In the previous episode, we had witnessed a detailed accord on Sage Rishyashringa and how he got married to Shaanta Devi, who was the daughter of King Lomapaada of the Anga Desha. Once upon a time, when the Anga Desha was going through a treacherous drought situation that crippled the entire territory, King Lomapaada learnt through his sources that only if Sage Rishyashringa sets foot on the soil of Anga Desha, this drought situation would come to an end. Subsequently, Sage Rishyashringa was made to come to the Anga Desha, but this was not easy for King Lomapaada. This is because, Sage Rishyashringa did not have any experience in interacting with any human being on earth! He was a unique person and gave is 100% to his deep penance, without even having basic interactions with anyone around! Thus, to convince such a person and to bring him inside a place which is dominated by human beings was a herculean task for King Lomapaada, however, he finally achieved it. Thus, once Sage Rishyashringa set foot on Anga Desha, rains started to lash the territory and with this, the drought situation came to an end! Impressed with the divine capability of Sage Rishyashringa, King Lomapaada gave his daughter Shaanta Devi in marriage to him. Thus, both of them lived happily together at a place called “Shringiberapura”, which is also the residing place of Guha – The hunter whom Bhagawan Rama approached first, when He was going on his 14-year exile.
Moving on from here, Sage Naarada is explaining about the significance of River Kaushiki and how River Ganga goes and meets the ocean after travelling for thousands of kilometers towards the eastern direction. I’m not going into these stories in detail at the moment, but we shall discuss them when the apt context comes up in the near future. Now we move into the next important “Charitra” that Sage Naarada is going to narrate – Something about Sage Richika. Now, this is going to be a very interesting story and this is going to lead to the birth of two very important people here. Moving on into what Sage Naarada explains – There was a great sage by name Richika. Sage Richika was a very pious person and was extremely into deep penance, similar to how we’ve seen Sage Rishyashringa and the others. This Sage Rishika gets married to a woman by name “Gaadhi”. Both of them had a son by name “Jamadagni”. Later on, Jamadagni got married and out of this marriage, Parashurama took the divine incarnation. On the other hand, Gaadhi had a daughter along with Jamadagni. This daughter was married to a king, and gave birth to none other than Sage Vishwamitra. We might wonder how Sage Vishwamitra was born to a king! This is where the twist of the story is – As we’ve discussed in our previous Ramayana project, Sage Vishwamitra was born as a “Kshatrya Prince” but later on with enormous effort, he obtained the title of “Brahma-Rishi” from none other than Sage Vashsitachaarya himself! We’ve witnessed this story in our earlier episodes as to how there was a huge fight between Vishwamitra and Sage Vasishtachaarya, over the “Kaamadenu” cow. Vishwamitra, when he was a king, wanted to abduct the Kaamadenu cow from Sage Vasishtachaarya, who in turn resisted it. Vishwamitra was defeated left, right and center by Sage Vasishtachaarya – Thanks to his extreme power of penance. However, Vishwamitra did not leave it there. This insult that he obtained was stirring continuously in his heart. He somehow wanted to take revenge over Sage Vasishtachaarya. Hence, he decided that there is no warfare technique that can defeat Sage Vasishtachaarya and only the power of penance could!
Thus, Vishwamitra goes into deep penance and eventually he again goes to fight with Sage Vasishtachaarya and ends up killing all his family members and children! This irks Sage Vasishtachaarya to a great extent, however, he decides to forgive Vishwamitra’s anger and vengeance. Eventually, Sage Vasishtachaarya himself gives Vishwamitra the “Brahmarishi” title and with this, Vishwamitra becomes “Sage Vishwamitra”. This is one side of the story. On the other side, if we look at Parasurama’s role in the Mahabharata text, we’ve earlier seen that Guru Dhronachaarya was a student of Parasurama, with regards to all the techniques of warfare. Similarly, when Karna was denied by Guru Dhronachaarya to be accepted as his student, we’ve witnessed the Karna straightaway went to Parasurama, who in turn accepted him as his student. Thus, Karna is a student of Parasurama. Similarly, when Amba, Ambika and Ambaalika were being brought by Bhishmachaarya to Hastinapura, to get them married to King Vichitraveerya, Amba had an issue with getting married to him, as she was in love with another king. However, the king wasn’t ready to accept her as his wife, since Bhishmachaarya had already won over her in the “Svayamvara” event. Thus, when Amba came back to Bhishmachaarya, he wasn’t ready to accept her either! Hence, unable to understand where to go from here on, Amba straightaway rushed to Parasurama for help. Thus, Parasurama was pressured by Amba to fight with Bhishmachaarya! However, when the fight happened, both Parasurama and Bhishmachaarya weren’t able to defeat each other, because both of them had equal strength and power!
Thus, we can see here that both Sage Vishnwamitra and Parasurama lived during the Dwaapara Yuga as well, when the Mahabharata took place. There are also references about both of them during the Ramayana time as well. Hence, both these people had lived for two Yugas together! So for today, let us understand up to this point, and in the next episode, we shall witness a few of these events in detail! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 