Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.3984

c9.3984

(ii) Second confrontation. The next contest between the two hermits was due to the king Triśaṅku of the Solar dynasty. Triśaṅku wanted bodily attainment of heaven. Vasiṣṭha tried to discourage the king. Viśvāmitra took up the matter. He began to perform a sacrifice to lift up the king bodily to heaven, and Triśaṅku began to rise up higher and higher. But Indra did not allow him to enter bodily into the heaven. At last Viśvāmitra, by the power of his penance created an artificial heaven midway between the heaven and the earth and placed Triśaṅku in that heaven. With this the gap between the two hermits widened. (For more details see under Triśaṅku).