Vasiṣṭha
Contents2 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

The Seer of the Seventh Book

The seventh book of the Ṛgveda belongs to Vasiṣṭha and to the Vasiṣṭhas who came after him. In one of its hymns his own birth is told, not as a story but in the hymn's own images, with Urvaśī in it, and the falling seed, and the jar. When Mitra and Varuṇa saw you springing forth as light from the lightning, that was one birth of yours, Vasiṣṭha, and Agastya brought you to the people. You are the son of Mitra and Varuṇa, Vasiṣṭha, and you were born, brahmin, from the mind of Urvaśī. You were the drop that fell, and by the divine word all the gods set you in the lotus. And again: Born at a sacrifice, urged on by homage, the two poured their seed together into a jar. From its middle Māna rose up, and from it, they say, the seer Vasiṣṭha was born. Māna is Agastya's own name in the hymns, the name of his family.

The same hymn remembers the days when the Vasiṣṭhas served King Sudās of the Tṛtsus. Vasiṣṭha speaks in it himself and calls the Vasiṣṭhas, the priests of his family, the white-robed ones. He tells how their soma, the holy drink pressed for the gods, drew Indra to them, away from the soma of a rival, Pāśadyumna, and how with their help a river was crossed and an enemy, Bheda, struck down. The white-robed ones, with their hair braided on the right, who quicken thought, have gladdened me. Rising from the sacred grass, I said to the men: my Vasiṣṭhas are not far off to help you. Indra chose the Vasiṣṭhas over the pressed soma of Pāśadyumna, son of Vayata. So with them he crossed the river, so with them he struck down Bheda, so in the battle of the ten kings Indra helped Sudās, Vasiṣṭhas, through your prayer.

When ten kings came together against Sudās and his people, the Bharatas, the hymn goes on, it was Vasiṣṭha's prayer that turned the battle. Like thirsty men they looked up to heaven, hemmed in, begging for help in the battle of the ten kings. Indra heard Vasiṣṭha as he praised, and made wide room for the Tṛtsus. Like sticks for driving cattle, the Bharatas were cut down and few. Vasiṣṭha went before them, and then the clans of the Tṛtsus spread out.