An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, with Short Explanations and a Concordance to the Bombay and Calcutta Editions and P. C. Roy's Translation c5.s1.469.3

c5.s1.469.3

the very Rṣis, giving up their vows, began to wander hither and thither. M.-y. Viçvāmitra, leaving his wife and son, wandered fireless and homeless, and regardless of food, clean and unclean. One day he came upon a hamlet, in the midst of a forest, inhabited by cruel hunters, etc. (description of a Cāṇḍāla hamlet). Viçvāmitra, in rage of hunger, wanted to steal a dog's haunch ("theft is allowable in a season of distress even for an eminent person; . . . in the first place one should steal from a low person . . ."). He was discovered and harshly addressed by the owner; but when the Cāṇḍāla learned who he was he addressed him respectfully, and dissuaded him from eating dog's meat, as the dog is less clean than a jackal, and the haunch of a dog is much worse than other parts of his body; "only the five kinds of five-clawed animals are clean food for brahmans and kshatriyas and vaiçyas, as laid down in the scriptures" (yathāçastram). Viçvāmitra said that it is the duty of the brahmans to behave like Agni (as it is the duty of the kshatriyas to behave like Indra), that the Vedas are fire, and that fire at times becomes a consumer of everything; "life is better than death; if living one may acquire virtue"; he mentioned that Agastya, when hungry, ate up the Asura Vātāpi ("a man who is a Rshi cannot do what is sinful").