ORIENTAL SERIES.

74
CHYA VANA.
They departed and succeeded in getting admitted to join the
other gods.
According to the Maha-bharata, Chyavana besought Indra to
allow the Aswins to partake of the libations of soma. Indra
replied that the other gods might do as they pleased, but he
would not consent. Chyavana then commenced a sacrifice to
the Aswins ;
the other gods were subdued, but Indra, in a rage,
rushed with a mountain in one hand and his thunderbolt in
another to crush Chyavana. The sage having sprinkled him
with water and stopped him, " created a fearful open-mouthed
monster called Mada, having teeth and grinders of portentous
length, and jaws one of which enclosed the earth, the other the
sky; and the gods, including Indra, are said to have been at the
root of his tongue like fishes in the mouth of a sea monster."
In this predicament
"
Indra granted the demand of Chyavana,
who was thus the cause of the Aswins becoming drinkers of the
soma."
In another part of the Maha-bharata he is represented as
exacting many menial offices from King Kusika and his wife,
but he afterwards rewarded them by " creating a magical golden
palace," and predicted the birth of " a grandson of great beauty
and heroism (Parasu-rama)."
The Maha-bharata, interpreting his name as signifying 'the
fallen/ accounts for it by a legend which represents his mother,
the demon
Puloma, wife of Bhrigu, as having been carried off by
Puloman. She was pregnant, and in her fright the child fell
from her womb. The demon was softened, and let the mother
depart with her infant.
The version of the story as told in the Maha-bharata and
Pura^as is that Chyavana was so absorbed in penance on the
banks of the Narmada that white ants constructed their nests
round his body and left only his eyes visible. Su-kanya, daughter
of King Saryata, seeing two bright eyes in what seemed to be
an anthill, poked them with a stick The sage visited the
offence on Saryata, and was appeased only by the promise of the
king to give him Su-kanya in marriage. Subsequently the
Aswins, coming to his hermitage, compassionated her union with
so old and ugly a husband as Chyavana, and tried to induce her
to take one of them in his place. When, their persuasions failed,
they told her they were the physicians of the gods, and would