The Two Trees

After the wedding, Bhṛgu, the great sage, came to see his son and his son's wife, and he was glad. The two of them honoured him and stood before him with folded hands. Bhṛgu said to his daughter-in-law, Choose a boon, fortunate one; I will give you what you wish. She asked him for a son, for herself and for her mother, and he granted it.

When the time comes, Bhṛgu said, you and your mother must bathe for the rite of bringing forth a son, and embrace two trees, she an aśvattha, and you an udumbara. But when they came to embrace the trees, they changed them over. When Bhṛgu came back one day, he knew of the exchange. He said to Satyavatī: Your son will be a brahmin, born to the priesthood, who lives like a kṣatriya, by the warrior's way, and your mother's son will be a kṣatriya, born a warrior, who lives like a brahmin, mighty and following the way of the good. That son of Gādhi's was Viśvāmitra.

Satyavatī begged her father-in-law again and again: Do not let my son be like that; let it be my grandson instead. So be it, said Bhṛgu. When her time came she bore a son, Jamadagni, the joy of the line of Bhṛgu, full of splendour and power. He grew up full of splendour, and in the study of the Veda he surpassed many seers, and the whole science of the bow, with the four kinds of weapons, came to him of itself.