Birth of Agastya and Vasishṭha

Indra told Agni and Vāyu to destroy the asuras who were hiding in the ocean, and they refused. Indra gave them a śāpa (a curse): they would be born as human ṛshis from a water pot. A story about Urvaśī, who was born from Nārāyaṇa’s thigh, explains how this came about. Mitra and Varuṇa both poured their seed into a water pot (kumbha). From it came two great ṛshis, Vasishṭha and Agastya. Agastya later drank the ocean dry. Vasishṭha became the great guru of the solar dynasty.

Indra’s order and the refusal of Agni and Vāyu

In an earlier age Indra commanded Agni and Vāyu to destroy a host of dānavas. They had been beaten in battle and had fled into the depths of the ocean. Agni and Vāyu refused. They said that destroying the ocean with all its creatures would bring pāpa (sin) far greater than any gain. They said: “In a single yojana of ocean there live hundreds of lives. Is it right to destroy them?”

Indra was furious at this and gave Agni and Vāyu a śāpa.

• To Agni: “You have defied my command, together with Vāyu. Therefore you will be born as a human ṛshi in a pot (kumbha), with a body that has the marks of a muni. When you are born as a mortal, at the moment you spit, the ocean will dry up. After that you will get back your divine rank.”
• The same śāpa, in its main points, was laid on Vāyu.

The two devas at once took human bodies. They were born as great ṛshis from a water pot.

The birth through Urvaśī

The cause of their birth was an earlier event with Urvaśī. Nārāyaṇa was doing tapas on Gandhamādana mountain. Indra sent apsarās to break his focus. Even these divine beauties could not disturb him. Nārāyaṇa then made from his own thigh a woman of matchless beauty, Urvaśī, who charmed even Vasanta and Manmatha. She got her name from this: she was born from the ūru (thigh).

Urvaśī was travelling towards Sūrya’s realm. Varuṇa desired her. She refused and said that Mitra had claimed her first. Mitra heard how Varuṇa had acted and gave Varuṇa a śāpa for breaking dharma. Both Mitra and Varuṇa were shaken by desire that was not met. Together they poured their seed into a water pot (kumbha). From that pot two great ṛshis were born.

• Vasishṭha was born from Mitra’s portion. He was linked to Vāyu’s śāpa.
• Agastya was born from Varuṇa’s portion. He was linked to Agni’s śāpa. He was born with four arms, holding an akshasūtra (rosary) and a kamaṇḍalu (water pot), and was perfectly calm.

Vasishṭha and King Nimī

Vasishṭha came to the court of King Nimī at a good moment. But Nimī was playing dice with women every day, and he did not honour Vasishṭha as he should. When Vasishṭha arrived, Nimī was with his queen and did not rise to greet him.

Vasishṭha gave Nimī a śāpa: he would become a being without a body (deha-rahita). Nimī in turn gave Vasishṭha a śāpa of the same kind. Each had been given a śāpa by the other, and both became bodiless, only tejas (radiance).

Later they went to Brahmā for a remedy. Nimī entered the eyes of living beings in the world. This is how the blinking of the eyes (nimesha) began. Vasishṭha went back into the same water pot, to be born again later in his original form.

Agastya’s great deeds

Agastya did great tapas on the Malaya mountain with his wife. He lived in the vaikhānasa way, with brāhmaṇa attendants. After a long time he saw how Tāraka and other rākshasas were making creation suffer. He became angry and drank the whole ocean.

This met the very aim of Indra’s śāpa. Agni, now born as Agastya, destroyed the ocean as a hiding place for the dānavas.

After he drank the ocean, Brahmā and Vishṇu came to him themselves and offered him a vara (boon). He asked to travel through the southern sky in vimānas (celestial vehicles) for twenty thousand Brahma-kalpas. He also asked that those who do śrāddha and pūjā at his tīrtha at Pushkara should gain the puṇya of seven kinds of dāna (giving), and should hold lordship over the seven lokas in turn. These varas were granted.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Sṛshṭi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 22