Adṛśyantī

Adṛśyantī, simply known as Adrishyanti, Sanskrit: अदृश्यन्ती, Telugu: అదృశ్యంతి, Hindi: अदृश्यंती.

Adṛśyantī was the wife of Śakti, the eldest son of the ṛshi Vasishṭha. She was carrying Parāśara when Śakti died. King Kalmāshapāda, who was possessed, devoured him. After Śakti’s death she stayed with Vasishṭha and walked beside him through his years of grief. She heard Vedic verses being chanted from her womb and told Vasishṭha. This stopped his attempts to end his life. In time she gave birth to Parāśara, who became a great ṛshi and the father of Vyāsa. The Mahābhārata tells this in the Ādi Parva.

With Vasishṭha in grief

After the death of her husband Śakti, Adṛśyantī did not go back to household life. She stayed with her father-in-law Vasishṭha. He was deep in grief, because he had lost all one hundred of his sons. He wandered in a daze and tried again and again to end his own life. He threw himself from Mount Meru, leapt into the ocean and walked into rivers. None of these could harm him.

Adṛśyantī walked with him through this grief for twelve years, carrying Śakti’s child in her womb.

The voice from the womb

One day, as she walked with Vasishṭha, Adṛśyantī heard a sound from inside her own womb. The unborn child was chanting Vedic verses. She told Vasishṭha: “I hear the Vedas being recited. It is coming from within me.”

Vasishṭha listened. He knew the voice. The intonation, the metre and the choice of verses had the character of Śakti’s own recitation. He understood that his son lived on in this child and that the line was not destroyed. This brought him back from the edge of despair and gave him again the will to live.

The birth of Parāśara

In time Adṛśyantī gave birth to a son. Vasishṭha named him Parāśara, “the one who destroys”, in memory of the destruction that had come upon his family. Parāśara grew into a great ṛshi. He performed the rākshasa-satra (a long yajña aimed at the rākshasas). He became the father of Vyāsa, also called Kṛshṇa Dvaipāyana, through Satyavatī.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva