“The Gandharva continued, ‘O Paartha (Arjuna), then Adrishyanti, who had been residing in (Rishi) Vasishtha’s ashrama, brought forth (when
the time came) a son who was the preserver
of (Rishi) Shakti’s race and who was
a second Shakti in everything. O foremost of Bharatas (Arjuna), that best of Munis, the illustrious
Vasishtha himself performed the usual after-birth ceremonies of his grandson. Because
the Rishi Vasishtha had resolved on self-destruction (suicide) but had abstained from that as soon as he
knew of the existence of that child, that child, when born, was called Paraashara
(the life giver of the dead).
“The virtuous Paraashara, from the day of his birth, knew (Rishi) Vasishtha for his father and behaved
towards the Muni as such. O son of Kunti (Arjuna), one day the child (Paraashara)
addressed (Rishi) Vasishtha, that
first of Brahmana sages, as father, in the presence of his mother Adrishyanti.
Adrishyanti, hearing the very intelligible sound father sweetly uttered by her
son, addressed him with tearful eyes and said, ‘O child (Paraashara), do not address this your grandfather as
father? O son, your father has been devoured by a Rakshasa in a different
forest. O innocent one, he is not your father whom you regard so. The respected
one is the father of that celebrated father of yours.’
“Thus addressed by his mother, that best of Rishis of truthful speech (Paraashara), gave way to sorrow, but soon fired up and
resolved to destroy the whole world. Then that respected and great Rishi
Vasishtha, that foremost of all persons knowledgeable with Brahma, that son of
Mitra-Varuna, that Rishi (Vasishtha)
familiar with positive truth, addressed his grandson (Paraashara) who had set his heart upon the destruction
of the world. Hear, O Arjuna, the arguments by
which (Rishi) Vasishtha succeeded in driving out that resolution from his grandson’s
mind.’
“The Gandharva continued, ‘Then (Rishi) Vasishtha said, ‘There was a celebrated king of the name of Kritaveerya.
That bull among the kings of the earth was the disciple of the Veda-knowing
Bhrigus (Bhrigus is likely to indicate Rishis belonging to the race of
Maharishi Bhrigu). O child (Paraashara), that king (Kritaveerya) after performing the Soma sacrifice (Soma
Sacrifice in this place is referred as Somanta Tarpayaamaasa in Sanskrit), pleased the Brahmanas with great presents
of grains and wealth.
“After that monarch (Kritaveerya) had ascended to heaven, an occasion came when his descendants were in
want of wealth. Knowing that the Bhrigus were rich, those princes went to those
best of Brahmanas, in the guise of beggars. Some among the Bhrigus, to protect
their wealth, buried it under earth; and some from fear of the Kshatriyas,
began to give away their wealth to (other) Brahmanas; while some among them duly gave to the Kshatriyas whatever
they wanted.
“It happened, however, that some Kshatriyas, in digging as they pleased
at the house of particular Bhaargava (Bhaargava is a term used to those
descendants of the race of Maharishi Bhrigu), came upon a large treasure. The treasure was seen by all those bulls
among Kshatriyas who had been there. Enraged at what they regarded as the
deceitful behaviour of the Bhrigus, the Kshatriyas insulted the Brahmanas,
though the latter asked for mercy. Those mighty bowmen began to slaughter the
Bhrigus with their sharp arrows. The Kshatriyas wandered over the earth,
slaughtering even the embryos that were in the wombs of the women of the Bhrigu
race. While the Bhrigu race was thus being exterminated, the women of that race
fled from fear to the inaccessible mountains of Himavat (present-day
Himalayas).
“One among these women, of narrow thighs, desiring to preserve her
husband’s race, held in one of her thighs an embryo endued with great energy. A
certain Brahmana woman, however, who came to know this fact, went from fear to
the Kshatriyas and reported the matter to them. The Kshatriyas then went to
destroy that embryo. Arrived at the place, they saw the would-be mother blazing
with inborn energy, and the child that was in her thigh came out tearing up the
thigh and blinding the eyes of those Kshatriyas like the midday sun. Thus
deprived of their eyes, the Kshatriyas began to roam over those inaccessible
mountains. Distressed at the loss of sight, the princes were pained with sorrow,
and desirous of regaining the use of their eyes they resolved to seek the
protection of that faultless woman. Then those Kshatriyas, pained with sorrow,
and from loss of eye sight like to a fire that has gone out, addressed with
anxious hearts that illustrious lady, saying, ‘By your grace. O lady, we wish
to be restored to eye sight. We shall then return to our homes all together and
stop forever from our sinful practice. O beautiful one, it is your duty with your
child to show us mercy. It is your responsibility to favour these kings by granting
them their eye-sight.’”
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