A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.2127

c5.2127

VISWĀMITRA. A celebrated sage, who was born a Kshatriya, but by intense austerities raised himself to the Brāhman caste, and became one of the seven great Rishis. According to the Rig-veda he was son of a king named Kusika, a descendant of Kusa, but later authorities make him the son of Gāthin or Gādhi, king of Kanyā-kubja, and a descendant of Puru; so Viswāmitra is declared in the Hari-vansa to be “at once a Paurava and a Kausika” by lineage. According to some, Gādhi was of the Kusika race, descended from Kusika. Viswāmitra is called Gādhi-ja and Gādhi-nandana, ‘son of Gādhi.’ The story of Viswāmitra’s birth, as told in the Vishnu Purāna, is that Gādhi had a daughter named Satyavatī, whom he gave in marriage to an old Brāhman of the race of Bhrigu named Richika. The wife being a Kshatriya, her husband was desirous that she might bear a son having the qualities of a Brāhman, and he gave her a dish of food which he had prepared to effect this object. He also gave her mother a dish intended to make her conceive a son with the character of a warrior. At the instigation of the mother the dishes were exchanged, so the mother gave birth to Viswāmitra, the son of a Kshatriya with the qualities of a Brāhman; and Satyavatī bore Jamad-agni, the father of Parasurāma, the warrior Brāhman and destroyer of the Kshatriyas.