The Vishnu Purana: Book IV: Chapter IV | Internet Sacred Text Archive

CHAP. IV.

The progeny of Sagara: their wickedness: he performs an Aśwamedha: the horse stolen by Kapila: found by Sagara's sons, who are all destroyed by the sage: the horse recovered by Anśumat: his descendants. Legend of Mitrasaha or Kalmáshapáda, the son of Sudása. Legend of Khat́wánga. Birth of Ráma and the other sons of Daśaratha. Epitome of the history of Ráma: his descendants, and those of his brothers. Line of Kuśa. Vrihadbala, the last, killed in the great war.

SUMATI the daughter of Kaśyapa, and Kesiní the daughter of Rája Viderbha, were the two wives of Sagara 1. Being without progeny, the king solicited the aid of the sage Aurva with great earnestness, and the Muni pronounced this boon, that one wife should bear one son, the upholder of his race, and the other should give birth to sixty thousand sons; and he left it to them to make their election. Kesiní chose to have the single son; Sumati the multitude: and it came to pass in a short time that the former bore Asamanjas 2, a prince through whom the dynasty continued; and the daughter of Vinatá (Sumati) had sixty thousand sons. The son of Asamanjas was Anśumat.

Asamanjas was from his boyhood of very irregular conduct. His father hoped that as he grew up to manhood he would reform; but finding that he continued guilty of the same immorality, Sagara abandoned him. The sixty thousand sons of Sagara followed the example of their brother Asamanjas. The path of virtue and piety being obstructed in the world by the sons of Sagara, the gods repaired to the Muni Kapila, who was a portion of Vishńu, free from fault, and endowed with all true wisdom. Having approached him with respect, they said, "O lord, what will become of the world, if these sons of Sagara are permitted to go on in the evil ways which they have learned from Asamanjas! Do thou, then, assume a visible form, for the protection of the afflicted

universe." "Be satisfied," replied the sage, "in a brief time the sons of Sagara shall be all destroyed."