


vp.2.10 [paragraph continues] Arishtanemi, Karkotaka, and Sphurja are the seven who abide in the orb of the sun, the glorious spirits who scatter light throughout the universe. In the month of Magha the seven who are in the sun are Twashtri, Jamadagni, Dhritarashtra, Tilottama, Ritajit, Kambala, and Brahmapeta. Those who abide in the sun in the month Phalguna are Vishnu, Visvamitra, Suryaverchchas, Rambha, Satyajit, Aswatara, and Yajnapeta.
vp.4.7 Jamadagni" (the son of Richika 15) was a pious sage, who by the fervour of his devotions, whilst engaged in holy study, obtained entire possession of the Vedas. Having gone to king Prasenajit, he demanded in marriage his daughter Renuka, and the king gave her unto him. The descendant of Bhrigu conducted the princess to his hermitage, and dwelt with her there, and she was contented to partake in his ascetic life. They had four sons, and then a fifth, who was Jamadagnya, the last but not the least of the brethren, Once when her sons were all absent, to gather the fruits on which they fed, Renuka, who was exact in the discharge of all her duties, went forth to bathe. On her way to the stream she beheld Chitraratha, the prince of Mrittikavati, with a garland of lotuses on his neck, sporting with his queen in the water, and she felt envious of their felicity. Defiled by unworthy thoughts, wetted but not purified by the stream, she returned disquieted to the hermitage, and her husband perceived her agitation. Beholding her fallen from perfection, and shorn of the lustre of her sanctity, Jamadagni reproved her, and was exceeding wroth. Upon this there came her sons from the wood, first the eldest, Rumanwat, then Sushena, then Vasu, and then Viswavasu; and each, as he entered, was successively commanded by his father to put his mother to death; but amazed, and influenced by natural affection, neither of them made any reply: therefore Jamadagni was angry, and cursed them, and they
vp.4.7 understanding, and were like unto beasts or birds. Lastly, Rama returned to the hermitage, when the mighty and holy Jamadagni said unto him, Kill thy mother, who has sinned; and do it, son, without repining. Rama accordingly took up his axe, and struck off his mother s head; whereupon the wrath of the illustrious and mighty Jamadagni was assuaged, and he was pleased with his son, and said, Since thou hast obeyed my commands, and done what was hard to be performed, demand from me whatever blessings thou wilt, and thy desires shall be all fulfilled. Then Rama begged of his father these boons; the restoration of his mother to life, with forgetfulness of her having been slain, and purification from all defilement; the return of his brothers to their natural condition; and, for himself, invincibility in single combat, and length of days: and all these did his father bestow.
vp.4.7 "It happened on one occasion, that, during the absence of the Rishi s sons, the mighty monarch Karttavirya, the sovereign of the Haihaya tribe, endowed by the favour of Dattatreya with a thousand arms, and a golden chariot that went wheresoever he willed it to go, came to the hermitage 16 of Jamadagni, where the wife of the sage received him with all proper respect. The king, inflated with the pride of valour, made no return to her hospitality, but carried off with him by violence the calf of the milch cow of the sacred oblation 17, and cast down the tall trees surrounding the hermitage. When Rama returned, his father told him what had chanced, and he saw the cow in affliction, and he was filled with wrath. Taking up his splendid bow 18, Bhargava, the slayer of hostile heroes, assailed Karttavirya, who had now become subject to
vp.4.7 the power of death, and overthrew him in battle. With sharp arrows Rama cut off his thousand arms, and the king perished. The sons of Karttavirya, to revenge his death, attacked the hermitage of Jamadagni, when Rama was away, and slew the pious and unresisting sage, who called repeatedly, but fruitlessly, upon his valiant son. They then departed; and when Rama returned, bearing fuel from the thickets, he found his father lifeless, and thus bewailed his unmerited fate: Father, in resentment of my actions have you been murdered by wretches as foolish as they are base! by the sons of Karttavirya are you struck down, as a deer in the forest by the huntsman s shafts! Ill have you deserved such a death; you who have ever trodden the path of virtue, and never offered wrong to any created thing! How great is the crime that they have committed, in slaying with their deadly shafts an old man like you, wholly occupied with pious cares, and engaging not in strife! Much have they to boast of to their fellows and their friends, that they have shamelessly slain a solitary hermit, incapable of contending in arms! Thus lamenting, bitterly and repeatedly, Rama performed his father s last obsequies, and lighted his funeral pile. He then made a vow that he would extirpate the whole Kshatriya race. In fulfilment of this purpose he took up his arms, and with remorseless and fatal rage singly destroyed in fight the sons of Karttavirya; and after them, whatever Kshatriyas he encountered, Rama,

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