In the kingdom of Anga there occurred a severe drought. King Romapada performed sacrifices, havans and all kinds of prayers but the situation did not improve. He turned to the head priest for advice. The priest advised, “Your Majesty, you must somehow or other bring the sage named Rishayasringa here to perform a special puja. He is very famous for bringing the rains as he has kept Lord Indra very pleased with him.”
Rishayasringa was born in the forest and carried a horn on his forehead. As he had spent his entire childhood and youth in the forest, he had not seen any human being apart from his parents. The priest knew that it was difficult to bring him out of the forest as that was his entire world. So he suggested to the king to create an entire environment of the forest and somehow or the other persuade Rishayasringa or entice him to visit the kingdom.
The king called his advisers and asked them how such a landscape could be created. They told him that it was no problem and got down to preparing the blueprint for the task. Builders were called and after some time a forest was created in the kingdom leading to the forest where Rishayasringa lived. The artificial forest had one path leading to the king’s palace. Even a channel was constructed in the forest and a boat was made to ply. A beautiful girl was made to row the boat and take it into the forest where Rishayasringa was strolling. On seeing a boat come near and that too with a beautiful maiden rowing it, he could not help admiring the scene. Slowly and with hesitant steps, he approached the girl and began to talk to her. The young maiden told him, “Come with me. I will take you to a forest where maidens much prettier than me reside. You will simply forget everything and get lost in the beautiful world there.”
Rishayasringa thought for a while and wanted to go and seek permission from his father but his father was not at home. So he decided to go for a while and come back and tell his father about his experience.
The maiden helped him climb on to her boat and rowed him for a long distance, taking him through the real forest and then the artificial forest before guiding him to the king’s palace. Rishayasringa was absolutely taken by surprise to see such a beautiful palace glittering at night. Even the people dressed in all their finery impressed him. Arrangements had already been made for him to perform the havan and conduct the sacrifice. As soon as he completed the payers, it began to rain. The people began to dance with joy.
The king turned to Rishayasringa to persuade him to marry his daughter. He called out to his daughter and when Rishayasringa saw the princess, he was smitten by her. He agreed to marry her and whenever any drought occurred he was there to perform his prayers to Lord Indra.
Meanwhile his father returned and on finding his son missing, he went out in search of him. He was very angry about it all, but when he reached the palace and found his son happily sitting with the princess, he returned to the forest. Rishayasringa stayed in the palace for some time but soon began to long for the natural environment of the forest. So taking his wife along with him, he too returned to the forest to live with his father.
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