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वामदेवचरित (vAmadevacarita)

 
Mahabharata
English
[Vāmadeva-carita(ṃ)]
(“the history of Vāmadeva”). § 461 (Mārkaṇḍeyas.). As Yudhishṭhira wished to hear about the greatness of brahmans, Mārkaṇḍeya related: King Parikshit (B. Parīkshit), in Ayodhyā, of the race of Ikshvāku, was, in the forest, led far away by a deer, and by a tank met with a beautiful maiden, who came along singing. He married her after having given her the pledge not to let her see water, and having arrived at his capital he lived with her in privacy, and nobody could obtain any interview with him. His chief minister, having found out the matter, made an artificial forest, with a tank covered with a net of pearls, and showed it to the king. The king told his wife to plunge into this tank. She did so, and did not reappear. When the water had been baled out a frog was found. The king ordered all frogs to be slaughtered. Āyu, the king of the frogs, in the shape of an ascetic (quoting two ślokas: “Do not wish to kill the frogs, etc.”), told him that the queen was his daughter Suśobhanā, who had deceived many kings. She was restored to the king, but Āyu cursed her, saying: “Thy offspring shall prove disrespectful to brahmans.” Parikshit begot three sons on her: Śala, Dala, and Bala. Having installed Śala on the throne, Parikshit retired to the wood. One day, Śala, as he could not overtake a deer, forced his charioteer to indicate to him, to whom the Vāmya horses belonged. He borrowed them from the ṛshi Vāmadeva and caught the deer, but did not return them. After a month, Vāmadeva in vain sent his disciple Ātreya, and then came himself, and asked for the steeds. The king, saying that such horses were not fit for brahmans, in vain offered to give him two bulls, then four asses or four mules, and as he threatened to let him be killed, Vāmadeva, saying that brahmans could not be punished, let four Rākshasas slay him with their lances. Dala, whom the Ikshvākus installed on the throne, attempted to shoot Vāmadeva with a poisoned arrow, but shot his own son Śyenajit, and was unable to discharge another poisoned arrow. Then he gave way, and, advised by Vāmadeva, he touched his queen with the arrow and was thus purified of his sin. The queen obtained the boon from Vāmadeva, that she might prevail upon her husband that they both should serve the brahmans, and he be freed from his sin, and that Vāmadeva should think of their weal. The king became glad and restored the Vāmya horses (III, 192).