A Cry in the Forest

A hunt, a cry, and a single moment's mistake — which broke a sage's penance, and asked a king for his entire kingdom

A kingdom like this

Harishchandra was a rajarshi of the Treta age, king of Ayodhya. The text says that in his kingdom there was no famine, no sickness spread, and no one died before their time. The people were devoted to dharma, and the king was known for his truthfulness.

His wife was Shaivya, and his son Rohitashva — still a child. This is different from the grown Rohita of the Aitareya Brahmana, who fled to the forest; the two share only a name.

The cry

One day, chasing a deer, the king went deep into the forest. Just then he heard women crying out — as if someone were calling for help. That cry had to do with the penance Vishvamitra was performing nearby.

The king ran toward it. He called out: who in my kingdom dares to torment anyone? And in that very moment Vighnaraja — a fierce lord of obstacles — entered the king's body.

Under Vighnaraja's influence Harishchandra poured his anger out on Vishvamitra. The ascetic's penance was shattered, and he rose, trembling with rage.

At his feet

When the king came to his senses, he found before him a sage whose years of practice had been scattered. Harishchandra trembled. He caught hold of Vishvamitra's feet and begged, saying it had been a mistake; whatever you ask, I will give.

Vishvamitra asked for the kingdom, the treasury, the army, the whole earth — everything, except his wife, his son and his own dharma.

The king answered without hesitation: it is given.

The Devi Bhagavata's beginning

The Devi Bhagavata tells this same beginning differently. There, Harishchandra meets a weeping woman, who gives her own name as Siddharupini and says that Vishvamitra is performing fierce austerities to attain her. The king tells the sage that no such terrible penance should be performed in his kingdom, one that causes his people suffering.

Vishvamitra flares up. Remembering his old rivalry with Vasishtha, he resolves on revenge, and conjures a huge boar and sends it to lay waste to Harishchandra's forests. Later, at the bank of a sacred ford, he stages an illusory wedding for a young brahmin, and demands the whole kingdom from the king as the priestly fee.

Both texts arrive at the same place: a king who has already given away his kingdom, standing before an ascetic.

Note: This episode is in the Markandeya Purana (chapter 7) and the Devi Bhagavata (7.18–19), and the two tell it differently. In the Markandeya, the king runs toward women's cries during a hunt, and a fierce obstacle named "Vighnaraja" enters him, so that he pours his anger out on Vishvamitra. In the Devi Bhagavata, a weeping woman gives her own name as Siddharupini ("the form of success") and says Vishvamitra is performing penance to obtain her; the king objects to the penance, the sage retaliates by conjuring a huge boar, and later demands the kingdom on the pretext of an illusory wedding. This site has kept both versions and has not called either one "correct" over the other. Vighnaraja is named only this once in the text; nothing further has been added about him here. The English lines are a natural retelling of the Sanskrit, not a word-for-word translation.

Source: from the Aitareya Brahmana, the Markandeya Purana and the Devi Bhagavata, A Cry in the Forest