Gautama

Seers of the Epics and Purāṇas · Ṛṣis and Ṛṣikās

Ahalyā's husband, whose curse lasted until Rāma came to his empty hermitage near Mithilā, and who fed the sages through a long drought and brought down from Śiva's hair the river called the Gautamī.

Gautama lived with his wife Ahalyā in a hermitage near Mithilā, and practised austerity there for countless years. When Indra, king of the gods, came to her in Gautama's own form, Gautama cursed them both and left his hermitage, until Rāma, the prince of Ayodhyā, came, as the curse itself had foretold, and Ahalyā was released, and the sage took her back. Their son Śatānanda became the priest of King Janaka. And in a long drought Gautama fed all the sages who came to his hermitage on Brahmagiri, and when a trick laid a cow before him, fallen and neither dead nor alive, he went to the god Śiva on Mount Kailāsa and brought down the river that is called after him, the Gautamī.

Contents

  1. The Hermitage near Mithilā
  2. The Curse
  3. Rāma in the Empty Hermitage
  4. Śatānanda
  5. The Drought on Brahmagiri
  6. The Cow in the Rice Field
  7. The River from Śiva's Hair

Beside them