Saptarshis

Saptarshi · sapta-ṛshi, “the seven ṛshis”

The Saptarshis are the seven great ṛshis, the sapta-maharshis. The Vāmana Purāṇa tells that they were born when Brahmā resolved once more to create beings, after Sanaka and the other ṛshis had arisen from his mind: they are the mind-born sons of Brahmā, and they are the Prajāpatis, the fathers of beings. The Purāṇa calls them great-souled, firm in their vratas and free of pāpa (sin), and Bhagavān Śiva, Nandīśvara, Himavān and the mountains honour them. In Chapter 26 Bhagavān Śiva names them: Kaśyapa, Vasishṭha, Atri, Viśvāmitra, Gautama, Bharadvāja and Aṅgiras, the eldest, with Arundhatī, Vasishṭha’s wife, beside them.

Bhagavān Śiva sent the seven, with Arundhatī, to ask Himavān for the hand of Umā. Aṅgiras spoke for them in Himavān’s assembly, the mountains gave their consent, and the seven fixed the auspicious muhūrta for the wedding and came with Bhagavān Śiva to the wedding vedi when he came to take Umā’s hand. Chapter 46 tells of their wives, who drank the fallen seed of King Savana and lost their brahma-tejas, so that the seven ṛshis left them; of their vara of seven sons to the wife of Jyotishmān; and of how they tried to hold back the princess Surati from the pyre. In the Saro Māhātmya seven maharshis together made the Brahmodumbara tīrtha of Kurukshetra, where a bath by their grace gives the puṇya of seven soma-yāgas. And when Bhagavān Vishṇu blessed Skanda, he called on the seven great ṛshis to give Skanda auspiciousness.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 26–27, 32, 46; Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 15, 21–22

Their birth

Sanatkumāra told Mārkaṇḍeya Muni what he had heard from Brahmā. After the great dissolution by water, Brahmā woke in the great egg and, seeing the world empty, thought to create. The lake of Kurukshetra filled where the egg had stood, and the Sthāṇuvaṭa rose in its middle. Then Brahmā, of unmanifest birth, thought of the work of creation, and from his mind arose Sanaka and the other ṛshis. When he resolved again to create beings, the seven ṛshis were born. They are the Prajāpatis. When he thought once more, the Vālakhilya munis were born.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 21–22

The seven

The Vāmana Purāṇa names the seven in two places:

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 26; Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 15

Sent to Himavān for Umā

When Devī Pārvatī, in her tapas, had declared to a bhikshu who spoke ill of Hara that Hara alone would be her husband, Bhagavān Śiva stood before her in his own form and said: “Beloved, go home happily. Soon I will send maharshis to your father’s house.” The king of mountains welcomed Bhagavān Śiva, who came with the pramatha-gaṇas, and worshipped them all with roots, bulbs and fruits, divine waters and fragrant flowers.

Honoured thus by Himavān, Bhagavān Śiva remembered the maharshis together with Arundhatī, and at his remembrance they came to the great mountain Mandara. Hara, Tripurāntaka, welcomed them and worshipped them, and said: “By your coming this lord of mountains has become free of every pāpa and blessed. Rest on this wide mountain ground, smooth with padmarāga stones.” The maharshis sat with Arundhatī on the slopes of the mountain, and Nandīśvara, foremost of the deva-gaṇas, gave them arghya and pādya and stood humbly before them.

Then Bhagavān Śiva spoke to them: “Kaśyapa, Vasishṭha, Atri, Viśvāmitra, Gautama, Bharadvāja, Aṅgiras, listen with attention. My beloved Dākshāyaṇī Satī, on account of Daksha, gave up her life by the power of yoga, and now she is born again as Umā, daughter of Himavān. Go and ask the king of mountains to give her for me.” The Saptarshis said, “Oṃ namaḥ Śaṅkarāya,” bowed to him and set out for Himavān’s house. Bhagavān Śiva sent Arundhatī too, for the best of women know the ways of good households, and she bowed, saying, “Rudra, namaskāra to you,” and went behind her husband.

They went to the city of the lord of mountains, shining with healing herbs and like the city of Indra. The mountain-women, the mountains led by Sunābha, and the gandharvas, kinnaras and yakshas honoured them, and they came to Himavān’s palace with its golden ramparts. The munīśvaras, free of pāpa, stopped at the door and told the doorkeeper, the mountain Gandhamādana: “We have come on a great matter. Go and tell your lord.” Himavān rose at once, took the best arghya, went himself to the door, worshipped them there, led them into his assembly hall and seated them on fine seats. “Like rain without a cloud, like fruit without a flower, your coming is beyond all thought,” he said. “By your coming I am made pure in body, and my house is purified. As the Sārasvata tīrtha purifies by its mere darśana, so the touch of your feet has purified us. With my wife, sons, servants and grandsons I am your servant. Command me.”

The maharshis of firm vratas asked Aṅgiras, the eldest among them, to tell their purpose. Aṅgiras said: “We have come with the sādhvī Arundhatī, sent by Parama Śiva, the inner ātmā of all beings, destroyer of Daksha’s yajña, Śaṅkara, Halapāṇi, Śarva, the three-eyed, whose vāhana is the bull, whose banner is the cloud, slayer of enemies, enjoyer of the yajña, the self-existent, the one and only Īśvara, Śiva, Sthāṇu, Mahādeva, Paśupati. Maheśvara asks for your daughter Kālī, the beauty of the three worlds. Give her to Bhava and be blessed. As soon as she takes Hara’s hand she will become the mother of all beings, of every kind of birth, the Jaganmātā. All who bow to Śaṅkara will bow at your daughter’s feet. We are the petitioners, Śaṅkara is the bridegroom, you are the giver, and Umā, the Jaganmātā, is the bride.”

