Vṛshādarbhi

Vṛshādarbhi was a king in the Mahābhārata. The Śānti Parva (Āpaddharma Parva, Chapter 159, the Ajñāna Māhātmya) names him as one of four kings who overcame lobha (greed) and so reached svarga (heaven). The other three are Janaka, Yuvanāśva and Prasenajit.

The Anuśāsana Parva also tells how this king, angry that seven ṛshi-s kept refusing his gifts, created a deadly rākshasī to kill them.

The Bisa-Stainya Upākhyāna in the Anuśāsana Parva

There was a great famine. Vṛshādarbhi met seven starving ṛshi-s: Kaśyapa, Atri, Vasishṭha, Bharadvāja, Gautama, Viśvāmitra and Jamadagni. With them were Arundhatī, the maidservant Gaṇḍā, and her husband Paśusakha. In their great need, they were cooking the body of a dead prince.

Vṛshādarbhi offered them very great wealth: mules, cattle, villages, grain and gems. The ṛshi-s refused. They said that a rājapratigraha (a gift from a king) is poison for one who practises tapas (austerity). It can burn up even one day’s store of tapas, as a forest fire burns a forest.

Vṛshādarbhi then tried a trick. He sent ministers with fig fruits that were secretly filled with gold. The ṛshi-s saw through this and refused the fruits too.

Angry at these repeated refusals, Vṛshādarbhi performed a strict rite in the fire. From the flames he brought out a fearful being of sorcery, a Kṛtyā, and named her Yātudhānī. He told her to learn the names of all ten wanderers and to kill them one by one.

The rākshasī went about this task at a lotus-pond. She asked each ṛshi to say his name before he took lotus-stalks from the water. In the end Indra, who had joined the company in disguise as a stout ascetic named Śunaḥsakha, killed her.

The Ajñāna Māhātmya in the Śānti Parva

Chapter 159 of the Āpaddharma Parva teaches that ajñāna (ignorance) and lobha cause each other. Ignorance gives rise to greed, and greed keeps ignorance alive. Breaking this circle is named as the way to moksha (liberation), even for kings who live in the world of artha (wealth) and power.

Bhīshma names Vṛshādarbhi, Janaka, Yuvanāśva and Prasenajit as kings who broke this circle.

In the Dāna-Mahima

In the Dāna-Mahima, Bhīshma lists kings who gave great gifts (dāna). He says that Vṛshādarbhi, a rājarshi (a royal ṛshi), gave many kinds of jewels and pleasant dwelling-places to eminent brāhmaṇas, and that he went to svarga (Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 137).

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Āpaddharma Parva, Chapter 159 (Ajñāna Māhātmya)
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 93 (Bisa-Stainya Upākhyāna)
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 137 (Dāna-Mahima)