Markandeyapurana 74.1

74.1

mārkaṇḍeya uvāca
rājābhūd vikhyātaḥ svarāṣṭro nāma vīryavān /
anekayajñakṛt prājñaḥ saṃgrāmeṣvaparājitaḥ //

Mārkaṇḍeya spoke:
There lived on the earth a famous king, by name Svarāskṭra, valiant, an offerer of many sacrifices, wise, invincible in battles. The sun being invoked by bis ministers gave him a very long life; and he had a hundred happy wives, O brahman. The wives of that long-lived king were not very long-lived, O muni; and in time his servants, ministers and people came to their end. And he, being bereft[1] of his wives and bis servants who were his equals in age, was dejected in mind and dwindled in vigour day and night. A neighbouring king named Vimarda ousted him then from his kingdom, failing as he teas in vigour, deprived of his devoted adherents, greatly afflicted. And being ousted[2] from his kingdom, he went to a forest, despairing in mind, and taking up his abode on a sandbank in the Vitastā, illustrious as he was, he practised austerities. Undergoing the five fires in the hot season,[3] exposing himself naked to the showers[4] in the rainy season, and lying in water in the cold season, he lived abstaining from food, strict in his devout rites.