A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.2004

c5.2004

VASISHTHA. ‘Most wealthy.’ A celebrated Vedic sage to whom many hymns are ascribed. According to Manu he was one of the seven great *Rishis* and of the ten Prajāpatis. There was a special rivalry between him and the sage Viswāmitra, who raised himself from the Kshatriya to the Brāhman caste. Vasishtha was the possessor of a “cow of plenty,” called Nandinī, who had the power of granting him all things (*vasu*) he desired, hence his name. A law-book is attributed to him, or to another of the same name. Though Vasishtha is classed among the Prajāpatis who sprang from Brahmā, a hymn in the *Rig-veda* and the commentaries thereon assign him a different origin, or rather a second birth, and represent him and the sage Agastya to have sprung from Mitra and Varuna. The hymn says, “Thou, O Vasishtha, art a son of Mitra and Varuna, born a Brāhman from the soul of Urvasī. All the gods placed in the vessel thee the drop which had fallen through divine contemplation.” The comment on this hymn says, “When these two Ādityas (Mitra and Varuna) beheld the Apsaras Urvasī at a sacrifice their seed fell from them. . . . It fell on many places, into a jar, into water, and on the ground. The Muni Vasishtha was produced on the ground, while Agastya was born in the jar.”