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ऋक्षरजस् (RkSarajas)

 
Shabdartha Kaustubha
Kannada
ऋक्षरजस्
पदविभागः - > पुल्लिङ्गः
कन्नडार्थः - > ವಾನರವಂಶದ ಒಬ್ಬ ಮೂಲಪುರುಷ
पुराणम्
English
ऋक्षरजस् / ṚKṢARAJAS. A monkey who was the foster-father of bāli and sugrīva. He was the king of kiṣkindhā. He had no issue for a long time. bāli and sugrīva were brought up by ahalyā at Gautama's āśrama. Ṛksarajas, with the permission of indra, went to the āśrama and took bāli and sugrīva with him to kiṣkindhā. From that time, bāli and sugrīva remained with him as his foster-sons. (uttara rāmāyaṇa).
There is a story in vālmīki rāmāyaṇa, Prakṣipta sarga, about the origin of this monkey.
Once when brahmā was in a state of meditation on the Meru mountain, tears rolled down from his eyes and he gathered the tears in his own hands. From those tears, a monkey came into being. ṛkṣarajas was that monkey.
One day, ṛkṣarajas went to a lake to quench his thirst. Seeing his own image reflected in the water, he thought it was some enemy and jumped into the lake, to attack him. But he soon realized his mistake and returned to the shore. As soon as he came out of the water, he felt that he had become a woman. Seeing her fascinating beauty, indra and sūrya were filled with lustful passion. Both of them had involuntary emission of semen. bāli was born from Indra's semen which fell on the head and sugrīva was born from Sūrya's semen which fell on the neck of ṛkṣarajas. Towards the end of the night, ṛkṣarajas lost his female form and regained his former shape as a male. At once he took the two children with him to brahmā and told him the whole story. brahmā sent a messenger with ṛkṣarajas and had him anointed king of kiṣkindhā. After the time of ṛkṣarajas, bāli became king of kiṣkindhā.