Vijitāśva

Vijitāśva · vijita-aśva, “he who has won the horse”

Gaya has other meanings too: see all meanings of Gaya.

Vijitāśva was the eldest son of Mahārāja Pṛthu, the son of Vena, and his queen Arcis. A mahāratha, a great warrior in chariot battle, he twice won back from Indra the horse of his father’s hundredth aśvamedha, and the maharshis named him Vijitāśva, “he who has won the horse”. After Pṛthu he became cakravarti (emperor of the earth). He loved his brothers and gave each of his four younger brothers one of the four directions. Indra gave him the power of becoming invisible, and so he was also called Antardhāna. Yet he found the king’s life of taxes, fines and punishment harsh, and on the pretext of a long satra-yāga he gave up his royal authority, turned inward, and attained the direct realisation of the Paramātmā.

Maitreya Maharshi tells his account to Vidura in the Pṛthūpākhyāna, the account of Pṛthu, in the fourth skandha of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.

Winning back the yajña horse

Pṛthu, an avatāra of Śrī Hari, was performing his last, hundredth aśvamedha at Brahmāvarta and worshipping Śrī Hari as Yajñeśvara. Indra could not bear his great prosperity. Becoming invisible, he stole the yajña horse and went swiftly along the path of the sky, wearing the guise of a pākhaṇḍa, one who puts on the look of a dharmic man and makes people mistake adharma for dharma.

Atri Maharshi saw him and urged on Pṛthu’s son. The young mahāratha ran after Indra in anger, crying “Stop, stop!” But Indra wore jaṭā (matted locks) and was smeared with sacred ash, and Pṛthu’s son, taking him for dharma itself in bodily form, did not loose his arrow. Atri urged him again: “O Kumāra! This Mahendra, lowest among the devatās, has spoiled the yajña. Kill him.” Then Pṛthu’s son ran swiftly after Indra through the sky, as Jaṭāyu chased Rāvaṇa. Indra cast off his guise, left the horse and vanished. The heroic prince brought the horse, the yajña paśu, back to his father’s yajña, and seeing that wonderful deed the maharshis named him Vijitāśva.

A second time Indra created a dense darkness, came unseen within it, and stole the horse with its golden saddle from the yūpa (the sacrificial post). As he went through the sky Atri Maharshi pointed him out to Vijitāśva. Indra now bore a skull on a staff, in another dharmic guise, and again Vijitāśva did not trouble him. When Atri urged him once more, Vijitāśva fixed an arrow to strike, and Indra abandoned both the guise and the horse and vanished. Vijitāśva brought the horse back to the place where his father was performing the yajña.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 19

His brothers

Pṛthu, established in the Ātmā, performed the karmas the śāstra enjoins, and by his wife Arcis he had five sons worthy of him: Vijitāśva, Dhūmrakeśa, Haryaksha, Draviṇa and Vṛka.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 22

Cakravarti and Antardhāna

After Pṛthu, his son Vijitāśva, a man of great fame, became cakravarti. He loved his brothers, and being able in all things he gave his four younger brothers authority over the four directions:

  • the east to Haryaksha;
  • the south to Dhūmrakeśa;
  • the west to Vṛka;
  • the north to Draviṇa.

Indra gave Vijitāśva the power of becoming invisible, and from this he got the name Antardhāna. Maitreya recalls that Vijitāśva had seen Indra carrying off the horse and yet did not kill him.

Of his wife Śikhaṇḍinī three sons were born to him, all greatly honoured by the people. They were the three Agnis named Pāvaka, Pavamāna and Śuci, who long ago, through a śāpa of Vasishṭha Maharshi, were born as the sons of Vijitāśva. They practised the path of yoga and returned to their own loka. Of his wife Nabhasvatī a son, Havirdhāna, was born to Antardhāna.

Giving up the kingdom

Kings collect taxes and fines and punish offenders, and Antardhāna thought this way of life harsh. So, on the pretext of a satra-yāga that would go on for a long time, he gave up royal authority. Even in that satra-yāga, turned inward, with firm one-pointedness of mind, he worshipped the full Paramātmā who removes ajñāna, and attained his sākshātkāra (direct realisation), the divine loka.

His line continued through Havirdhāna. Of Havirdhāna and Havirdhānī six sons were born: Barhishada, Gaya, Śukla, Kṛshṇa, Satya and Jitavrata. Barhishada, also called Barhishat, expert in the karmas of the Veda and in the eight limbs of yoga, became the great performer of yajñas known as Prācīnabarhi.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 24

Sources

  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapters 19, 22, 24