Unheard storie sof vikushi, dhundu in rama's lineage
K.N.RAMESH
Story of king Ikshvaku and his son Vikushi- Sri Rama’s ancestors.
When Vaivasvata Manu (First son of Sun god with samjana) died, his nine sons divided up the earth amongst themselves. Ikshvaku ruled in the central regions. He had a hundred sons, the eldest of whom was named Vikukshi.
Once king Ikshvaku wanted to organize a sacrifice. He sent his son Vikukshi to the forest to fetch some meat for the sacrifice. While hunting for animal, Vikushi felt very hungry and ate up some of the meat of a rabbit he already hunted.
This was a sacrilege and the sage Vashishtha kula guru of King Ikshvaku advised him to banish Vikukshi from his kingdom.
Because the meat that he had eaten had been the meat of a rabbit (shashaka), Vikukshi came to be known as Shashada.
But after Ikshvaku died, Vikukshi returned to his father’s kingdom and began to rule there. This was the kingdom of Ayodhya. One of Vikukshi’s sons was Kakutstha, and Rama of Ramayana fame was born in this line.
92. Story of Kubalashva
Let us be not confused. Sun God’s son was Ikshvaku. His son was Vikushi. Vikushi’s son was Kakustha. In this lineage there was a famous king Vrihadashva. For him a son was born and named Kubalashva.
After Vrihadashva had ruled for many years, he desired to retire to the forest. He therefore prepared to hand over the kingdom to his son Kubalashva.
92.1 Sage Uthaka stopping king Vrihadashva going to forest
But learning of King Vrihadashva’s resolve, a sage named Utanka came to meet the king.
Don’t go to the forest right now, Utanka told the king. My hermitage (ashrama) is on the shores of the ocean and is surrounded by sand in all directions. A strong rakshasa named Dhundhu lives under the sand. He is so strong that even the gods have been unable to kill him. Once every year, Dhundhu exhales his breath and this raises a tremendous cloud of sand and dust.
For an entire week the sun remains shrouded in dust and for the whole week, there are earthquakes as a result of Dhundhu’s exhalation. I desire you do something about Dhundhu. I have accumulated a lot of power as a result of my THAPASYA and I will give this to you if you kill Dhundhu.
Vrihadashva told Utanka that there was no need for Vrihadashva himself to kill Dhundhu. He would go to the forest as he had decided. HIS SON KUBALASHVA WAS PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF KILLING DHUNDHU AND WOULD ACCOMPANY UTANKA.
Kubalashva and his hundred sons went to the shores of the ocean .Kubalashva asked his sons to start digging SANDS OF THE SHORE so that they might find Dhundhu.
Dhundhu attacked Kubalashva’s sons and killed all of them but three. The three who escaped were named Dridashva, Chandrashva and Kapilashva.
But Dhundhu himself was killed by Kubalashva. As a result of this great feat, Kubabashva came to be known as Dhundhumara. The sage Utanaka blessed Kubalashva and by the sage’s blessings, Kubalashva’s dead sons went straight to heaven. (This Dhundu story is new to me also)
93. Thrisanku- How he got the name so?
We all know about king Trisankhu and sage Visvamithra created a heaven for him called Trisanku swargam. Friends, all the while I was thinking being in the middle with actual heaven it was called Trisanku swargam.
But after reading it I correct myself. A swargaam created for a person with three dosham- Thri sankhu (dosham). Let us go to the story.
93.1. Linage of king Trisanku
We have seen one of the sons of king Kubalashva not killed by demon Dhundu was Dridashva in the previous paragraph.
From Dridashva was descended a king named Trayaruni. Trayaruni was a righteous king and followed all the religious dictates.
But Trayaruni’s son though named Satyavrata was quite the opposite and refused to follow the righteous path. King Trayaruni’s chief priest was the great sage Vashishtha. ( Vasistha is the Kulaguru of sage Srirama also. They are all chirangivies)
Vashishtha advised the king that his evil son should be banished from the kingdom. Trayaruni accepted the sage’s advice. Consequently, Satyara started to live with outcasts outside the kingdom.
After some time, Trayaruni relinquished his kingship and went away to the forest. The kingdom had no king and degenerated into anarchy. The absence of a king is also frowned upon by the gods and for twelve years there was a terrible drought.
93.2 Appearance of sage Viswamithra
Vishvamitra the great sage doesn’t require any introduction and all of us know his rivalry with sage Vasistha.
While the famine was going on, Vishvamitra was not present in the kingdom. He had gone away to perform tapasya on the shores of the ocean, having left his wife and children in a hermitage (ashrama) that was in the kingdom.
There was such a long spell of drought, which caused famine in the kingdom. People started to starve.
Vishvamitra’s wife decided to sell her son so that she might have some foods to eat. She tied a rope round the son’s neck and took him to the market - place. There, she sold him in exchange for a thousand cows. Since a rope had been tied around the son’s neck(gala), he came to be known as Galava.
( NOW WE GET THE NAME OF SON BORN TO SAGE VISWAMITHRA ON HIS WIFE - GALAVA. SO SHAKUNTHALA HAS A BROTHER – FIRST COUSIN- GALAVA. SO DUSHYANTA’S BROTHER IN LAW IS GALAVA).
But Satyavrata discovered what terrible straits Vishvamitra’s family was in. He freed Galava and started to take care of Vishvamitra’s wife and children.
Satyavrata had not been terribly fond of Vashishta. He blamed the sage for his banishment. When there was famine everywhere,
Satyavarata stole Vashishtha’s cow. He killed the cow and served the meat to Vishvamitra’s sons, apart from eating it himself.
Vashishtha was in a terrible rage when he got to know about this incident. He cursed Satyavrata.
You have COMMITTED THREE SINS (SHANKU), Vashishtha told Satyavarata. Firstly, you have angered your father Trayaruni.. Secondly, you have stolen and killed my cow. Thirdly, you have eaten cow’s meat , a forbidden one . Because of these three sins, you will henceforth be known as Trishanku and be eternally cursed. (The word tri means three.)
Satyavrata had however taken care of Vishvamitra’s family when the sage was away on his meditation. After Vishvamitra returned, he was very happy to learn about what Trishanku had done and offered to grant him a boon.
93.3 Sage Viswamihra get pleased with king Satyavrata(Trishanku)
Trishanku desired the boon that he might be allowed to go to heaven in his own physical body. Thanks to Vishvamitra’s immense powers, even this virtually impossible task was accomplished. Trishanku became king in Trayaruni’s kingdom and Vishvamitra acted as his chief priest.
WHAT I NEWLY LEARNT- The original name of Trishanku was king Satyavrata and on account of a curse by sage Vasistha, he was later came to be known as TIRSHANU.