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Mahābhārata The History of the Great India
<< 17 The Story Of Krpa >>
| | King Janamejaya said: Great brahmana, kindly explain to me Krpa's origin. How could he take birth from a clump of grass, and how did he acquire his expert knowledge of weapons?
| | Sri Vaisampayana said: O mighty king, once the great seer Gautama had a son who was born with arrows and hence was named Saradvan. The child was inspired to study the Vedic texts that teach the military science rather than study the religious texts. Just as by austerity religious scholars master the Vedas, so by serious austerity did that child acquire expertise in all kinds of weapons. Wholly dedicated to the Dhanur Veda (the military science) and empowered by endless austerities, the son of Gautama greatly disturbed Lord Indra, king of the gods. O Kaurava, Indra then dispatched a heavenly maiden named Jalapadi, telling her, "You must go and break the austierities of that sage!"
| | Jalapadi approached the charming hermitage of Saradvan and found him standing with bow and arrows in hand. She enticed him. Seeing the Apsara maiden, who had but a single cloth to cover a figure unmatched in this world, the son of Gautama stared with wide-open eyes. His prized bow and arrows slipped from his hands and fell to the ground, for simply seeing her made his whole body tremble. Because of his continuous austerities, he had developed very heavy spiritual knowledge, and with his utmost self-discipline that sage of great learning stood his ground. But with the sudden transformations in his body, Saradvan unknowingly discharged semen, which fell into a clump of reeds. He then left behind his hermitage, and the woman and went away. Having fallen into a clump of reeds, the semen divided into two, O king, and thus twins were born of Saradvan, son of Gautama.
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