Rohita, Son of Hariścandra

Rohita, “the red one”

The Pratisarga Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa names Rohita in the Ikshvāku line of the Satya Yuga. He is the son of Hariścandra, who ruled 20,000 years, and he ruled as long as his father. His son was Hārīta. Sūta tells the line to Śaunaka.

The Brahma Purāṇa gives him in the line of Ikshvāku as the son of Hariścandra and the father of Harita, and in the Gautamī Māhātmya it tells his whole account: born by the grace of Varuṇa on the promise that he would be offered to Varuṇa in yajña, he grew skilled in the divine weapons and the Vedas, refused to be the paśu and went to the forest, and, hearing of his father’s illness, bought Śunaḥśepa from the ṛshi Ajīgarta and brought him to his father.

Per Brahma Purāṇa

In the line of Ikshvāku

Lomaharshaṇa tells the munis the line of Ikshvāku. Triśaṅku‘s wife Satyarathā, of the Kekaya line, bore Hariścandra, called Traiśaṅkava, who performed the Rājasūya and was famed as Samrāṭ. His son was Rohita; Rohita’s son was Harita, Harita’s son Cañcu, and Cañcu’s son Vijaya.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 8

Born by the grace of Varuṇa

In the Gautamī Māhātmya, Brahmā tells Nārada of the tīrthas on the southern bank of the Gautamī; among them are those named Hariścandra, Śunaḥśepa and Rohita. Hariścandra of the line of Ikshvāku had no son. The ṛshis Nārada and Parvata told him of the glory of a son and sent him to the Gautamī, where Varuṇa fulfils every wish. There he propitiated Varuṇa, and Varuṇa said: “I shall grant you a son, if you are prepared to offer him in yajña.” Hariścandra promised. He gave his wife the caru of Varuṇa, and a son was born.

Varuṇa came at once to ask for the son, and Hariścandra put him off again and again: a paśu is fit only after ten days; then, only when it has teeth; then, only when the first teeth have fallen and the new ones come; then, a kshatriya paśu is best when he knows the science of archery. So Rohita grew up. When he had become skilled in the divine weapons, had learned the Vedas and śāstras, and at sixteen had been crowned yuvarāja, Varuṇa came, delighted, and said, “Offer your son.”

Rohita goes to the forest

The king said “Yes”, and in Varuṇa‘s hearing he said to the ṛtvijas and to Rohita, his eldest son: “Come, my great hero; come, my son. I shall offer you to Varuṇa.” Rohita asked what this meant, and his father told him everything. Then, while Varuṇa listened, Rohita said: “I am pure and in haste. First, great king, I shall perform the yajña to Bhagavān Vishṇu, the master of the worlds, with the ṛtvijas and the purohita, with Varuṇa as the paśu. Grant me leave for it.” Varuṇa was overcome with great anger. Rohita took up his divine bow and went in his chariot to the forest on the bank of the Gaṅgā, the very place where Hariścandra had propitiated Varuṇa. The angered Varuṇa afflicted Hariścandra with a disease of the belly swelling with water.

Śunaḥśepa bought from Ajīgarta

Five years passed, and in the sixth year Rohita heard of his father’s illness. He thought: “Though I was born to my father, I have been the cause of his distress. What good has he had from me? What now is my duty?” On the bank of the Gaṅgā he saw the great ṛshi Ajīgarta wandering with his wife and three sons, with no means to live. Rohita bowed and asked why he was so lean and gloomy. Ajīgarta said his family would die without food, and offered to sell one of his sons, or himself, or his wife. Rohita said: “Of what use is your wife, or you, an old man? Give me a youthful son of yours.” Ajīgarta would not sell his eldest, Śunaḥpuccha, and the mother would not sell the youngest, so he sold Śunaḥśepa, the middle one, for a thousand cows, grain, gold coins and clothes. Rohita gave the price and brought Śunaḥśepa to his father: “Perform the yajña to Varuṇa with this paśu, and be free of your illness.”

Hariścandra refused to make a brāhmaṇa the paśu: “It is better to die of illness. Dear son, go happily with the brāhmaṇa boy.” Then a voice from the sky told the king to go to the Gautamī with his ṛtvijas, with Śunaḥśepa and with Rohita his son, and to complete the yajña there without killing Śunaḥśepa. On the Gautamī, Śunaḥśepa was bound to the yūpa; Viśvāmitra asked the devas, the ṛshis, Hariścandra and especially Rohita to free him; Śunaḥśepa bathed in the Gaṅgā and praised the devas, and the devas, and Varuṇa above all, declared the yajña complete without his death. Viśvāmitra made Śunaḥśepa the eldest of his sons. All this, Brahmā says, happened on the southern bank of the Gautamī.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34

Sources

• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 1, Chapter 1
• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 8; Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34