Asmarisarin

Created by Jijith Nadumuri at 23 Jul 2011 08:24 and updated at 23 Jul 2011 08:24

VISHNU PURANA NOUN

vp.4.20

In the kingdom over which santanu ruled there was no rain for twelve years. Apprehensive that the country would become a desert, the king assembled the Brahmans, and asked them why no rain fell, and what fault he had committed. They told him that he was as it were a younger brother married before an elder, for he was in the enjoyment of the earth, which was the right of his elder brother Devapi. "What then am I to do?" said the Raja: to which they replied, "Until the gods shall be displeased with Devapi, by his declining from the path of righteousness, the kingdom is his, and to him therefore you should resign it." When the minister of the king, Asmarisarin, heard this, he collected a number of ascetics who taught doctrines opposed to those of the Vedas, and sent them into the forest; where meeting with Devapi, they perverted the understanding of the simple minded prince, and led him to adopt heretical notions. In the meantime, santanu being much distressed to think that he had been guilty of the offence intimated by the Brahmans, sent them before him into the woods, and then proceeded thither himself, to restore the kingdom to his elder brother. When the Brahmans arrived at the hermitage of Devapi, they informed him, that, according to the doctrines of the Vedas, succession to a kingdom was the right of the elder brother: but he entered into discussion with them, and in various ways advanced arguments which had the defect of being contrary to the precepts of the Vedas.

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