PHILOSOPHY OF HINDUISM 57
his spiritual patron. Vishvamitra, greatly incensed, called out to him to stop: “Then by the power of his divine knowledge and austere fervour created, like another Prajapati, other Seven Rishis (a constellation so called) in the southern part of the sky. Having proceeded to this quarter of the heavens, the renowned sage, in the midst of the Rishis, formed another garland of stars, being overcome with fury. Exclaiming, ‘I will create another Indra, or the world shall have no Indra at all’, he began, in his rage, to call Gods also into being”. The Rishis, Gods, (Suras), and Asuras now became seriously alarmed and said to Vishvamitra, in a concilliatory tone, that Trisanku, “as he had been cursed by his preceptors, should not be admitted bodily into heaven, until he had undergone some lustration”. The sage replied that he had given a promise to Trisanku, and appealed to the Gods to permit his proteage to remain bodily in heaven, and the newly created stars to retain their places in perpetuity. The Gods agreed that “these numerous stars should remain, but beyond the Sun’s path, and that Trisanku, like an immortal, with his head downwards should shine among them, and be followed by them”, adding “that his object would be thus attained, and his renown secured, and he would be like a dweller in heaven”. Thus was this great dispute adjusted by a compromise, which Vishvamitra accepted. [1]
When all the Gods and rishis had departed at the conclusion of the sacrifice, Vishvamitra said to his attendant devotees; “This has been a great interruption (to our austerities) which has occurred in the southern region: we must proceed in another direction to continue our penances”. He accordingly went to a forest in the west, and began his austerities anew. Here the narrative is again interrupted by the introduction of another story, that of king Ambarisha, king of Ayodhya, who was, according to the Ramayana, the twenty eighth in descent from Ikshvaku, and the twenty second from Trisanku. Vishvamitra is nevertheless represented as flourishing contemporaneously with both of these princes. The story relates that Ambarisha was engaged in performing a sacrifice, when Indra carried away the victim. The priest said that this ill-omened event had occurred owing to the king’s bad administration; and would call for a great expiation, unless a human victim could be produced. After a long search the royal rishi (Ambarisha) came upon the Brahmin-rishi Richika, a descendant of Bhrigu, and asked him to sell one of his sons for a victim, at the price of a hundred thousand cows. Richika answered that he would not sell his eldest son; and his wife added that
1 This is the story of Trisanku. It will have been observed, it differs materially from the one quoted above from Harivansa; but brings out more distinctly the character of the conflict between Vashishtha and Vishvamitra.