Markandeya said:—Those seven ganders, ever practising Yoga and ranging
in the Mānasa lake, namely Padmagarbha, Aravindaksha, Kshiragarbha,
Sulochana, Uruvindu, Suvindu and Hemagarbha, used always to live upon
air and water and nourish their body (1–2). At that time shining in the
grace of his person and surrounded by his female companions the king was
ranging in that forest like the king of celestials in the pleasure
garden of Nandana (3). By their earnestness and other external marks the
king perceived that those birds were Yogins. Then out of shame⁴⁶ and
thinking upon it he returned to his own city (4). He had a highly pious
son by name Anuha. He had his eye on the minutest details of morality
and accordingly became the Defender of Faith (5). Sukha conferred upon
him his accomplished and worshipful daughter Kritvi gifted with all
auspicious marks and endued with the quality of goodness (6). O Bhishma,
formerly Sanatkumār mentioned that beautiful damsel to me as Pivari, the
daughter of the ancestral manes Vahirshadas (7). She was the foremost of
the truthful, beyond the comprehension of persons of uncontrolled mind,
was herself an ascetic, the wife of a Yogin and the mother of a Yogin
(8). I had described this to you before while giving an account of the
ancestral manes. Having placed Anuha on the throne, welcomed the
citizens with a delighted heart and made the Brāhmanas perform the
benedictory rite the king Vibhrāja repaired to the Mānasa lake, where
the ganders were ranging, for carrying on hard austerities (9–10).
Having renounced all desires, abstained from food and living on air only
he began to practise penances on one side of that lake (11). O
descendant of Bharata, his resolution was that he might become the son
of one of them and thus acquire Yoga (12). Having made this resolution
he began to carry on hard austerities and shone there like the sun (13).
O foremost of Kurus, on account of its being rendered brilliant by
Vibhrāja that forest, where the four ascetic ganders and the other three
who had deviated from the path of Yoga gave up their lives, became
celebrated by the name Vaibhrāja (14–15). Being freed from sins those
seven high-souled men (born as birds) were born in the city of Kāmpilya
under the names of Brahmadatta and others (16). Amongst them four, by
knowledge, meditation and asceticism, mastered the holy Vedas and
Vedangas and had (a good) memory. The other three remained in ignorance
(17). Swatantra was born as the highly illustrious son of Anuha by the
name of Brahmadatta. According to his resolution in the previous birth
as a bird he was endued with knowledge, meditation and Tapas and
mastered the Vedas and Vedangas (18). Chitradarshi and Sunetra were born
as _Srotrya_⁴⁷ Brāhmanas, well read in the Vedas with all their
auxiliaries, in the races Vābhravya and Vatsa (19). For having lived
with him in the previous birth they became helpmates to Brahmadatta. The
others were born as Pānchāla, Pinchika and Kandarika (20).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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