A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1324

c5.1324

PARĀSARA. A Vedic *Rishi* to whom some hymns of the *Rig-veda* are attributed. He was a disciple of Kapila, and he received the *Vishnu Purāna* from Pulastya and taught it to Maitreya. He was also a writer on Dharma-śāstra, and texts of his are often cited in books on law. Speculations as to his era differ widely, from 575 B.C. to 1391 B.C., and cannot be trusted. By an amour with Satyavatī he was father of Krishna Dwaipāyana, the Vyāsa or arranger of the Vedas. According to the Nirukta, he was son of Vasishtha, but the Mahā-bhārata and the Vishnu Purāna make him the son of Saktri and grandson of Vasishtha. The legend of his birth, as given in the Mahā-bhārata, is that King Kalmāsha-pāda met with Saktri in a narrow path, and desired him to get out of the way. The sage refused, and the Rāja struck him with his whip. Thereupon the sage cursed the Rāja so that he became a man-eating Rākshasa. In this state he ate up Saktri, whose wife, Adrisyantī, afterwards gave birth to Parāsara. When this child grew up and heard the particulars of his father's death, he instituted a sacrifice for the destruction of all the Rākshasas, but was dissuaded from its completion by Vasishtha and other sages. As he desisted, he scattered the remaining sacrificial fire upon the northern face of the Himālaya, where it still blazes forth at the phases of the moon, consuming Rākshasas, forests, and mountains.