Hariścandra
Hariścandra was a king of the Sūryavaṃśa, the solar line, who kept satya (truth) through every loss. He gave his kingdom and his wealth to the brahmarshi Viśvāmitra as the dakshiṇā (fee) of a yajña. He then gave his wife Śaibhyā and his son Lohitāsya and sold himself, and he lived as the servant of a caṇḍāla chief and keeper of the cremation ground. When his son died of a snake bite, he still held to his duty. The devas, moved by his firmness, gave back all he had lost and took him and his whole city to svarga (heaven).
The king and his kingdom
In Tretāyuga Hariścandra was a king of the Sūryavaṃśa, just and loved by all. In his reign no one suffered from famine, early death or disease. The citizens were free from neglect of dharma and from pride born of wealth, honour or valour. The women stayed faithful. No one took shelter under a rival king. His kingdom was a model of satya and dharma.
Viśvāmitra’s demand
The king was hunting when Viśvāmitra came before him and asked for the full dakshiṇā of a Rājasūya yajña. Hariścandra, true to dharma, agreed without holding anything back. He gave Viśvāmitra his whole kingdom, with all its cities, villages, forests, armies and treasury. He kept only himself, his wife Śaibhyā and his young son Lohitāsya.
Viśvāmitra accepted, and then asked for the dakshiṇā-dravya (the wealth of the fee) as well. Hariścandra had no wealth left. He asked for one month’s time and set out with his family, dressed in bark clothes, on foot to Kāśī.
The sale of Śaibhyā and Lohitāsya
In Kāśī Viśvāmitra came again and asked for the fee. Hariścandra had nothing. His wife Śaibhyā, with great courage and the dharma of a faithful wife (pativratā-dharma), urged the king to sell her. Weeping with grief, the king called out in the street: “Who will buy a person?”
An old brahmin came and bought Śaibhyā together with the young Lohitāsya, who clung to his mother and sobbed, “Mother! Mother!” The brahmin tied them with a rope and led them away. The king gave the coins to Viśvāmitra. It was still not enough. Viśvāmitra threatened to curse him. The king had no other way, and with Viśvāmitra’s urging he sold himself to Pravīra, the chief of the caṇḍālas.
Life as keeper of the cremation ground
Pravīra made Hariścandra a śmaśāna-rakshaka (keeper of the cremation ground). For twelve months, which passed like a hundred years, the king lived in the burning ground among skulls, bones and funeral pyres. He heard the howling of jackals and ghosts and the crying of grieving families, and he smelled the stench of death. He wore the clothes of the dead and carried a stick, and he took the cremation tax from mourning families. Through all of it he never broke satya.
The death of Lohitāsya and the crisis
One night Śaibhyā came to the burning ground carrying the body of their son Lohitāsya, who had died of a snake bite. At first husband and wife did not know each other, so changed were they both by suffering. When at last they knew each other, they fell into each other’s arms and wept.
Hariścandra could bear no more and decided to enter the pyre with his wife and the body of his son. He prayed to Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa with full surrender. Even as he got ready to step into the flames, he held to his duty and asked Pravīra’s permission, which had not been given.
The devas come down
At that moment Indra and all the devas, led by Dharma-devatā himself, came down. Indra showed that Pravīra the caṇḍāla was none other than Dharma-devatā in disguise, testing Hariścandra. Viśvāmitra had planned the whole trial at Dharma’s direction. He now came with full approval and declared that Lohitāsya was alive again. A shower of amṛta (nectar) fell from the sky, and the boy rose up. The devas rained flowers. Indra invited Hariścandra and all of Ayodhyā to rise to svarga.
The final act of generosity
Indra offered the divine vimāna (flying chariot), but Hariścandra stopped. He would not go to svarga without the citizens of Ayodhyā who had loved and served him. He said: “Whatever puṇya (merit) I have gathered belongs equally to them, for it was by their goodness and their support that I ruled and did all my yajñas and works of dharma. I cannot leave them.”
Viśvāmitra was moved by these words and arranged for the whole city of Ayodhyā to rise to svarga together. Even Śukrācārya, the guru of the asuras, who saw this, sang: “No king like Hariścandra was born in the past, and none will be born in the future. Who else has ever taken a whole city to svarga with him?”
The Hariścandrākhyāna
The Hariścandrākhyāna is the account of satya-vrata, the vow of truth. In all his suffering, the loss of his kingdom, his family and his honour, and the death of his child, Hariścandra did not turn from truth by one syllable. The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa tells it as the setting for the Āḍi-Baka Yuddha that follows.
Hariścandra in the Kūrma Purāṇa
The Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, in its Poorvardha, records the royal line of the Sūryavaṃśa in Chapter 21. Hariścandra is placed in this vaṃśa-kīrtana (account of the line) as a descendant of the solar line. He is named as a ruler of great fame (yaśasvin), and his satya-dharma is held up as a model. The chapter does not tell the whole account of Hariścandra. It gives his place as a Sūryavaṃśa king known for truth, in the longer account of the line that runs from the first king Ikshvāku through the generations after him.
Sources
- Mārkaṇḍeya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 8
- Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Poorvardha, Chapter 21