VASISHTIIA (the superlative of the Sanskrit rose mat., wealthy) is the name of one of the most celebrated Vedic Rdshis (q.v.), the author of several 1)3 mns of the veda, and a personage who seems to have played an important part in the early his tory of the Brahmanic or priestly caste of the Hindus. In the account given of him, historical events and mythological fictions are so much blended together that it is scarcely possible to gather more from it, for certain, than that he was a sage of high reputation, and a priest jealous of the privileges and the position of his caste, and ever ready to assert its superiority over the second or military and royal caste. In one of his R igveda hymns he claims to have been enlightened by the god Vartin'a; and in another he is called the son of Jfitra and Trarun'a (q.v.), born from the mind of Urra4, (q.v.). In other Vedic passages his pre-eminence over other R'ishis, and his acquaint ance with sacred and sacrificial knowledge are extolled. In the Malialairata (q.v.), which also calls him the son of Mitra and Yartm'a—whence his appellation there, Maitnirarun'i—he is mentioned as imparting divine knowledge to king .Tanaka. and as the family priest of the race of Ikshwaku ; and iu the Puran'as lie is said to have been one of the arrangers of the Vedas in the Dv:apara age. In Mann and the Puran'as he becomes a patriarch, one of the nine mind-born sons of the god Brahman; and. according to some, marries •rja (strength); according to others, Arundhati. one of the Pleiades, by whom he has seven sons. Various other legends relating to him always
endearor to impress the Hindu mind whh his Brahmanic power over kings and Kshattriyas ftenerally. Thus, so great was his power, as the Raghuvans'a relates. that when king billpa was doomed to remain childless, because lie had inadvertently offended the fabulous cow Surabhi, he was released of this curse by faithfully attending on the cow of Vasisht'ha, which was the cow of plenty, and an offspring of Surabhi. But the most interesting episode of his life is that relating to his conflict with Vis'Irei mitre (q.v.). A Vasisht'ha is also mentioned as the author of a law-book; but whether he is, or is intended to be, the same personage as the ancient sage, may be doubtful. The name is often written Vas'ishtha, when it would be the superlative of Vas'a, mean ing " the most humble"—which the epic and Puranie Vasisht'ha certainly was not—or of Vas'in, meaning "the sage who has thoroughly subdued his passions"—which, too, would seem to be a rather strange epithet of the irascible saint. But though the name of the owner of the cow of plenty, who could obtain anything he desired, is doubtless correctly spelled Vasislit'ha, the less correct spelling must nevertheless have been cur rent for a considerable time, since so early a poet as Kalidasa (q.v.), in his Raghuvans'a, puns on the words vas'i vas'isht'ha, the sage with subdued passions."—See, for the legends concerning Vasisht'ha, J. Muir's Original Sanskrit Testa, vol. i. (1858):