Agastya Drinks the Ocean (Mahābhārata)
The Kālakeyas were an asura clan. After the devas defeated them, they hid deep in the ocean, where no one could reach them. At night they came out and killed brāhmaṇas, ṛshis and munis who were doing tapas (austerity). The devas could not strike enemies who hid under the water, so they went to the ṛshi Agastya, and he agreed to drink the whole ocean. Lomaśa tells this account to Yudhishṭhira in the Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata, during the journey to the tīrthas (holy places) of the south.
The terror of the Kālakeyas
The Kālakeyas were a strong asura clan. The devas had defeated them in the great wars of an earlier age. They did not accept their end. They withdrew to the depths of the ocean, the wide salt sea, whose depths even Indra’s thunderbolt and the weapons of the devas could not reach. There, under the water, they gathered their strength and made a terrible plan.
Each night, under cover of darkness, they came out. By day the depths of the ocean kept them safe. They fell on the āśramas (hermitages) of the ṛshis and on the settlements of brāhmaṇas who were busy with tapas, study and yajña (fire ritual). They ate the munis, destroyed their rites, and spread terror over the earth. (Vana Parva, Chapter 102)
The ruin was great. Places of tapas that had stored up the power of ages were wiped out in a single night. The ṛshis were helpless. These were not enemies who could be fought, for the Kālakeyas went back into the ocean by morning, and no weapon or astra could enter that refuge. The dharmic order of the world was being destroyed bit by bit.
The devas cannot reach them
The devas gathered and saw that they had no way to deal with this danger. They could fight any enemy they could reach, but an enemy hiding in the depths of the ocean was beyond them. Their weapons could not follow the Kālakeyas into those dark waters.
They put the matter before Brahmā. Brahmā told the devas that there was only one whose power could reach even the depths of the ocean, or rather who could take away the ocean itself as a hiding place. That one was the great ṛshi Agastya. (Vana Parva, Chapter 103)
The devas go to Agastya
The devas, led by Indra and joined by the great munis, went to Agastya’s āśrama and made their request. They told him everything the Kālakeyas were doing: the killings at night, the ruin of the yajñas, the deaths of those who did tapas, and the spreading terror. They asked Agastya to empty the ocean. (Vana Parva, Chapter 103)
Agastya listened and agreed without delay. His agreement was more than the help of a powerful ṛshi. It was an act for the whole world, freely taken up: he used his stored tapas for the good of all beings and for the restoring of dharma.
Agastya drinks the ocean
The devas, the ṛshis and all who had gathered stood watching, and the three worlds looked on. The great Agastya went to the shore of the ocean. Then, calm and with the power of his boundless tapas, he cupped his hands and drank. The ocean poured into his palm and into his body. The rivers of the whole world had filled it over countless ages, and no storm or force of nature had ever made it less. Agastya drank it all. The ocean was empty. (Vana Parva, Chapter 104)
The Kālakeyas had lost their refuge. They stood in the open on the floor of the sea. The devas fell on them at once. A great battle was fought on the dry bed of the ocean, and the Kālakeyas were killed one by one. Those who lived fled to Pātāla, and they were no longer a danger to the upper worlds.
Agastya cannot give the ocean back
After the Kālakeyas were beaten, the devas and munis went to Agastya and asked him to let the ocean go, so that the waters might return to their place. Agastya told them plainly that he could not. The ocean he had drunk had been digested by the fire of his inner tapas. The waters had become part of him and could not be separated and given back. The ocean stayed empty. (Vana Parva, Chapter 105)
This brought a new trouble. The earth needed the ocean. The rivers needed somewhere to flow. The world needed the salt sea for the great cycles of rain and life. The devas stood troubled at this result they had not expected.
Brahmā told them that the ocean would be filled again in time. It would come through the tapas of Bhagīratha and the coming down of the river Gaṅgā, which would one day refill the ocean. The danger of the Kālakeyas was ended for now. The long-term refilling of the ocean would come from another great act of tapas, in a later generation.
Agastya’s journey south and the Vindhya
The same account also tells of Agastya’s famous crossing of the Vindhya mountains. The Vindhya had grown proud and was rising to rival Meru, and it threatened to block the path of the sun itself. No force could stop its growth. The devas went to Agastya once more.
Agastya came to the Vindhya, and the mountain bowed low before the great ṛshi. Agastya told the Vindhya: stay bowed until I come back from the south. Agastya then crossed the Vindhya on his journey south, and he never came back. The Vindhya has stayed bowed in that way ever since, waiting for Agastya to return. (Vana Parva, Chapter 104)
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 102–105