Vasiṣṭha
Contents7 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

Triśaṅku

While Viśvāmitra was at his austerities in the south, a king of Ikṣvāku's line named Triśaṅku, truthful and master of himself, made up his mind to perform a sacrifice and go in his own body to the highest world of the gods. He called Vasiṣṭha and told him his wish, and Vasiṣṭha told him plainly, It cannot be done.

Turned away by Vasiṣṭha, Triśaṅku went to the south, to where Vasiṣṭha's hundred sons were practising long austerities. He bowed to each of them in turn, a little ashamed, and said with folded hands, I come to you for refuge. Your father has refused me. I want to perform a great sacrifice; give me your leave. Bowing my head I beg you, brahmins established in austerity, sacrifice for me, so that I may reach the world of the gods in this body. Apart from you, the sons of my teacher, I see no other way. For all the Ikṣvākus the family priest is the highest refuge, and after him you are my gods.

The hundred sons were angry. Fool, they said, your teacher, who speaks only the truth, has refused you. How can you pass over him and come to another branch of his house? For all the Ikṣvākus the family priest is the highest guru, and no one may set aside the word of one who speaks the truth. The revered Vasiṣṭha has said it cannot be done. How could we carry out your sacrifice? Go back to your city, king. Our father is able to sacrifice for the three worlds. How could we dishonour him?

Triśaṅku said, My teacher has refused me, and his sons have refused me. I will go another way. Farewell. When they heard words with such a threat in them, the seer's sons cursed him in their fury: You will become a caṇḍāla. And they went back into their hermitage. When the night had passed, Triśaṅku had become a caṇḍāla, an outcast, dark and rough, dressed in dark clothes, his hair dishevelled, garlanded from the cremation ground, wearing iron ornaments, and his ministers and his people left him. Then he went to Viśvāmitra. Viśvāmitra took him under his protection and by the power of his own austerity sent him up to heaven in his body. The gods threw him down, and Viśvāmitra held him in the southern sky and made new stars around him, and there Triśaṅku shines among them, head downward.