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.s1.759

c5.s1.759

§ 227 (Parāçara): King Kṛtavīrya, the yājya of the Bhṛgus, at the end of the Soma sacrifice gratified the brahmans with large offerings. After he had ascended to heaven, it came to happen that his descendants were in want of wealth. Knowing that the Bhṛgus were rich, they went to them and begged. Some amongst the Bhṛgus buried their wealth under the earth, some gave it away to brahmans, and some duly gave it to the kṣattriyas. Some kṣattriyas, while digging at the house of a Bhārgava, came upon a large treasure. The kṣattriyas then began to kill the Bhṛgus with their arrows all over the earth, even the embryos. A Bhṛgu woman fled to Himavat, holding an embryo in one of her thighs ("for 100 years," v. 6822). From fear a brahman woman reported this to the kṣattriyas. The kṣattriyas then went to destroy that embryo, which, however, came out, tearing open the thigh and dazzling the eyes of the kṣattriyas so that they lost their sight. They asked the woman that might be restored to sight, promising to abstain from their sinful practice (I, 178). She told them to ask the child, which they did, and regaining their eyesights they went away. The child (viprarshi) was named Aurva, because he had been born after tearing open his mother's thigh (ūru). Aurva devoted himself to the autorest of penances with the object of destroying the whole world to gratify his ancestors. The Pitṛs then all came from Pitṛloka, and said: "Be propitious towards the three worlds. Having grown weary with the long periods of life allotted to us, we therefore we abstained from our own destruction through the kṣattriyas. Such as commit suicide never attain to regions that are blessed, and we have been saved from self-destruction" (I, 179). When Aurva replied that his vow must not be in vain, the Pitṛs prevailed upon him to throw his wrath into the waters of the ocean, the whole universe being made of water. It became a large horse-head, which, emitting fire from its mouth, consumes the waters of the ocean (I, 180).—§ 228: Hearing this the viprarshi Parāçara controlled his wrath from destroying the worlds. But he performed a great rākshasa sacrifice and began to burn the rākshasas in it, and Vasisṭha did not restrain him. Desirous of stopping that sacrifice the rshi Atri came to that place, and Pulastya and Pulaha and Kratu, desiring to save the rākshasas, said: "That which befell thy father was by his own curse! No rākshasa was capable of killing him; he himself provided for his own death! Thou art acting as a blind instrument in that matter. Those who by his śapāda have ascended to heaven, they have found happiness, as also the other sons of Pulastya, by the sacrifice of thine." Parāçara then stopped the sacrifice and threw the fire into the northern quarter, where it may be seen to this day in the trees and stones in all