Elements of Hindu Iconography v2.c15.10

v2.c15.10

First, as regards the origin of the sects classed as outside the pale of the Vēdas, the following account taken from the Varāha-purāṇa will be of interest. In the forest of Daṇḍaka, situated in the middle of Bhāratavarsha, the ṛishi Gautama had his āśrama (hermitage), round which, he had abundant food-giving plants and trees. There once raged a twelve years' famine during which a number of *rishis* from various other *āśramas* flocked to that of Gautama for food and shelter, and were received with all kindness and treated with great hospitality by Gautama. After the famine abated and the country became again fertile, the *rishis* desired to start out on a pilgrimage to the several famous *tirthas*; one of the *rishis* named Marīcha, thinking that they should not leave the *āśrama* without informing Gautama, but fearing at the same time that he might, in his extreme kindness and hospitality, refuse permission for the pilgrimage, created from *māyā* an enfeebled, old cow and let it graze near Gautama's *āśrama*. Gautama went near the cow to water it; as he went near the cow, it fell down and died. The ungrateful *rishis* attributed to Gautama, the sin of killing a cow and refused to stay any longer in the abode of such a sinful one. Gautama, who did not know this trick of the *rishis*, really believed that he had committed the sin and asked them how he could raise the cow from death. Advising him to sprinkle on it water brought from the Ganges, they departed on their projected pilgrimage. Gautama repaired to the Himālaya and prayed to Śiva a hundred years and got from his *jaṭāmaṇḍala* a