu, Suketu, King Bhāradratha,
and the heroic Pañcajana—the kings who carried on his lineage.

10.50x215-1

Having then commanded the steadfast Aṃśumat, a fit person to recover the horse,

10.50x215-2

consecrated [for the rite], he remained right there waiting.

10.50x215-3

Going along the path of his ancestors, he saw Lord Hari.

10.50x215-4

Bowing to that god with his head, he stood in humble submission.

10.51

And the blessed Lord Hari Nārāyaṇa granted him a boon:
an imperishable lineage for Ikṣvāku, and unfading fame;
then the blessed Lord, having given back the horse, gave a boon
to Sagara, O great king:
the ocean as his son, and imperishable residence in heaven;

10.51cx217

and imperishable realms for his sons who had been killed by his eye.

10.52

Taking the guest-offering, the ocean praised that ruler of the earth;
and it attained the name Sāgara because of that deed of his.

10.53

And obtaining that sacrificial horse from the ocean,
he of great renown performed a hundred horse sacrifices;
and he had sixty thousand sons—so we have heard.

10.54

Janamejaya said:
How were those heroic, mighty sons of Sagara born—
those sixty thousand valiant men—and by what rite, O twice-born one?

10.55

Vaiśaṃpāyana said:
Sagara had two wives whose sins had been burned away by ascetic heat:
the elder, the daughter of Vidarbha, famous by the name Keśinī;
and his younger wife, supremely righteous,
the daughter of Ariṣṭanemi, peerless in beauty on earth.
Aurva granted a boon to the two of them; hear that, O ruler of men.

Linked texts (1)

Harivaṃśa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit