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.s7.5

c5.s7.5

Kaca, a brahman, the son of Bṛhaspati. § 145 (Saṃbhavap.): Janamejaya said: How did Yayāti get Devayānī? Vaiçampāyana related: In the many battles between the gods and the Asuras, the gods had for their purohita Bṛhaspati Āṅgirasa, and the Asuras Uçanas Kāvya (i.e. Çukra). As Uçanas, by his science Sañjīvinī, restored the fallen Dānavas to life, and Bṛhaspati was unable to revive the fallen gods, the gods prevailed upon Bṛhaspati's son Kaca to repair to Uçanas and conciliate him and his daughter Devayānī and learn the Sañjīvinī. K. then repaired to the capital of Vṛṣaparvan, the king of the Dānavas, and promising to practise brahmacarya for 1,000 years he was accepted by Uçanas as his pupil. Young as he was he, by singing and dancing and playing on instruments, etc., soon gratified Devayānī. After 500 years the Dānavas, having discovered who he was, slew him, and one time hacked his body to pieces and gave it to wolves and jackals, another time they pounded it into paste and mixed it with the waters of the ocean, but both times Devayānī prevailed upon Uçanas to restore K. to life by the Sañjīvinī, summoning him and saying, "Come." Then slaying him for the third time they burned the body and mixed the ashes with the wine (surā) which Uçanas drank. As Devayānī again asked her father to revive K., Uçanas said: "It is of no use, as he is always killed again; thou art always worshipped by the Brāhman (i.e. the Veda, Nil.), the brahmans, the gods including Indra, the Vasus, the Açvins, the enemies of the gods and the whole world, therefore do not grieve for a mortal." As Devayānī said sho would starve, Çukra imparted the Sañjīvinī to K., who, though reduced to powder, remembered everything. K. then came out, ripping open the stomach of Çukra and then revived Çukra by the Sañjīvinī. Uçanas declared that henceforth that brahman who would drink wine should be reckoned to have committed the sin of slaying a brahman. K. stayed with Çukra for 1,000 years (I, 76). When K. was about to return to the gods Devayānī asked him to become her husband, and as he refused (saying that she was a sister to him) she cursed him, saying that his science should bear no fruit. K. again cursed Devayānī, saying that no ṛṣi's son should take her hand, and that his science should bear fruit, if not to himself, at least to him to whom he might impart it. Then he went to the abode of Indra, and the gods declared that he should become a sharer with them in sacrificial offerings (I, 77): I, 76, 3199 (jyeshtham putram Bṛhaspateḥ), 3199 (Bṛhaspatisutaḥ), 3201 (ṛsher Āṅgirasaḥ putram putram sākṣād Bṛhaspateḥ), 3203, 3204, 3209, 3212, 3213, 3214, 3215, 3216, 3219 (Bṛhaspatisutaḥ), 3223, 3226, 3227, 3228 (Bṛhaspateḥ sutaḥ), †3232, (†3237), †3239, †3240, †3241, †3244, †3245, †3248, †3253, 3255; 77, (3261), 3265, (3267), 3271, (3272), 3276, 3277.—§ 146 (Devayānī): I, 78, 3279; 80, 3335 (Āṅgirasam, all. to § 145).—§ 637 (Rājadh.): XII, 47η, 1596 (among the ṛṣis who surrounded Bhīṣma).—§ 734 (Ānuçāsanik.): XIII, 26α, 1765 (do.). Cf. Āṅgirasaḥ pautra(ḥ), Āṅgirasa, Bṛhaspatisuta.