VISWAMITRA is one of the most interesting personages in the ancient .history of India. According to the Aitar6ya Brilliman'a. (see VEDA), his father was Glithin; and in a remoter degree Viswilmitra derived his pedigree from the king I'uniraras (q.v.). who was an ancestor of Kus'ika. In the Mahilbhilmta, Rilmayan'a, and the Purfin'as, his father is called Glidki, and theorigin of the latter likewise traced up to Purfiravas; but the distance between the two latter personages is differently filled up in the genealogies given by some of these works. As, according to several accounts, Viswainitra's sister was Satyavati, who married Richika, and bore to hint Tamadagni, he was the maternal grand-uncle of Puras'urdma (see VISHNU, the sixth Avatara). He had 100 tons, 50 of whom were, for an offense they committed. degraded by him to become outcasts, and the progenitors of the Andhras, Pun'd'rits, S'abaras, Pulindas, Mfit'ibas, and other fron tier tribes, which in the Vedas are called Dasyus, or robbers. Viswilmitra is the author of many hymns of the R'igveda (see VEDA), especially of its third, Man'dala; but his fame, which pervades all the periods of Sanskrit literature, is chiefly founded on cue remarkable fact, that though by birth a Kshattriya, or a man of the military caste—he i; al:a as a lla'ja of Ca tionj—lie succeeded in having himself admitted into the Brahmanic caste, after a long contest, which, for this end, he had to wagewith the Rishi Vasiiht ha (q.v.). That the result of this contest was the elevation of Viswamitra to the rank of a Brainnan'a, is the account given in the epic poems and the Puran'as; but as the rivalry between Viswamitra and Vasislit'ha is already alluded to in several passages of the Rigveda hymns, and as at their time the caste distinction of later periods of Hinduism was not yet established, it is probable that the later traditions relating to this contest rested on the circumstance, that Sarkis, a king named in the Ingveda, who, as is there stated, employed Vasisht'ha for his house-priest, allowed, for some unknown reason, also Viswamitra to officiate for hint at sacrifices, and that the latter, incurring on this ground the jealousy of Vasisht'ha, had to maintain, probably by force, the preroga tive conferred on him by his royal master. In the epic poems and the Puran'as, the rivalry between these two personages is the subject of several legends, which, considering the relative nge of the kings referred to in them, would encompass a period far exceed ino- that of the lifetime of a human being. A kind of consecutive biography of Vis wanntra is given in the first book of the Rilmayan'a, of which it forms one of the most interesting episodes. Its substance is as follows: Once, when roaming over the earth with his armies, Viswamitra came to the hermitage of Vasisht'ha, and was there received by the saint in the most sumptuous style. Vasisht'ha could afford to entertain the king in this manner, because he possessed a fabulous cow of plenty that yielded hint everything he desired. Viswarnitra, becoming aware of the of Vasislit'ha's wealth, strongly wished to possess the cow, and asked Vasisht'ha to sell her to him. The saint, how ever, refusing this offer, the king seized her, intending to carry her off by force. But the cow resisted, and ultimately displayed her supernatural powers in producing from different parts of her body numerous peoples, and by their aid destroying the armies of Viswamitra. The king then had recourse to the magical weapons he possessed, but they were defeated by those of Vasislit'ha; and to the humiliation thus inflicted on him he then gave vent in exclaiming: " Contemptible is the might of a Kshattriya; a Brah man's might alone is might." And reflecting on what he should do in this emergency, he resolved to practice austerities in order to attain the rank of a Brahman. In conse quence he went to the s. and performed severe penance during a thousand years; when, at the end of this period, the god Brahman appeared, and announced to him that lie had become a liajarshi, or royal Wishi. But Viswamitra, not satisfied with this degree of Itchiness, continued his austerities for another such period. During that time a king, Tris'anku of Ayodhya (Oudh), of the family of /k8hreaku, had conceived the design of performing a sacrifice, that lie might boldly ascend to heaven, and solietcd for this pur pose the assistance of Vasishaa, who was the family priest of all the Ikshwakus."
This saint, however, having declared the scheme of the king impossible, and his sons too, to whom the king likewise addressed himself, having refused compliance with his wishes, he told him that he would resort to another priest, and was, in consequence, cursed by them to become a man of the lowest caste. In this condition he went to Viswamitra; and the latter showed his power by by performing the sacrifice, so much desired by Tris'anku, and accomplishing his object, in spite of the resistance of Vasislit'ha and his sons, and that of the gods themselves. (The Ear/van-9'a relates this story with somewhat different detail, but brings it to the same issue. According to the Vishn'u-Puran'a, which alludes to the version mentioned in the last-named work, Tris'anku was the 28th in descent from Ikshwaku; but in the Ramayan'a, there are only five kings between Ikshwaku and Tris'anku.) This event having caused a serious interruption in the austerities of he proceeded to the forest Pushkara, in the west, to remain undisturbed. But while he resided there, it so happened that Ambarisha, another king of Ayodhya, intending to perform an expiatory sacrifice, and requiring a human victim for this purpose, after a long search, had bought for immolation from the Brahman Ridlika, the brother-in-law of Viswamitra• his son ffunaldepha, and was bringing him home to his capital. On his journey, he halted in the forest Pushkara, and when S'unahs'epha there saw his uncle Viswamitra, he implored hint to come to his rescue. Viswamitra first directed fifty of his sons to offer themselves up as a ransom for their cousin, and, on tt their refusing to do so, cursed them to become outcasts; but afterward taught btinnlis'epha two hymns, which, as he said, if sung by him at the sacrifice, would save his life. (In the genealogy of the Ramayan'a, there are twenty-one kings betwen Tris anku and Ambarisha; in that of the Vishn'u-Puran'a, fifteen kings; and in the former, between Ikshwaku and Ambarisha, twenty-seven; and in the latter, between Iltshwaku and Ambarisha, the successor of Traanku, forty-three kings.) The liberation of S'u nabs% epha having been effected,- and Viswamitra having continued his penance for another thousand years. the god Brahman conferred on him the dignity of a Hishi. But not yet satisfied with this distinction, he went on practicing still fiercer austerities than those he had practiced before. These the gods succeeded in depriving for a time of their spiritual efficacy, by sending him a heavenly nymph, 3fenakii, who excited his worldly passions; still, in the end, he attained the rank of a Mabarshi, or great R'ishi. And after two other thousand years of still more rigorous penance, Which for a time was again interrupted by the allurements of a nymph; Ramhha, whom the gods had sent for the same purpose as previously Menaka, the gods, headed by Brahman, came to acknowledge that he had now become a Bralnnarshi. or Brahmanic and Vasisht'ha himself was compelled to eNprass acquiescence in the result he had achieved.
For other legends relating to this contest between Viswilmitra and Vasisht'ha, see vol. 1. of John Air's Original Sanskrit Texts (Load. 1858); and the article HARIS'CILANDRA. Compare also Visure'n, the 7th Avatara.—The name of Viswainitra is explained in the MArkan'd'eya-PurtIn'a as representing a compound, vis'wa, "all," and amitre, "no-friend," and meaning "one who is no-friend at all, sal., the three worlds." The 3Iahabhfirata, however, explains it as vis'wa, with its final vowel lengthened, and mitre, friend, when it would imply that Viswilmitra was " the friend of all, sett., the gods;" and Idska, the oldest writer, who gives an etymology of this name, likewise renders it "friend of all." The former etymology would seem the more regular; but as in Vedic inseparable com pounds the final vowel of the first part is frequently lengthened, the latter etymology is the preferable of the two.