Kāśirāja (Father of Gāndinī)
Kāśirāja · kāśi-rāja, “the king of Kāśī”
Kāśī has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kāśī.
The king of Kāśī (Kāśirāja) is the father of Gāndinī, the wife of Śvaphalka and the mother of Akrūra. When his land had no rain for three years, he brought the righteous Śvaphalka to dwell in his kingdom, and the rain came. The Sūta tells this in the line of Kroshṭu in the Brahma Purāṇa.
The drought in Kāśī
Śvaphalka, a son of Vṛshṇi, was devoted to dharma, and in his realm there was no fear of disease and no distress from drought. Once Indra did not rain for three years in the land ruled by the king of Kāśī. Then the king of Kāśī brought Śvaphalka to his kingdom, and because Śvaphalka dwelt there, Harivāhana (Indra) sent rain. Śvaphalka married Gāndinī, the daughter of the lord of Kāśī, who gave a cow to a brāhmaṇa every day.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 14
The name Gāndinī
Telling the line again, the Purāṇa says that Śvaphalka married the daughter of the king of Kāśī, named Gāndinī: her father always gave her cows, and so her name became famous. In her was born Akrūra, learned, fond of guests, a great hero and a giver of much dakshiṇā.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 16
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 14, 16