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The Maha-bharata describes him as " the lord of the arts, executor of a thousand handicrafts, the carpenter of the gods, the fashioner of all ornaments, the most eminent of artisans, who formed the celestial chariots of the deities, on whose craft men subsist, and whom, a great and immortal god, they continu- ally worship." In the RamayaTia, Yiswa-karma is represented as having built the city of Lanka for the Rakshasas, and as having generated the ape IsTala, who constructed Rama's bridge from the continent to Ceylon. The Purawas make Yiswa-karma the son of Prabhasa, the eighth Yasu, by his wife "the lovely and virtuous Yoga-siddha. " His daughter Sanjna was married to Surya, the sun ; but as she was unable to endure his effulgence, Yiswa karma placed the sun upon his lathe and cut away an eighth part of his brightness. The fragments fell to the earth, and from these Yiswa-karma formed " the discus of Yishwu, the trident of iSiva, the weapon of Kuvera the god of wealth, the lance of Karttikeya god of war, and the weapons of the other gods." Yiswa-karmil is also represented as having made the great image of Jagan- natha. In his creative capacity he is sometimes designated Prajapati. He also has the appellations Karu, ' workman ; ' Takshaka, * woodcutter ; ' Deva-vardhika, ' the builder of the gods ; ' Su- dhanwan, ' having a good bow.' YIaS'WAMITRA. a celebrated sage, who was born a Kslia- triya, but by intense austerities raised himself to tlie Brahman caste, and became one of the seven great R'lshis. According to the 7?/g-veda he was son of a king named Kusika, a descendant of Ku5a, but later authorities make him the son of Gilthin or Gadhi, king of Kanya-kubja, and a descendant of Puru ; so Yiswamitra is declared in the Hari-vansa to be " at once a Pau- rava and a Kausika" by lineage. According to some, Giidhi was of the Kusika race, descended from Kusika. Yiswamitra is called Gadhi-ja and Gadhi-nandana, ' son of Gadhi.' The story VISWAMITRA. 365 of Yiswiimitra's birth, as told in the Vishvzu Purawa, is that Gaclhi had a daughter named Satyavati, whom he gave in mar- riage to an old Brahman of the race of Bh?-igu named iti'chika. The wife being a Kshatriya, her husband was desirous that she might bear a son having the qualities of a Brahman, and he gave her a dish of food which he had prepared to effect this object. He also gave her mother a dish intended to make her conceive a son with the character *of a warrior. At the instigation of the mother the dishes were exchanged, so the mother gave birth to Viswamitra, the son of a Kshatriya with the qualities of a Brahman ; and Satyavati bore Jamad-agni, the father of Parasu- rama, the warrior Brahman and destroyer of the Kshatriyas. The most noteworthy and important feature in the legends of Viswamitra is the active and enduring struggle between him and the Brahman Rkhi Yasish^fha, a fact which is frequently alluded to in the J?ig-veda, and is supposed to typify the con- tentions between the Brahmans and the Kshatriyas for the superiority. Both these i?/sliis occupy a prominent position in the i?ig-veda, Yiswamitra being the itishi of the hymns in the third Mawfiala, which contains the celebrated verse Gayatri, and Vasish/ha of those of the seventh. Each of them was at differ- ent times the Purohita or family priest of King Su-das, a position of considerable importance and power, the possession of which stimulated if it did not cause their rivalry. The two sages cursed each other, and carried their enmity into deeds of vio- lence. Yiswamitra's hundred sons are represented as having been eaten or burnt up by the breath of Yasish/ha. On the other hand, the hundred sons of Yasish/ha were, according to one legend, eaten up by King Kalmasha-pada, into whom a man-eating Rakshasa had entered under the influence of Yiswa- mitra, or, according to another legend, they were reduced to ashes by Yiswamitra's curse " and reborn as degraded outcasts for seven hundred births." The Aitareya Brahma?ia states that Yiswamitra had a hundred sons, but that when he adopted his nephew AS'una/i-se^^has he proposed to make him the eldest of his sons. Fifty of them assented, and them Yiswamitra blessed that they should " aboimd in cattle and sons ; " the other and elder fifty dissented, and them he cursed "that their progeny should possess the furthest ends (of the country)," and from them have descended many of the border tribes and most of the 366 VISIVAMITRA. Dasyus. The Malia-bliarata has a legend of Yiswamitra having commanded the river Saraswati to bring his rival Yasish/ha that he might kill him, and of having turned it into blood when it flowed in another direction and carried Yasish/ha out of his reach. Yiswamitra's relationship to Jamad-agni naturally places him in a prominent position in the Ramaya/ia. Here the old animo- sity between him and Yasish/ha again appears. He as a king paid a visit to Yasish&a's hermitage, and was most hospitably entertained ; but he wished to obtain Yasish/ha's wondrous cow, the Kama-dhenu, which had furnished all the dainties of the feast. His offers were immense, but ^vere all dechned. The cow resisted and broke away when he attempted to take her by force, and when he battled for her, his armies were defeated by the hosts summoned up by the cow, and his "hundred sons were reduced to ashes in a moment by the blast of Yasish^ha's mouth." A long and fierce combat followed between Yasish/ha and Yiswamitra, in which the latter was defeated ; the Kshatriya had to submit to the humiliation of acknowledging his infe- riority to the Brahman, and he therefore resolved to work out his own elevation to the Brahmanical order. '\Miile he was engaged in austerities for accomplishing his object of becoming a Brahman he became connected with King Tri-5anku. This monarch was a descendant of King Ikshwaku, and desired to perform a sacrifice in virtue of which he might ascend bodily to heaven. His priest, Yasish/ha, declared it to be impossible, and that priest's hundred sons, on being applied to, refused to undertake what their father had declined. When the king told them that he would seek some other means of accomplishing his object, they condemned him to become a Cha7ic/ala. In this condition he had resort to Yiswamitra, and he, taking pity on him, raised him to heaven in his bodily form, notwithstanding the opposition of the sons of Yasish/ha. The Hari-vansa version of this story is difl'erent. Tri-sanku, also called Satya-vrata, had attempted the abduction of the young wife of a citizen. For this his father banished him, and con- demned him to " the performance of a silent penance for twelve years." During his exile there was a famine, and Tri-sanku succoured and supported the wife and family of Yiswamitra, who were reduced to the direst extremity in that sage's absence. V/S WAMITRA . 367 Yasish/lia, the family priest, had done nothing to assuage the wrath of the aggrieved father, and this offended Tri-sanku. At the end of his penance, being in want of meat, he killed Vasish- ftia's wonder-working cow and partook of her flesh; for this act Vasish/ha gave him the name of Tri-5anku, ' guilty of three sins.' Yiswiimitra was grateful for the assistance rendered by Tri-5anku, and gave him the choice of a boon. He begged that he might ascend bodily to heaven. Viswamitra then installed Tri-sanku in his father's kingdom, " and in spite of the resist- ance of the gods and of Yasish/ha he exalted the king alive to heaven." The Maha-bhiirata and the Ramayawa tell the story of Yiswa- mitra's amour with Menaka. His austerities had so alarmed the gods that Indra sent this Apsaras to seduce Yiswamitra " by the display of her charms and the exercise of all her allurements." She succeeded, and the result was the birth of >S'akuntala. Yiswamitra at length became ashamed of his passion, and " dis- missing the nymph with gentle accents, he retired to the northern mountains, where he practised severe austerities for a thousand years." He is said also to have had an amour with the nymph Rambha. The result of the struggle between Yasish/ha and Yiswamitra is thus told in the Ramaya?ia : — " Yasishi!ha, being propitiated by the gods, became reconciled to Yiswamitra, and recognised his claim to all the prerogatives of a Brahman i^ishi. . . . Yiswa- mitra, too, having attained the Brahmanical rank, paid all honour to Yasish/ha." The Ramaya?2a gives many particulars of Yiswamitra's con- nection with Rama.