Vishvamitra covets Vashishtha's wish-cow Shabala

Classical

The Vishvamitra-Vashishtha feud started over a cow.

King Vishvamitra arrives at the hermitage of Vashishta with his entire army, and the sage decides to honor his guest properly. He calls on Shabala, his wish-granting cow, and she gives each person what he desires. Out come sugarcane and honey dishes, rice, parched grain, drinks of many kinds, mountains of hot rice, curries, sweets, lentil dumplings, curds and milk preparations, and thousands of silver vessels of sugar candy and jaggery treats. The whole army eats until it is content, and Vishvamitra, with his queens, scholars, priests and ministers, is delighted.

That delight turns into longing. In high spirits, Vishvamitra thanks Vashishta for the welcome, and then makes his request: give me Shabala. His reasoning is that of a king. A cow like this is a jewel, he says, and jewels belong to the king. He offers a hundred thousand ordinary cows in exchange.

Vashishta says no. Not for a hundred thousand cows, not for hundreds of millions, not for any heap of silver. Shabala, he says, is as much a part of him as honor is to a self-respecting man, and to give her up would be wrong. Then he lists what she does for him. She makes his life possible. The offerings to gods and ancestors, the fire rites, the new-moon and full-moon sacrifices, and the very syllables of ritual such as svaha and vashat all depend on her. She cannot be given away for any reason.

Vishvamitra, who is described as clever in argument, simply raises his price. He offers fourteen thousand elephants with golden girdles, necklaces and goads. He offers eight hundred golden chariots, each with four white horses and bells. He adds eleven thousand fast, well-bred horses from famous breeding regions, and ten million cows of many colors, all in milk. And finally he says Vashishta can name any quantity of gold or gems he likes.

Vashishta's answer to the last offer is the most revealing. He will not give Shabala up in any circumstances, he says. She is his gem, his wealth, his everything, his very life. His new-moon and full-moon rites, his sacrifices and gifts all rest on her. All his work depends on this one cow, and he will not part with the wish-fulfilling milker.

The scene is told to Rama by Shataananda, the priest of Janaka, as part of the story of how Vishvamitra became who he is. It is the hinge of the whole tale: a king who is used to getting what he wants meets a sage for whom price is simply the wrong category. The refusal does not end things; the story goes on in the chapters that follow, which were not read for this retelling, so this one stops where sarga 53 stops.

The translator's commentary on the page notes that Vashishta's firmness hints at the cow's sacredness, and compares the idea with the Mahabharata's teaching on the cow in the Anushasana Parva. Elsewhere in the same long tale, which Shataananda tells Rama, Vishvamitra is shown on a road of long austerities that ends with him at Dasharatha's court, asking for Rama. Here, at the start of it, he meets a man for whom price is simply the wrong category.

Who: Vishvamitra, Vashishtha, Shabala

Bound to

Vishvamitra and Menaka; Rambha sent by Indra causes

Trishanku's attempt to go to heaven bodily causes

Shunashepa sold for sacrifice mirror

Where this comes from

valmiki · Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda (valmikiramayan.net translation) sarga 53
read for this telling · valmikiramayan.net Valmiki Ramayana Bala Kanda sarga 53

See it on the tree · All stories

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