Ramayana Simplified: Part 10: The Story of King Sagara

As Rama and Lakshmana were continuing their journey to Mithila with Maharishi Vishwamitra, the Maharishi narrates the story of a few of Rama’s and Lakshmana’s ancestors. Maharishi Vishwamitra starts with the story of King Sagara who was a powerful king of the Ishwaku dynasty in the lineage of Vikukshi, Hareeshchandra, etc.

Sagara was born as the son of King Subahu and Yadavi. Sagara spent most of his childhood in the ashram of Maharishi Aurva. Sagara was born after performing so many poojas or austerities. The nearby king of Kekaya, Thalajanga was always trying to attack Ayodhya and bring the kingdom under his control. The old King Subahu tried to fight him back but when he realized that his death was approaching, he escaped to a forest with his pregnant wife. They saw an ashram where a Maharishi was engaged in tapas. It was Maharishi Aurva’s ashram. Maharishi Aurva was the son of Maharishi Chyavana. King Subahu passed away and his wife was about to fall in the funeral pyre of her husband because of the love she had towards him. The Maharishi advised that committing suicide was not a solution for everything. He also consoled and motivated her saying that she has to bring up her son as a brave man as he was the future emperor of Ayodhya. This advice of Maharishi Aurva gave her a lot of confidence to move her life forward.

Yadavi gave birth to her son Sagara. Till a particular age, Sagara was under the impression that Maharishi Aurva was his father. Once he saw his mother crying and when asked for the reason she narrated the whole story. He realized that his father was a king and also that he was the future king of Ayodhya. He planned to set out to Ayodhya and take back his kingdom.

Ayodhya was under the rule of Thalajanga. People were so unhappy with his rule and they approached the kula guru, Maharishi Vasishta. Maharishi Vasishta said that even though king Subahu was dead his son Sagara was alive to rule the kingdom of Ayodhya. People were happy to hear this. Sagara came to Ayodhya and took up the army. The nearby Kings' armies who had enmity with Thalajanga also joined with Sagara’s army. Ayodhya was conquered back from Thalajanga and Sagara became the emperor of Ayodhya.

King Sagara got married, he had two wives namely, Sumathy and Keshini. The king was getting older but he didn’t have any kids. He consulted the great Maharishi Bhrigu and said that he didn’t have any kids. Maharishi Bhrigu had long tapas and blessed King Sagara. The maharishi said that the king will be blessed with kids, but the king observed that the maharishi was not very happy to continue talking about the sons which King Sagara was going to have. The Maharishi said that he will have one son with Keshini and sixty thousand sons with his other wife Sumathy.

His wives became pregnant, Keshini gave birth to a son whereas Sumathy gave birth to a lump of meat. Maharishi Bhrigu came there and advised to preserve this lump for seven days and said that on the seventh day, sixty thousand sons will take birth. Everything happened just like the maharishi said.

Keshini’s son Asmajas was always involved in cruelty and didn’t have even a drop of love towards anyone. Even in his youth, there was no change in his behavior, his parents thought that marrying him can be a good solution. Unfortunately, that also didn’t help in changing his behavior. King Sagara tried all means to save his son, but his behavior didn’t change at all. Thus King Sagara punishes him by sending him to a different kingdom.

Asmajas had a son, his name was Anshuman. Unlike his father, Anshuman was a well-behaved person.

King Sagara conducts Ashwamedha yaga

King Sagara plans to conduct an Ashwamedha yaga and makes Anshuman the watchman of the ashwas (horses) for the yaga.

An Ashwamedha Yaga is a kind of yaga in which the king releases a horse, the kingdoms traveled by the horse comes under the control of the king. If the kings of other kingdoms could not accept that, they can tie the horse, try to beat King Sagara’s kingdom, and if King Sagara wins, he gets the kingdom and if the other king wins, he can regain control over his kingdom.

