Rohita
Rohita ( Sanskrit रोहित rohita "red horse") or Rohitashva ( रोहिताश्व rohitāśva ) is a king of Ayodhya from the Suryavamsha dynasty in Indian mythology . He is the son of Harishchandra .
myth
In the Aitareya Brahmana it is said that the childless Harishchandra swore to the god Varuna that if he had a son he would sacrifice him to the god. But when the boy Rohita was born to the king, he delayed the fulfillment of the cruel oath with various excuses. When the father finally found no more excuse and prepared to sacrifice his son, the latter refused and fled to the forest, where he lived for six years.
Finally Rohita met in the forest on a poor Rishi called Ajigarta ( अजीगर्त ajīgarta "nothing to eat"), the three sons had, the eldest was Shunahpuchcha ( शुनःपुच्छ śunaḥpuccha ), the Middle was Shunashepa ( शुनःशेप śunaḥśepa ) and the youngest was Shunolangula ( शुनोलाङ्गूल śunolāṅgūla ). All three names mean "dog-tailed", in the case of Shunashepa also "dog penis". Rohita now offered Ajigarta to buy one of the three sons for the price of a hundred cows in order to sacrifice him in his place to Varuna. The starving Rishi was not ready to give up his eldest for it, the mother of the three was not ready to have the youngest sacrificed, so they agreed on the middle one, Shunashepa.
Rohita then went with Shunashepa to his father, who found the substitute sacrifice acceptable and the god was also satisfied with it, since the son of the Rishi was a brahmin , but Rohita belonged to the secondary warrior caste of the Kshatriya . At the offering ceremony, however, no one was willing to tie up the victim until Shunashepa's greedy father offered to bind his own son. When the slaughter is to be carried out at the climax of the sacrificial rite, no one wants to carry out the deed again until Ajigarta agrees to kill her own son for a third hundred cattle. But the latter prays to the gods, who finally save him from sacrificial death. One of the sacrificial priests, the great sage Vishvamitra , finally takes Shunashepa, who no longer wants to know anything about a return to the father, in place of his son.
The Markandeya Purana reports of another encounter between the son Harishchandras, named Rohitashva , and Vishvamitra. Harishchandra has therefore promised Vishvamitra as a penance for a disturbance to fulfill every wish. Vishvamitra now demands from the king his kingdom and all possessions, which are also fulfilled. The completely impoverished king then moves with his wife Shaibya and son Rohitashva to Varanasi , to the holy city of Shiva , the only place to which the rule of Vishvamitra does not extend. But Vishvamitra already awaits the exiled royal family there and demands further gifts from the penniless king, who knows no other way of helping himself than to sell his son, his wife and finally himself into slavery. A year later, Rohitashva was bitten by a snake while picking flowers and died. The desperate mother brings the son to the cremation site ( Smashana ). There she recognizes her husband in one of the slaves, who, to all his misery, learns of the death of his child. The parents decide to burn themselves together at his son's stake. However, Harishchandra has concerns, as he is no longer master of his life as a slave. In the face of such superhuman conscientiousness and piety of Harishchandra, the gods Indra , Vishnu and Dharma appear on the cremation site along with Vishvamitra.
The son is resuscitated and installed in the kingdom of his father, but the parents and all their friends are transported to a heavenly city where they spend the days in eternal joy.
Rohitashva ruled the Ayodhya kingdom as the successor to his father. The city of Rohtas is said to go back to its foundation. His successor as king was Harita .
literature
- Arthur Berriedale Keith: Rigveda Brahmanas: the Aitareya and Kausītaki Brāhmanas of the Rigveda . Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1920, pp. 299-309.
- Harishchandra . In: John Dowson : A classical dictionary of Hindu mythology and religion, geography, history, and literature. Trübner & co., London 1879, pp. 118-119 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
- Shunah Shepas . In: John Dowson : A classical dictionary of Hindu mythology and religion, geography, history, and literature. Trübner & co., London 1879, pp. 308-309 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rohita, Rohitāśva . In: Monier Monier-Williams : Sanskrit-English Dictionary . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1899, p. 890, col. 3 .
- ↑ Aitareya Brahmana VII, 3
