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Rishyaśringa

RISHYASRINGA. [Source: Dowson's Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology] 'The deer-horned.' A hermit, the son of Vibhandaka, descended from Kasyapa. According to the Ramayana and Mahabharata he was born of a doe and had a small horn on his forehead. He was brought up in the forest by his father, and saw no other human being till he was verging upon manhood. There was great drought in the country of Anga, and the king, Lomapada, was advised by his Brahmans to send for the youth Rishyasringa, who should marry his daughter Santa, and be the means of obtaining rain. A number of fair damsels were sent to bring him. He accompanied them back to their city, the desired rain fell, and he married Santa. This Santa was the adopted daughter of Lomapada; her real father was Dasaratha, and it was Rishyasringa who performed that sacrifice for Dasaratha which brought about the birth of Rama.

Modern Languages MLLL-4993. Indian Epics. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. The textual material made available at this website is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. No claims are made regarding the status of images used at this website; if you own the copyright privileges to any of these images and believe your copyright privileges have been violated, please contact the webmaster. Page last updated: October 16, 2007 12:22 PM