Remaka

Remaka

Remaka was the man in whose house the child Ajapārśva was raised. Ajapārśva was the son of King Śvetakarṇa and Mālinī, left on a mountain as an infant. Two brāhmaṇas found him and brought him up in Remaka’s house, and Remaka’s wife took him as her own son.

Ajapārśva in Remaka’s house

The Sūta tells the munis the line of Pūru. Satyakarṇa lived in Vārāṇasī; his heir Śvetakarṇa, being sonless, went to the forest. There Mālinī of the Yadu line, daughter of Sucāru, conceived by him. Śvetakarṇa set out on the mahāprasthāna (the great final journey), and Mālinī followed him. On the way she gave birth to a tender son, left him there, and followed the king.

The infant lay crying on the mountain, and the clouds in compassion gave him shade. Two sons of Śravishṭhā, Paippalādi and Kauśika, took pity on him and washed him in water. Because his flanks, rubbed on the stone, had become like a goat’s, they named him Ajapārśva, “goat-flanked”. He was raised by the two brāhmaṇas in the house of Remaka. Remaka’s wife took him up as her own son, and he became her son. The two brāhmaṇas became his ministers, and their sons and grandsons lived alike.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 13

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 13