Himavān called his mountain kinsmen, Meru and the rest, and told them: “These holy Saptarshis have come on Hara’s behalf to ask that my daughter be made the ardhāṅgī of Parama Śiva. Advise me; I will not go against your word.” The mountains answered: “Those who ask are maharshis, and the bridegroom is Hara, the Devādhideva. Give Kālī to Śiva at once.” Menā Devī too gave her word, and Himavān said to his daughter, “Child, I have now given you to Śarva,” and to the maharshis, “Revered ones, this bride of Śaṅkara bows to you all with bhakti; accept her praṇāmas.” Arundhatī took the shy Kālī onto her lap and delighted her with sweet words full of Hara’s name.

Then the Saptarshis said to Himavān: “Śaileśvara, listen with attention. A holy tithi endowed with jāmitra-guṇa is coming. On the third day the moon enters Uttarāphalgunī; that auspicious time is called the maitra muhūrta. On that tithi Śaṅkara will take your daughter’s hand with mantras. Now give us leave.” They blessed him, and Himavān with great joy worshipped them and sent them off. They went by the path of the sky to Mandara, bowed to Bhagavān Śiva and said: “Deva, you have become the bridegroom, and Pārvatī the bride. The three worlds, with Brahmā at their head, will soon have your darśana.” Śarva, pleased, worshipped the maharshis in due order together with Arundhatī, and the munis set out to consult with the devas.

On the wedding day, when Tripurahara came to the wedding vedi with his retinue and the Saptarshis, all present hastened to adorn Kālī as the bride. At the southern vedi, filled with ṛshis, Bhagavān Śiva sat facing east, and Himavān, the giver of the bride, sat turned towards the Saptarshis.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 25–27

Their wives

In the Svāyambhuva manvantara, King Savana rose from the pyre with his faithful wife Sudevā and moved through the sky, and his seed fell to the earth into a lotus. The wives of the Saptarshis saw it: Samānā, Naḷinī, Vapushmatī, Citrā, Viśālā, Haritā and Aḷinī. They took it for amṛta and, wishing to stay young for ever, told their husbands. With their husbands’ leave they bathed according to rule, worshipped their husbands, and all seven drank the seed. As soon as they drank it, the wives of the tapasvins lost their brahma-tejas, and the seven ṛshis left them. The seven wives bore seven sons, whose crying filled the world, and Brahmā came and made them the first Maruts.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 46

Their vara to Jyotishmān’s wife

In the Uttama manvantara, Jyotishmān, the son of Vapushmān, lord of Nishadha, performed tapas for sons on the bank of the Mandākinī. His wife, the daughter of the Devaguru, served him and lived a life of tapas, gathering fruits, flowers and samidhs and honouring guests, until she was worn to the bone. Once the Saptarshis saw her wandering in the forest, shining with the tejas of tapas, and asked why she did such hard tapas in that rough forest. She told them that she and her husband had vowed tapas for sons. Moved with compassion, they said: “Mother, go home. You will have seven sons. Our grace, joined to your virtues, will fulfil your wish; there is no doubt.” Giving her this vara (boon), they went away. In time the Maruts of the Uttama manvantara arose from her womb.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 46

Surati

In the Raivata manvantara, King Ripujit gained a daughter, Surati, by worshipping Sūrya. When Ripujit died, the girl could not bear the separation from her father and prepared to give up her body. The Saptarshis, the mind-born sons of Brahmā, held her back, and other tapasvins too loved her dearly. Yet she could not bear her grief, built a pyre and was burned in it, and from the fire seven boys arose, whom Brahmā made the Maruts of the Raivata manvantara.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 46

The Brahmodumbara tīrtha

On the way through the tīrthas of Kurukshetra, from the Āpagā one comes to Brahmodumbara, the chief place of Brahmā, famed in the worlds. The maharshis Bharadvāja, Gautama, Jamadagni, Kaśyapa, Viśvāmitra, Vasishṭha and Atri made this tīrtha together, a tīrtha rare on earth, and because Caturmukha Brahmā himself served it, it became renowned as Brahmodumbara. In it is the Brahmarshi kuṇḍa.

The Vāmana Purāṇa gives its phala. One who bathes in the Brahmarshi kuṇḍa gains, by the grace of the Saptarshis, the puṇya of seven soma-yāgas. One who bathes in that tīrtha of Brahmā reaches Brahmaloka, and nothing can turn this back. One who feeds a brāhmaṇa there for the pitṛs receives rare varas from the pleased pitṛs. And one who bathes in the kuṇḍa separately for each of the seven maharshis may gain, by their grace, lordship of the seven worlds.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 15

In the svastivācana for Skanda

When the devas had consecrated Kumāra as commander of the deva armies, he bowed to Janārdana, and Bhagavān Vishṇu blessed him with a svastivācana, a recitation of blessings for his well-being. In it he said: “May Marīci, Atri, Pulaha, Pulastya, Kratu, Vasishṭha, Bhṛgu, Aṅgiras, Mārkaṇḍeya and the seven great ṛshis always give you kalyāṇa (auspiciousness).”

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 32

Sources

  • Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 25–27, 32, 46
  • Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 15, 21–22