The Fire

Bharadvāja had finished his daily recitation of the Veda and came home carrying a bundle of firewood. Always before, when he came in, the sacred fires had risen up to greet him. Now they did not rise. He saw that something was wrong at the fire offering, and he said to the blind śūdra who kept the house: Why do the fires not welcome me? You are not as you were either. Is all well in the hermitage? Has my foolish son gone to Raibhya? Tell me quickly; my mind is not at rest.

Your foolish son must have gone to Raibhya, said the śūdra, for he lies dead, killed by a mighty rākṣasa. The rākṣasa was chasing him with a spear, and I held him back with my arms at the door of the fire house. He was killed here, wanting water.

Bharadvāja took up his dead son and wept bitterly. You did your austerity for the sake of the brahmins, he said, so that the Vedas might shine forth in brahmins without study. You were gentle to the great brahmins and harmless to every creature, and then you turned hard. I forbade you to go near Raibhya's house, and still you went to that wretch, who is like Death himself. He knew that I was old and that you were my son, and still he gave himself over to his anger.

I have lost my son through Raibhya's doing, and without you, my son, I will give up my life. As I give up my body in grief for my son, guilty as I am, so let Raibhya's eldest son kill him soon, though he has done no wrong. Happy are the men who have no son; they never know the grief of losing one. But who is more wicked than a man who, maddened by grief for his son, curses his own dear friend? I have seen my son dead and I have cursed my dear friend. Who else will ever suffer such a calamity?

So Bharadvāja lamented, and he burned his son, and then he entered the blazing fire himself.

At that time King Bṛhaddyumna was holding a long sacrifice, and Raibhya was his priest. The king chose Raibhya's two sons to help him in it, and they went with their father's leave, while Raibhya stayed at the hermitage with Parāvasu's wife. One night Parāvasu came home alone to look in on the house. In the last watch of the night, still blind with sleep, he saw his father moving in the dark forest wrapped in a black antelope skin, and took him for a deer. Meaning to protect himself, without wishing it, he killed his father. So Raibhya died at the hand of his son, as Bharadvāja had cursed.

Parāvasu did the funeral rites and went back to the sacrifice, and said to his brother Arvāvasu, You cannot carry this work alone. But I have killed our father, taking him for a deer. Do the penance for the killing of a brahmin for my sake, and I will carry on the sacrifice alone. Arvāvasu said, Carry on King Bṛhaddyumna's sacrifice, and I will do the penance for you. And he did, with his senses held in check.

When he had finished the penance, Arvāvasu came back to the sacrifice. Parāvasu saw him and said to the king, Do not let this brahmin killer come in to see your sacrifice. Even a glance from a brahmin killer will harm you. The servants drove Arvāvasu out, calling him brahmin killer again and again, and again and again he said, It was not I who killed a brahmin. He would never admit that he had done it himself. My brother did it, he said, and I have set him free of it.

The gods were pleased with what Arvāvasu had done. They made him the chief priest and drove out Parāvasu. Then the gods, with Agni, the god of fire, at their head, offered him a boon. He chose that his father should rise again, that his brother should be free of guilt, and that his father should have no memory of being killed; and that Bharadvāja and Yavakrīta should rise again too.

They all rose up. And Yavakrīta said to the gods: I have studied the Veda and kept the vows. How could Raibhya kill me, a student and an ascetic, in such a way? Do not speak so, Yavakrīta, the gods said. You learned the Vedas easily, without a teacher. Raibhya won the highest sacred knowledge by his own toil, through a long time, satisfying his teachers through his hardship. When they had said this to him, the gods brought them all back to life and went back to heaven.