Ṛśyaśṛṅga and Romapāda

The story of Ṛśyaśṛṅga is one of the best known upākhyānas (side-narratives) of the Bāla Kāṇḍa of the Rāmāyaṇa. Ṛśyaśṛṅga was a ṛshi born with a single deer’s horn on his forehead, and his great purity was tied to the falling of rain. His story forms the bridge between Daśaratha’s longing for sons and the actual performance of the Putrakāmeshṭi yajña, the fire ritual for obtaining sons.

Vibhāṇḍaka and the birth of Ṛśyaśṛṅga

Ṛśyaśṛṅga was the son of the great ṛshi Vibhāṇḍaka, who was himself the son of Kaśyapa. Vibhāṇḍaka was a ṛshi of formidable tapas (austerity) and strict discipline in dharma.

The birth of Ṛśyaśṛṅga was out of the ordinary. The ṛshi’s seed fell into forest water, and a doe drank it. From that doe a boy was born, Ṛśyaśṛṅga, who bore a single deer’s horn on his forehead. This is how he got his name: ṛśya is a male spotted deer and śṛṅga is a horn.

Vibhāṇḍaka raised his son in the deepest part of the forest. He kept him away from all human contact, and above all from women. Ṛśyaśṛṅga grew to manhood with no experience of the world beyond the āśrama and the forest. He had never seen a woman. His whole life was given to tapas, study of the Vedas, and service to his father. This unbroken purity made him a being of great spiritual power. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 9)

The drought in Aṅga

Romapāda was the king of Aṅga. He had done a wrong to a brāhmaṇa by making a promise and not keeping it. As a result the rains failed in his kingdom. Year after year Aṅga suffered drought. Crops dried up, people went hungry, and the kingdom fell into distress.

Romapāda asked learned brāhmaṇas and ṛshis what to do. They told him that if Ṛśyaśṛṅga could be brought to Aṅga, the rain would fall. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 9)

The mission of the gaṇikās

The difficulty was Vibhāṇḍaka. No ordinary person could go near the forest where he lived. His anger and his power were so great that even the devas took care not to disturb him. And Ṛśyaśṛṅga could not be taken from his father’s āśrama by force.

Romapāda made a plan. He sent beautiful gaṇikās (courtesans) to the forest. They were not sent to seduce the ṛshi. They were sent to draw out Ṛśyaśṛṅga, who was full of natural curiosity and had no idea what women were.

The gaṇikās went into the forest and set up a beautiful floating craft. There they met Ṛśyaśṛṅga, and he was spellbound. He had never seen beings of this form. They spoke to him of pleasant things. They gave him the fruits and foods they had brought, which were far sweeter than the forest food he knew. They treated him with warmth.

In his innocence, Ṛśyaśṛṅga took them for brāhmaṇa students of some other order, because their appearance was so far outside anything he knew. When they left and he went back to the āśrama, he told his father about the wonderful brāhmaṇas he had met. Vibhāṇḍaka understood at once what had happened. He was furious, but it was too late. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 10–11)

Ṛśyaśṛṅga comes to Aṅga and the rain falls

On a second visit the gaṇikās were able to bring Ṛśyaśṛṅga back with them toward Aṅga. The moment the ṛshi set foot in Aṅga, rain fell. The drought that had gripped the kingdom ended at once. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 11)

Romapāda received Ṛśyaśṛṅga with great honour and celebrated his arrival. He gave the ṛshi his daughter Śāntā in marriage. Śāntā had been born to Daśaratha and given in adoption to Romapāda. So she was now the wife of the very ṛshi who would be needed for Daśaratha’s own yajña.

Ṛśyaśṛṅga and the Putrakāmeshṭi

Daśaratha came to Aṅga seeking the ṛshi. Romapāda kindly allowed Ṛśyaśṛṅga to go with his royal father-in-law to Ayodhyā. There Ṛśyaśṛṅga performed both the Aśvamedha mahāyajña (the great horse sacrifice) and the Putrakāmeshṭi, the special yajña for the birth of sons. From these came the divine pāyasa (sweet rice pudding), and in the end the births of Rāma, Bharata, Lakshmaṇa and Śatrughna. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 12 and the chapters after it)

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 9–12