Lord Indra (the king of devaloka/heaven) was jealous of King Sagara’s growth and thus he stole one of the horses which was made ready for the yaga. Anshuman got desperate when he heard this, and he informed King Sagara. The sixty thousand sons of King Sagara were sent to look for the horse that was stolen by Lord Indra. They searched everywhere on the earth and finally went to the Pathalaloka in search of the horse. They found that the horse was tied in front of Kapila maharishi’s ashram in Pathalaloka. Maharishi Kapila came to the Pathalaloka with the intention of carrying out his tapas without any external disturbances. The sixty thousand sons of King Sagara joined there and tried to take away the horse. There was huge noise coming from their part and maharishi Kapila could not concentrate on his tapas properly. When the noise became disturbing, the maharishi fired all these sixty thousand people through his third eye.

Months passed by and there were no updates about these sixty thousand sons of King Sagara. King Sagara sent Anshuman to go in search of his sons. Anshuman after continuous search reaches Maharishi Kapila’s ashram where he finds the stolen horse. He was not able to find those sixty thousand people but just saw a heap of ashes there.

The king of birds Garuda came there at that time and told Anshuman what had happened. Anshuman inquired where he can do the Pitru karma (austerities done on dead relatives so that the dead people can attain moksha). Garuda said that since they died because of the anger of the very powerful Maharishi Kapila, so he may have to bring the Devaganga river which was flowing across the Swargaloka (heaven) to the earth through the Pathalaloka so that it touches on his relative’s ashes. Garuda also advised starting the proceedings for bringing Devaganga to the earth.

Anshuman informed about this to King Sagara. Both of them tried to bring Devaganga to the earth but failed. After a few days, King Sagara died. Many people in Anshuman’s lineage tried to bring Devaganga to the earth but fails. Finally, Bhageeratha who came in the lineage of Anshuman succeeded in bringing Devaganga to the earth.

Few Insights…

• How can King Sagara have sixty thousand sons? Is it practically possible?

It is certainly impossible to have sixty thousand sons. We must remember that these are stories narrated by Maharishi Vishwamitra to Rama and Lakshmana. It can be exaggerated, sometimes it can be six sons each having the power of ten thousand people. We just need to take only the moral values that are conveyed by these stories, rather than drilling down the facts.

We have also heard of the story where Lord Krishna gets sixteen thousand wives, but does it really mean that the lord had sixteen thousand wives? No, after Lord Krishna kills Narakasura, he releases the sixteen thousand women who were captured by Narakasura. Considering their good future, Lord Krishna gives them the position of Raja Patni or the position of king’s wife.

• We see that Asmajas is made to marry to see if he becomes a good person after marriage. Can marriage change the behavior of someone?

Our basic behavior is dependant on so many factors, sometimes the culture through which a child is brought up influences his/her character largely. Let us take two examples here:

The little eight-year-old Narendra comes home crying one day from school. His mother asks the reason and he said that when the teacher asked what everyone wanted to become in the future, he said he wanted to be a horse driver. Narendra used to treat horse drivers in Calcutta with great respect. His mother takes him to the pooja room and said that he should become a horse driver like Lord Parthasarathy (Lord Krishna, who was the charioteer of Partha or Arjuna during the Mahabharatha war) who was a horse driver to show light to the entire world through Arjuna. Narendra later became Swami Vivekanada who was indeed a driver who taught the entire world about Hinduism and a lot of other valuable things related to culture and humanity.

There was also a person named Koose Munisami, one day when he brought some robbed stuff home, his mother told him to rob and bring double the amount the next day. He became the bandit called Veerapa and was shot dead by the police eventually.

In basic Hindu culture, women are not just meant only for cooking and taking care of household chores. When a person gets married, the wife/mother is supposed to be bringing her husband and her kids on the right path if their path is wrong. She is not just treated as a slave. We normally say that Goddess Lakshmi is entering the house when a person gets married. It is because a wife or a mother is treated as a driver in leading her family. Normally marrying a person whose path is not good, can be effective if his wife is capable of bringing him to the right path.

Some people are like Asmajas who may not change under the influence of their parents/ spouses/culture. Unfortunately, nothing could be done in cases like that.