Mahabharata - King Somaka and his Ritwika

Somaka and his Ritwika

Once upon a time there lived a king named Somaka who had one hundred wives but had no son out of wedlock. The king was extremely unhappy on that account and after a very long time a son was born to one of the queens and he was named as Jantu. This son was very dear to all the queens and also the king. All the one hundred queens dotted on him and they were concerned if slightest of pains were caused to him and tried their best to provide him with all kinds of pleasure and objects of enjoyment.

One day an ant bit the child and the boy cried in pain. All the one hundred queens came rushing to the aid of the boy and they started crying as well. This created a tumultuous uproar which reached the ears of the king who was seated with his minsters with his Ritwika or priest by the side. The king, on hearing the noise, rushed to the chamber of his queens. He heard what had happened and he soothed his son. On coming back he became very forlorn and distressed. He told his ministers and priests that it was better to have no son at all than to have only one son and bear a constant anxiety, for in a world full of uncertainties that son could be victim to any accidents or disease. It was far better that he had no son at all as that would have ensured peace of mind. The king further lamented saying that if it was possible for him to obtain one hundred sons he would do that, by any means at his disposal, good or evil. One hundred sons would dispel his constant worry and he would have a worthy successor to his throne. He had tried all means at his disposal to get worth sons but they were of no avail and now he and his wives were aging.  So he would like to know if there was any way by which he could beget one hundred sons. Then his Ritwika said that there is a way by which he could obtain one hundred sons and that the Ritwika would help him. The king would have to perform a Yajna where the flesh and fat of Jantu would have to be offered as oblation and the fume of that oblation has to be smelled by the queens who would conceive by that process. Among the new born sons, Jantu himself would be born, and on his back there will be a mark of gold.

The king agreed to this ghastly proposal, desirous as he was of sons. Then the priest prepared for the sacrifice where Jantu had to be sacrificed. But when the child was brought for sacrifice his mothers were inconsolable and they did not let him go. They pulled him by his right hand. The Ritwika applied his full might to snatch the boy away from his mothers in the cruelest and vicious manner and the mothers cried and lamented piteously. The Ritwika dragged the son, killed him and made an offering with his fats in the fire. When the smell of that fat reached the nostrils of the queens they fell down unconscious. Soon the ghastly ritual was over and the one hundred queens became pregnant. In ten months the gave birth to one hundred sons and Jantu was reborn among them, being the eldest and the foremost. All his mothers loved him more than they loved their own sons and he had a golden mark on his back. He was also very intelligent and meritorious. The king was eternally grateful to the Ritwika for fulfilling his desire.

After some time the Ritwik died and king Somaka’s end also came. The king, when he went to heaven enquired after his priest, the Ritwika and saw that he was being grilled in the most terrible hell. On being asked, Ritwika replied, “Oh King, this torture is on account of mine having officiated in your yajna where I had offered our son as a sacrifice.  For that reason I have been put into hell. The king said that since it was he who permitted Ritwika to kill his son for his selfish desire it would only be proper that Ritwika should be set free and the king himself must be put into hell, for he only had permitted the sacrifice. At this dharma, the god of virtue said that one could not suffer on account of another person’s acts or faults because everbody’s karma is his own. So Ritwika will have to suffer on account of his karma and the king is entitled to blessed regions on account of his merits. The king said that since he had been equally responsible and had sanctioned the ghastly act, it was he who was primarily accountable and hence he should be an equal part. Moreover he would like to stay with his Ritwika who was suffering on his account and would also like to share the blessed regions along with him.

The king of death and justice dharma was very happy to hear this and he therefore ordered the king to share the punishment with his Ritwika. When the sins were worked out in hell, he, shared his merits with Ritwika, being find and grateful of him and then together enjoyed the blessed regions of heaven.