Rshyashrnga (ऋष्यशृङ्गः)

Role of Rsyasrnga in Ramayana and Mahabharata

As Kausalya was childless Dasaratha brought as his wife Kaikeyi the daughter of the King of Kekaya and sister of Yudhajit. Still no children were born to them. He was much disappointed. At last he married again and brought Sumitra the princess of Kali. Of these three, Kausalya was the chief wife. Though he had three wives, Dasaratha still remained childless. The King and his queens spent their days in sorrow for a long time. The King remembered the curse he had incurred when he was young. The curse was that as they had died with sorrow at the death of their son Sravana, the same thing would happen to me. So he believed that sons would be born to him. He performed several devotional acts to get children. Finally he gave up all kingly pleasures and began to lead an ascetic life. He built a temple for his own use and consecrated the idol of Mahavisnu in it. Then entrusting the administration of the Kingdom to his ministers he and his wives engaged themselves in daily devotion and meditation in the temple. Then the King decided to perform the sacrifice of Putrakamesti (sacrifice for getting children) by the hermit Rsyasrnga under the guidance of Vasistha. The King informed Rsyasrnga of his decision. Rsyasrnga could not refuse the King's request as the king was his father-in-law. Moreover Lomapada and Santa also requested the hermit to comply with the desire of Dasaratha. So Rsyasrnga came to Ayodhya and the sacrifice of Putrakamesti was begun. The air vibrated with the recitation of mantras (spells and incantations) and the Veda Suktas. The hermit uttered the divine spell of Putrakamesti and offered oblations in the sacrificial fire. Then a wonderful and luminous figure came out of the fire with a pot containing a pudding of ambrosia, and placed the pot before Rsyasrnga and then disappeared in the sacrificial fire. When the wonderful figure disappeared, Rsyasrnga took the pot of pudding and gave it to Dasaratha with prayer and incantations. Dasaratha received the golden pot and in accordance with the instruction of the hermit, divided the pudding between his first wife Kausalya and second wife Kaikeyi, both of whom gave half of their share to Sumitra. Thus the three wives ate the divine pudding and by and by all of them became pregnant. Kausalya and Kaikeyi gave birth to a son each and Sumitra gave birth to two sons. The son of Kausalya was called Rama, the son of Kaikeyi was named Bharata and the sons of Sumitra were called Laksmana and Satrughna. (Kampa Ramayana, Bala Kanda). (Page 204-205, Puranic Encyclopedia - Vettam Maṇi)

Once sage Vibhandaka happened to see Urvasi at Mahahrada. At the very sight of her, the sage had an involuntary emission of semen. The semen fell in the water and just then a female deer came there to drink water. It swallowed the semen with water and in due course became pregnant and gave birth to a human child. But the child had the horns of a deer. Consequently Vibhandaka named the boy "Rsyasrnga". Vibhandaka and Rsyasrnga lived together in the aSrama. Rsyasrnga grew up into a youth, but he had never seen anyone except his father Vibhandaka. At that time, the kingdom of Anga was ruled by Lomapada, a friend of Dasaratha. Once he cheated a Brahmana. Consequently all the Brahmanas in that country left the place and emigrated to other lands. From that time there was no rain in the land of Anga. A severe drought and famine followed. Lomapada invited devout Brahmanas and consulted them how they could bring rain to the land. They told him that if he could get a Muni (sage) who had never seen women to perform a yaga, there would be rainfall in the land. The King sent his men far and wide to find a Muni who had never set eyes on a woman At last he got news that Rsyasrnga, son of Vibhandaka was the sage who had never seen women. He then began to plan how Rsyasrnga could be brought over to Anga. Lomapada called together some prostitutes and asked them whether they could bring Rsyasrnga to his country. All except one of them said it was quite impossible. One of them, however, agreed to try. As desired by her, the King sent her with several other damsels. The young women went to the forest and made a floating asrama in a boat in which they sailed in the river by the side of Vibhandaka's asrama. They stopped the boat close to the asrama and one of the girls entered the asrama when Vibhandaka was not there. She had a talk with Rsyasrnga in the course of which she used all the amorous enchantments of her sex to captivate the young Muni. She told him that she was the daughter of a Muni, living in an asrama, three yojanas away. Rsyasrnga felt a peculiar fascination for her and tried to please her by offering fruits etc. When she left him, he felt deeply distressed and unhappy. He was in that depressed and gloomy state of mind when Vibhandaka returned to the asrama. Finding him unusually restless and dejected, the father asked him whether anyone had come there. Rsyasrnga who was an entire stranger to the feminine world told his father that a handsome youth of irresistible charm had visited him during Vibhandaka's absence. But from Rsyasrnga's description of the "youth" Vibhandaka understood that the visitor must have been a woman. But he could not guess who it was. On another occasion, the same woman came again to the asrama in the absence of Vibhandaka. At her sight Rsyasrnga was enraptured and before his father's return, they left the asrama. They entered the floating asrama in the boat and the woman set the boat sailing in the river. It glided slowly down the river and at last reached near the palace of Lomapada. They landed there and the King married his daughter Santa to Rsyasrnga.

King Dasaratha of Ayodhya had no children for a long time. His Minister Sumantra advised him to invite Rsyasrnga to perform a yaga for the purpose. Lomapada sent Rsyasrnga to Ayodhya at the invitation of Dasaratha. He arrived at Ayodhya and performed a yaga called Putrakamesti. From the sacrificial fire there arose a dark monstrous figure, with a pot of pudding in his hand. Dasaratha received it from him and gave one half of it to Kausalya and the other half to Kaikeyi. Both of them gave half of their shares to Sumitra. Thus Sumitra got two shares while the other two wives of Dasaratha got only one share each. As a result Kausalya and Kaikeyi gave birth to a son each, while Sumitra had two sons. Kausalya's son was named Rama, Kaikeyi's son was Bharata and Sumitra's sons were Laksmana and Satrughna. (Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda, Chapters 14-16). (Page 652-653, Puranic Encyclopedia - Vettam Maṇi)

Once there was no rain in the country of Lomapada. It was due to a curse from the brahmins and to remove the curse Lomapada brought Rsyagrnga to his country. Santa, daughter of Dasaratha was living with Lomapada as his adopted daughter at that time. Lomapada gave her in marriage to Rsyasrnga and made him live in his country. The country got rains from that time onwards. Lomapada constructed a new hermitage for Rsyasrnga. (Sloka 9, Chapter 113, Vana Parva). (Page 457, Puranic Encyclopedia - Vettam Maṇi)

Sumantra was the right-hand-man of Dasaratha in all his activities. It was Sumantra who brought down to the palace sage Rsyasrnga for the yajna conducted by the king to have issues. According to chapter 12, Virata Parva of Mahabharata (Southern Text) Sumantra was Dasaratha's charioteer as well. (Page 763, Puranic Encyclopedia - Vettam Maṇi)