Devalok
From the epics · 1 telling · Pan-India

Saraswati carries Vasishtha and is cursed to run with blood

Who is in it

Texts: Mahabharata

The story, beat by beat

  1. Vishvamitra orders the river Sarasvati to bring Vasishtha to him so that he can kill him.
  2. Trembling, she tells Vasishtha, who tells her to carry him and save herself from a curse.
  3. She washes away her bank and bears Vasishtha to Vishvamitra; Vasishtha praises her as Speech.
  4. While Vishvamitra looks for a weapon she carries Vasishtha back to the eastern bank.
  5. Vishvamitra curses her to flow with blood; she does so for a year.
  6. Sages worship Mahadeva and free her; the stream Aruna is made.

rivalry curse river rescue

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Mahabharata, Shalya Parva 42-43

Pan-India All traditions

Vasishtha and Vishvamitra live on opposite banks. Vishvamitra commands the river to bring his rival; fearing both men's curses she obeys, with Vasishtha's leave, then sweeps him away again before he can be harmed. Vishvamitra curses her water to turn to blood, and Rakshasas gather to drink it. A year later visiting sages free her by worshipping Mahadeva, and she forms the Aruna in which the Rakshasas are released.

The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer § shalya.42; The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer § shalya.43

Sources: The Mahabharata, tr. K. M. Ganguli (1883-96), sections read for the Vedic layer

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