Vasiṣṭha
Contents8 of 14
  1. Born Twice
  2. The Seer of the Seventh Book
  3. Before Varuṇa
  4. The Daughter of the Sun
  5. The Cow of Plenty
  6. The Staff
  7. Triśaṅku
  8. A Hundred Sons
  9. The Rivers That Would Not Drown Him
  10. The King Set Free
  11. The Word That Made a Brahmarṣi
  12. The Priest of Ayodhyā
  13. At Citrakūṭa
  14. The Teaching Rāma Asked For

A Hundred Sons

There was a king of Ikṣvāku's line named Kalmāṣapāda, who was also called Saudāsa, and both Vasiṣṭha and Viśvāmitra wished to be his priest. One day the king went hunting, and on a narrow path, tired, hungry and thirsty, he met Śakti, Vasiṣṭha's eldest son, the first of his hundred sons, coming the other way. Get out of my path, said the king. The sage answered him gently, but he did not step aside, for he stood on the path of dharma, and the king, out of pride and anger, would not step aside either. Then, in his folly, the king struck the sage with his whip as a rākṣasa might, one of the demons who feed on men. Śakti, struck by the whip, cursed him in anger. Since you strike an ascetic as a rākṣasa would, you worst of kings, from today you will be an eater of men. Go, and wander the earth hungry for human flesh.

Viśvāmitra was near, unseen, and saw his chance. When the king went to Śakti to beg his forgiveness, Viśvāmitra ordered a rākṣasa named Kiṃkara to enter the king, and the rākṣasa did. Soon afterward, a hungry brahmin asked the king for food with meat in it, and the king promised to send it, and forgot, and at midnight remembered and told his cook to take the brahmin food with meat. The cook could find no meat anywhere, and the king, possessed by the rākṣasa, told him to feed the brahmin human flesh. The brahmin saw by his inner sight what it was and cursed the king to the same hunger Śakti had spoken of. Now doubly cursed and possessed by the rākṣasa, the king lost his mind. He saw Śakti and said, Since you laid this unfitting curse on me, I will begin my eating of men with you. And he killed Śakti and ate him, as a tiger eats its prey.

When Śakti was dead, Viśvāmitra sent the rākṣasa against the rest of Vasiṣṭha's sons, and the king ate them all, as a lion eats small deer. Vasiṣṭha heard that his sons had been killed through Viśvāmitra, and he bore his grief as the great mountain bears the earth. He made up his mind to die. But not even then did that wisest of men think of destroying the line of Kuśika, Viśvāmitra's line.