Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c17.57

c17.57

Among other hermitages noticed by the Mahābhārata may be mentioned those of Vasishṭha and Viśvāmitra [ix, 42], and that in the forest of Kāmyaka on the banks of the Sarasvatī [iii, 183]. But a hermitage near Kurukshetra [ix, 54] deserves special notice for the interesting fact recorded that it produced two noted women hermits. There "leading from youth the vow of brahmacharya, a Brahmin maiden was crowned with ascetic success and ultimately acquiring yogic powers, she became a *tapas-siddhā*", while another lady, the daughter not of a Brahmin but a Kshatriya, a child not of poverty but affluence, the daughter of a king, Śāṇḍilya by name, came to live there the life of celibacy and attained spiritual pre-eminence.