Ekata and Dvita

Ekata-Dvita, simply known as Ekata and Dvita, Sanskrit: एकत-द्वित, Telugu: ఏకత ద్వితులు, Hindi: एकत और द्वित.

Ekata (“the first”) and Dvita (“the second”) are two of three ancient ṛshi brothers. The third is Trita (“the third”). In the Trita-kūpa Upākhyāna (Mahābhārata, Śalya Parva, Chapter 37), Ekata and Dvita act against Trita. They push their youngest brother into a well and leave him there.

The two brothers and the well

Ekata and Dvita were travelling with their younger brother Trita. When the journey became hard for them, they turned against him. They pushed Trita into a well that they passed and left him there to his fate.

From inside the well, Trita performed the Trita-kūpa yajña and was in time set free. The well became the sacred Trita-kūpa tīrtha (holy place), on the Sarasvatī. It marks the place of Trita’s ordeal and of his success through right thinking. The story of what Ekata and Dvita did is remembered because it is the background to Trita’s example of skill in ritual and calm under pressure.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Śalya Parva, Chapter 37