Śaibhyā, Queen of Sagara

Śaibhyā was the second of the two queens of King Sagara of the Ikṣvāku dynasty. She is described as a princess of the Śibi line. When the ṛṣi Aurva gave Sagara a vara (a boon) of children, Śaibhyā chose to have sixty thousand sons. These sixty thousand princes were born and grew up as devoted warriors. They were burned to ash by the fire of the ṛṣi Kapila’s glance, when they wrongly accused him of stealing the Aśvamedha horse. Their ashes waited for the touch of the celestial Gaṅgā to set them free.

The vara of Aurva

Aurva gave the vara of children to Sagara and his queens. The vara was given as a choice. One wife would have one son, who would carry on the family line. The other would have sixty thousand sons, who would all die together. Śaibhyā chose the sixty thousand.

Her sixty thousand sons

Her sixty thousand sons were born. They grew to great size and strength, and they were devoted to their father and to the good of the kingdom.

Indra stole Sagara’s Aśvamedha horse and hid it deep in the earth, near the āśrama of the ṛṣi Kapila. Sagara sent all sixty thousand sons to find it. They dug deep into the earth. They dug so widely that the pit became the great ocean, which is named Sāgara after Sagara himself.

They found the horse near Kapila, who sat silent in meditation. They wrongly accused him of the theft. Kapila opened his eyes, and all sixty thousand were reduced to ash in an instant.

Their liberation

Bhagīratha freed the sixty thousand sons, four generations later. Gaṅgā came down to earth and flowed over their ashes.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapter 106