Storytelling for Week 12: The Story of Rishyashringa

Now, son, I think you have reached the age where you can finally understand how children are really born. I know you may think you know how it all works, but you would be surprised to find out that there are actually other ways that it could happen. You see, in order for a baby to be born, it needs to be conceived by both a male and a female directly, well at least that is how it normally happens. But, in one case, it didn't exactly happen like that. Let me tell you a story about a man who became a father in a sort of unconventional way, and then ended up devoting the rest of his life protecting him.

Once upon a time there was a magnificent god named, Urvashi. Urvashi was a beautiful woman that was quite the gem to look at. One day, a hermit who goes by the name of Vibhandaka decided to stray out of his little hut and happened to see the beautiful Urvashi while she was bathing. He had never seen such a sight, and he wasn't quite sure what to think of it. He ejaculated into the lake at just the sight of her. Later on that day, a deer came to that same very lake to get a drink of water. It just so happened that the sperm from Vibhandaka was in the water that the deer drank. As a result of this, Rishyashringa was born. He was the son of Vibhandaka and the deer that had drinken the lake water. Since Rishyashringa was born from a man and a deer, he was born with a horn coming out of his forehead. This set him apart from the other children. His father, Vibhandada, felt he owed it to his son to keep him in isolation and away from others. He wanted to keep his son innocent from the worldly ways. He grew up in a hermitage, not even knowing what a female was. Since he had been kept in isolation his whole life, Rishyashringa had such a pure heart. This shows true because when the country of Agna was in a terrible drought, the only thing that could solve the problem and bring in rain was someone with a pure heart. The king's daughter was sent into the forest to get him in order to bring rain and save their country. The sight of her, was something Rishyashringa had never seen in his life. He was confused why this man had long hair and a strange voice. His father then had to explain to him what a female is.

Photo Information: Wikipedia

Author's Note: I decided to do my storytelling post for this week about the story of Rishyashringa because I had a whole section in my reading diary about it. I found it to be a really interesting story, so when I saw the prompt about it I knew right away that I wanted to do it. I thought it would add a little bit of humor if I turned it into a sex talk of some sort. I decided to change it a little bit in order to make it more simple and fun.


The Mahabharata by William Buck

Week 12: Reading Diary B - Arjuna Comes Back

Reading Diary Pg. 139-189
The Mahabharata by William Buck

• The reading begins with Arjuna being cursed off because he refuses Urvashi's advances. I wonder, what exactly his advances mean? Is there something behind it? His punishment is that he has been cursed to live an entire year as a eunuch. 
• Chitrathara, lord of the gandharvas has been ordered by Indra to aid Arjuna in music and dancing. This is interesting to me because I wonder what exactly the tie to music and dancing is. I feel like there hasn't been a lot of this aspect included into the books we've read thus far.  I found this part really interesting. He also aids in helping Arjuna disguise himself, which would help him since he is exiled for thirteen years. He also teaches him the use of divine weapons - I wonder what exactly are "divine" weapons?
• The story of Mankanaka is told - Mankanaka lived in a forest and lived off of eating plants. When he would get a cut, instead of blood coming out, grass juice would come out. The fact that grass juice was coming out of himself made him so happy that he would jump up and down and dance. His dance was contagious and soon the whole world was dancing with him! Some gods were worried that all of this dancing would destroy the earth. So, god Shiva was sent down to earth to tell him to stop dancing. As soon as Mankanaka saw that god Shiva had come down to see him, he stopped dancing.
• The story of Rishyashringa is told - Rishyasringa's birth was induced by Urvashi. Vibhandaka had seen Urvashi bathing causing him to ejaculate into a lake and a deer had drank the water from that same lake. Rishyashringa ended up being the product of Vibhandaka and the deer, hence why he has antlers. The King of Agna was told that only a man with such a pure heart at Rishyashringa could cure the drought. So, his daughter Shanta offered to bring him into the city. He came to the city, bringing along rain with him and ended up marrying Shanta. 
• Meanwhile, the Pandavas venture on a journey to Mount Kailasa. Near Rishava's mountain, the Pandavas are attacked by the mountain. Hanuman comes back into the story. He blocks the path that Bhima is trying to go on, but then Hanuman tells Bhima where he could find the Lotus lake. Bhima ends up taking the Lotus flower from the lake and Matali returns Arjuna to earth where he is finally rejoiced with his brothers! He brings along with him heavy weapons.