ORIENTAL SERIES.

VASISHTHA. 341
strongly in the Bamayana. Viswamitra ruled the earth for
many thousand years as king, hut he coveted the wondrous cow
of plenty which he had seen at Yasishtfha's hermitage, and
attempted to take her away "by force. A great battle followed
between the hosts of King Viswamitra and the warriors produced
by the cow to support her master. A hundred of Viswa-
mitra's sons were reduced to ashes by the blast of Vasishftia's
mouth, and Viswamitra being utterly defeated, he abdicated and
retired to the Himalaya. The two met again after an interval
and fought in single combat. Viswamitra was again worsted by
the Brahmanical power, and " resolved to work out his own ele-
vation to the Brahmanical order," so as to be upon an equality
with his rival He accomplished his object and became a priest,
and Vasishtfha suffered from his power. The hundred sons of
Vasishflia denounced Viswamitra for presuming, though a
Kshatriya, to act as a priest. This so incensed Viswamitra that
he " by a curse doomed the sons of Vasishflia to be reduced to
ashes and reborn as degraded outcasts for seven hundred births."
Eventually, " Vasish&a, being propitiated by the gods, became
reconciled to Viswamitra, and recognised his claim to all the
prerogatives of a Brahman J2ishi, and Viswamitra paid all honour
to Vasishtfha.
A legend in the Vishrcu Puriiwa represents Vasishflia as being
requested by Nimi, a son of Ikshwaku, to officiate at a sacrifice
which was to last for a thousand years. The sage pleaded a
prior engagement to Indra for five hundred years, but offered to
come at the end of that period. The king made no remark,
and Vasishtfha, taking silence as assent, returned as he had
proposed. He then found that Mmi had engaged the Jfe'shi
Gautama to perform the sacrifice, and this so angered him that
he cursed the king to lose his corporeal form. Mmi retorted
the curse, and in consequence " the vigour of Vasishtfha entered
into the vigour of Mitra and Varuwa. Vasishflia, however,
received from them another body when their seed had fallen
from them at the sight of UrvasI"
In the Markan^eya Pura7&a he appears as the family priest of
Haris-chandra. He was so Incensed at the treatment shown to
that monarch by Viswamitra, that he cursed that sage
to be
transformed into a crane. His adversary retorted by dooming
him to "become another bird, and in the forms of two monstrous