Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.14

v1.c8.14

² This prince when hunting in the forest met Çakti, the eldest son of that Vasisṭha held by him in high honour. He ordered the Muni to give him the path. But the Muni insisted that under the eternal law the Kshattriya must give way to the Brahman. (Cp. Āpast., ii, 5, 11.5, and parallels). So they went on wrangling; at length the angry king struck the priest’s son with his whip “like a Rākshasa”, and had the curse put on him by the insulted man that he should eat human flesh “like a Rākshasa”—one of those curses by holy men and Brahmans which almost always bring down misfortune on the innocent. But in this case a kind of strange Nemesis was at work: the first victim of the new monster was Çakti himself, then he was followed by his ninety-nine brothers into Kalmāshapāda’s maw (i, 176). According to Brihaddevatā, vi, 28 these 100 sons were slain by the Saudāsas (sons or followers of Sudās); according to Sāyaṇa on Rigveda, vii, 104.2 it was a Rākshasa. Cp. Muir, *Original Sanskrit Texts*, i, p. 326 ff.