A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.2128

c5.2128

The most noteworthy and important feature in the legends of Viswāmitra is the active and enduring struggle between him and the Brāhman Rishi Vasishtha, a fact which is frequently alluded to in the Rig-veda, and is supposed to typify the contentions, between the Brāhmans and the Kshatriyas for the superiority. Both these Rishis occupy a prominent position in the Rig-veda, Viswāmitra being the Rishi of the hymns in the third Mandala, which contains the celebrated verse Gāyatrī, and Vasishtha of those of the seventh. Each of them was at different times the Purohita or family priest of King Su-dās, a position of considerable importance and power, the possession of which stimulated if it did not cause their rivalry. The two sages cursed each other, and carried their enmity into deeds of violence. Viswāmitra’s hundred sons are represented as having been eaten or burnt up by the breath of Vasishtha. On the other hand, the hundred sons of Vasishtha were, according to one legend, eaten up by King Kalmāsha-pāda, into whom a man-eating Rākshasa had entered under the influence of Viswāmitra, or, according to another legend, they were reduced to ashes by Viswāmitra’s curse “and reborn as degraded outcasts for seven hundred births.” The Aitareya Brāhmana states that Viswāmitra had a hundred sons, but that when he adopted his nephew Sunah-sephas he proposed to make him the eldest of his sons. Fifty of them assented, and them Viswāmitra blessed that they should “abound in cattle and sons;” the other and elder fifty dissented, and them he cursed “that their progeny should possess the furthest ends (of the country),” and from them have descended many of the border tribes and most of the Dasyus. The Māha-bhārata has a legend of Viswāmitra having commanded the river Saraswatī to bring his rival Vasishtha that he might kill him, and of having turned it into blood when it flowed in another direction and carried Vasishtha out of his reach.