Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.1136

c4.1136

(2) Atri and Parāśara. It was a time when Vasiṣṭha and Viśvāmitra were in a state of mutual ill-will. Once King Kalmāṣapāda was going about in the forest on a hunting expedition. He met Śakti, the eldest son of Vasiṣṭha in the forest. The King did not respect him properly. Śakti transformed Kalmāṣapāda into a Rākṣasa by his curse. The Rākṣasa who was also a cannibal, first swallowed Śakti himself. Viśvāmitra offered whatever help he could, to destroy Vasiṣṭha's family. Kalmāṣapāda ate successively all the 100 sons of Vasiṣṭha. Vasiṣṭha, in great sorrow and Śakti's wife, Adṛśyantī lived in an āśrama. Adṛśyantī was pregnant at the time of Śakti's death. In due course she gave birth to a boy who was called Parāśara and who later on became the father of Vyāsa. When Parāśara grew up, he came to know that his father Śakti was eaten by the Rākṣasa. Enraged at this, he started a yajña to annihilate the whole race of Rākṣasas. As the yajña gained intensity and force Atri Muni arrived there with certain other Maharṣis and dissuaded Parāśara from the yajña. (M.B., Ādi Parva, Chapter 181).