Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.63

v1.c6.63

Also trees in themselves are bestowers of children. To the already-mentioned Brahman Ṛcika there comes, after his marriage with the king's daughter Satyavatī, his father Bhṛgu, and leaves it to his daughter-in-law to choose a favour.² She chooses a son for herself, and one for her mother. He says they shall clasp a tree ṛtau,³ the daughter an udumbara-tree, the mother an aśvattha-tree,⁴ and each eat a sacrificial dish (caru) consecrated by a mantra. But the mother gets her daughter to exchange the food in the pot, and the tree, with her, and so things go wrong here, too. For the object of the arrangement was this: the Brahman's wife was to bring forth a pattern Brahman, and her mother, the king's wife, an outstanding warrior; and now things would have been just the opposite, but that through the grace of a second miracle the warlike nature of the Brahman's child came to be put off at least to the grandchild, the celebrated Paraçurāma; while the queen bears the Viçvāmitra who afterwards became a Brahman. This tale is told at greater length in xiii, 4.21 ff.; and in this account it is Ṛcīka himself who grants the favour, gives the directions, and appears throughout. A third form is found in xii, 48. There only the two sacrificial dishes appear, and not the trees.¹