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.s2.969

c5.s2.969

*Çārṅgakopākhyana(m)* (“episode relating to the çārṅgaka birds”). § 259 (*Khāṇḍavad.*): Janamejaya said: “Why did the çārṅgakas escape?” Vaiçampāyana said: When the maharṣi Mandapāla, who was *ūrdhvaretas*, had finished his tapas, he left his body and went to *Pitṛloka*, but did not obtain the expected result of his acts, and learned from the gods sitting around *Dharmarāja* that it was because he had no offspring. He then reflected how he could obtain numerous offspring in the shortest time possible; he learnt that the birds were peculiarly prolific, and, becoming a *çārṅgika*, he married the *çārṅgikā* Jaritā, and begat upon her four sons, who were all reciters of the *Vedas*. Then he left her and married Lapitā. When *Agni* came to the forest of *Khāṇḍava* to burn it down, Mandapāla praised *Agni* (vv. 8353–8360) and prevailed upon him to spare his children (I, 229). Jaritā told her sons (*Jaritāri, Sṛṣṛkṛva, Stambamitra, and Droṇa*), who would have to rescue herself by abandoning them, to conceal themselves in the hole of a mouse; but they were afraid of the mouse (I, 230). Finally Jaritā was prevailed upon by her sons to abandon them, and *Agni* approached the spot where the sons were (I, 231). The four young *ṛṣis* praised *Agni*, who promised them safety and granted them a boon. Drona asked him to consume the cats that troubled them every day (I, 232). Meanwhile Mandapāla addressed Lapitā, being anxious about his children. Lapitā, from jealousy, told him to go to Jaritā, who, she said, was the real cause of his anxiety. When *Agni* had spared the children, Jaritā came and embraced them. When Mandapāla came they did not speak to him, and Jaritā, from jealousy, told him to go to Lapitā. Mandapāla declared that nothing was so destructive to the happiness of women as a concubine, except a lover; witness *Arundhatī* (b). Then all his children came forward to worship him, and he also spoke kindly to them all (I, 233). Mandapāla told that he had asked Agni to protect them, and therefore he had not come earlier. Then he took his wives and sons with him and went away to some other country (I, 234).