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शार्ङ्गकोपाख्यन (zArGgakopAkhyana)

 
Mahabharata
English
Śārṅgakopākhyana(ṃ) (“episode relating to the śārṅgaka birds”). § 259 (Khāṇḍavad.): Janamejaya said: “Why did the śārṅgakas escape?” Vaiśampāyana said: When the maharshi Mandapāla, who was an ūrdhvaretas, had finished his tapas, he left his body and went to Pitṛloka, but did not obtain the expected result of his acts, and learned from the gods sitting around Dharmarāja that it was because he had no offspring. He then reflected how he could obtain numerous offspring in the shortest time possible
he learnt that the birds were peculiarly prolific, and, becoming a śārṅgika, he married the śārṅgikā Jaritā, and begat upon her four sons, who were all reciters of the Vedas. Then he left her and married Lapitā. When Agni came to the forest of Khāṇḍava to burn it down, Mandapāla praised Agni (vv. 8353--8360) and prevailed upon him to spare his children (I, 229). Jaritā told her sons (Jaritāri, Sārisṛkva, Stambamitra, and Droṇa), who would have her to rescue herself by abandoning them, to conceal themselves in the hole of a mouse
but they were afraid of the mouse (I, 230). Finally Jaritā was prevailed upon by her sons to abandon them, and Agni approached the spot where the sons were (I, 231). The four young ṛshis praised Agni, who promised them safety and granted them a boon. Droṇa asked him to consume the cats that troubled them every day (I, 232). Mean while Mandapāla addressed Lapitā, being anxious about his children. Lapitā, from jealousy, told him to go to Jaritā, who, she said, was the real cause of his anxiety. When Agni had spared the children, Jaritā came and embraced them. When Mandapāla came they did not speak to him, and Jaritā, from jealousy, told him to go to Lapitā. Mandapāla declared that nothing was so destructive to the happiness of women as a concubine, except a lover
witness Arundhatī (b). Then all his children came forward to worship him, and he also spoke kindly to them all (I, 233). Mandapāla told that he had asked Agni to protect them, and therefore he had not come earlier. Then he took his wives and sons with him and went away to some other country (I, 234).