Mahatī (wife of Sagara)
Mahatī, “the great one”
Arishṭanemi has other meanings too: see all meanings of Arishṭanemi.
Mahatī is the second wife of Sagara Cakravartī of the Ikshvāku line, the very beautiful daughter of Arishṭanemi. With Sagara’s elder wife Keśinī she received the vara of Aurva Maharshi, from which came Pañcajana, who upheld the line, and the sixty thousand sons of Sagara.
Aurva’s vara
The munis ask Lomaharshaṇa how sixty thousand heroic sons were born to Sagara. He tells them that Sagara had two wives. The elder was Keśinī, daughter of the lord of the Vidarbha country. The second was Mahatī, daughter of Arishṭanemi, very beautiful.
Aurva saw them and granted a vara: “Choose whether you want sixty thousand sons, or one son who will uphold the line.” One chose sixty thousand sons; the other chose one son who would carry the line. The muni said, “So be it.” To one was born a king of great tejas named Pañcajana. The other, it is famed, gave birth to a gourd full of seeds, and in it were sixty thousand infants, each the size of a sesame seed. In due time they grew. She placed them in pots full of ghee and appointed a nurse to nourish each one, and over ten months they came out one by one, increasing Sagara’s joy.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 8
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 8