Mahabharata - Agastya and Slaying of Vatapi

Sage Agastya and slaying of demon Vatapi

In the olden days there used to live a demon king called Ilvala in the city of Manimati. He had a brother called Vatapi. He once asked for a boon of a son from a brahmin (sage) but being refused he got angry and decided to destroy all brahmins. He therefore transformed his brother Vatapi into a ram and invited the Brahmins to dinner. Vatapi, who could assume any form, could also be saved by Ilvala by his magical powers and hence when the ram was dressed and offered to the brahmins for dinner, it would survive in the stomach of the the invited guests. Whenever Ilvala would call his brother by name, the ram would come out of the stomach of the guest, in the process killing the poor man. In this was Vatapi and Ilvala carried out their nefarious designs of killing brahmins and Rishis.

Sage Agastya, who was a very powerful Rishi, one day saw his deceased ancestors (Pitris) hanging in a pit head downwards and asked them the reason for it. The Pitris responded that they were in the risk of falling in hell on account of Agastya having no descendant. Therefore Agastya should marry and bear a child who could save the ancestors from the hell. Agastya agreed and created his own future wife with the help of his great ascetic merits and gave her (mentally) to the king of the Vidarbha, who had no offspring. When the beautiful girl was born to the king he called upon the learned brahmins of his kingdom who named her Lopamudra. Lopamudra grew up amidst splendour with many damsels surrounding her all the time. When she grew up, the king was very concerned about who to give her daughter in marriage. she was very beautiful but no other king dared approach her on fear of the king of Vidarbha.

One day sage Agastya approached the king and requested him to give Lopamudra to him in marraige. By seeing the dishevelled and old appearance of the great sage the king was very disconcerted and was not at all willing to have him as his son in law. However for fear of the great sage he could not refuse him. He however was very sad and went to his queen and wanted to know his viewpoint. The queen was distressed as well. Lopamudra, upon hearing what passed between her father and the Rishi and seeing the dejected condition of her parents came forward and told them that she would willingly marry Agastya. At this, the king then arranged for the marriage and Agastya was happily married to Lopamudra. He however asked the princess to renounce all her costly dresses and ornaments and dress up like a poor brahmin's wife. Lopamudra did the same and she served her husband wholeheartedly while the latter was engaged in ascetic penances.

After some time Agastya wanted to have a child with Lopamudra remembering his vows to his ancestors. However Lopamudra set some conditions before bringing in a child. She wanted the sage to have a more gentle appearance, adorned with garlands and ornaments, and to have some wealth. The sage agreed, but however he did not have any wealth. He did not want to lose his ascetic merit by using it for the selfish purpose of acquiring wealth, nor did he wish to go and beg for money from his rich father in law. He therefore went out in search of wealth and met king Srutarvan. The king went out to the frontiers of the kingdom to greet and meet the great sage and gave him due offerings with great respect and enquired the purpose of his arrival. Agastya said that since he knew the king to be very rich, he had come to beg a portion of his wealth for himself. The king provided his detail expenditure and income and the great sage saw that the king's income and expenditure was almost same i.e. he did not possess any savings. With king Srutarvan, Agastya then went to another king and found the same thing, i.e. he did not possess anything to be shared with Agastya. He visited a third king with the two other kings accompanying him but found the same situation repeated. The kings then told Agastya that there was a demon king named Ilvala who possessed great wealth. They should go to him and beg some wealth for Agastya. accordingly they all went to Ilvala who, hearing the news of their arrival, came out to greet them and pay them his respect. He then dressed the meat of his brother Vatapi, who took the form of a ram for the purpose of killing Agastya, and served the guests. The kings were saddened and seeing this terrible phenomenon were bereft of their senses. However Agastya told them not to worry and he ate up the entire meat. After the dinner was over Ilvala began to summon his brother, "Oh, Vatapi, where are you? Please come here." However Agastya belched loudly and said to the demon king that his brother had been digested by him and now he could never come. At this Ilvala became very sad and also afraid and he asked the sage as to what he wanted. Agastya asked him to give enough gold to him and the three kings who had come with him and Ilvala, with lot of heartburn, had to comply. The kings then went back to their respective kingdoms and Agastya returned to Lopamudra. To them was born a very illustrious son.