[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879) › c5.2127 # A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.2127 A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.2127 - **Language:** English ### [c5.2127](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.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. - [Previous: c5.2126](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.2126) - [Next: c5.2128](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.2128) - [Up: c5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5) ## Cites (3) - [Harivaṃśa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.harivamsa) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Ṛgvedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.rg) — Sanskrit - [Viṣṇupurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.visnu) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.2127](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.2127) · Pramāṇa