Vasiṣṭha

Vasiṣṭha is the seer of the seventh book of the Ṛgveda and the priest of the kings of Ayodhyā, from Ikṣvāku, the first of their line, down to Rāma. He was born from a jar together with the seer Agastya, he held a cow of plenty that a king tried to take from him, and he met all the weapons of Viśvāmitra with a single staff. He lost a hundred sons and lived. He forgave the rival who had wronged him and named him a brahmarṣi, and it was that same rival who later asked him to teach Rāma the knowledge that sets the mind at rest. Arundhatī was his wife.