Jantu and Somaka

King Somaka had a hundred wives but only one son, a boy named Jantu. This episode is told in the Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata. Lomaśa tells it to Yudhishṭhira. It is about a king who gave his only son to the sacrificial fire for more sons, and what came of it in the next world.

Somaka’s only son

Somaka ruled his kingdom with righteousness, but he had a deep grief. Though he had a hundred wives, he had only one son, Jantu. One son, however dear, did not seem enough to keep the family line safe through the long course of time. Somaka longed for many sons, for the strength of his line and the good of his kingdom.

The sacrifice of Jantu

Somaka asked his purohita (family priest). The purohita told him of a powerful but terrible rite. If Jantu were offered into the fire, a hundred sons would be born. Each of them would carry the same birth-mark that Jantu had on his body.

After deep anguish, Somaka agreed. Jantu, his beloved only son, was brought to the yajña and offered into the fire. The rite was completed.

The wives heard what had happened. They ran to the place of the yajña in grief and gathered round the flames. The smell of the burning rose in the air, and the women wailed. The rite still had its effect. Somaka’s wives smelled the smoke and all became pregnant. In time a hundred sons were born, and each had on his body the same mark that Jantu had carried.

The purohita’s torment

Somaka lived with his hundred sons and found the joy he had wanted. When he died and came to Yama’s realm, he saw something that troubled him. His purohita, who had performed the yajña, was suffering terrible punishment in a world of pain. Yama’s servants were making the purohita bear the pain of the very fire in which Jantu had been burned.

Somaka was offered his own way to svarga. But he saw his purohita suffering, and that suffering had come only from serving Somaka and doing what Somaka had asked. Somaka refused to go to svarga alone. He said that he would not leave the man who had served him. He chose to bear the same punishment beside his purohita, and he would not take a reward that the purohita did not share.

The point of the account

Lomaśa tells this account to Yudhishṭhira as a lesson on loyalty and on shared karma. The king who gains from an act and the priest who carries it out share its fruit, whether it is puṇya (merit) or its opposite. Somaka chose the punishment over svarga, because one does not leave those who have suffered on one’s behalf. The account is also a warning about the heavy karma of human sacrifice.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapter 127 (Somaka’s only son, the advice of the purohita, the sacrifice and the birth of the hundred sons)
• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapter 128 (the purohita’s torment in Yama’s realm and Somaka’s choice)