Note 8 — G

Harischandi.—A Vaishnava sect who take their name from the celebrated Râja Haris Chandra, whose legend is thus told by Prof. Dowson:8—“He was the twenty-eighth King of the Solar race and son of Trisanku. He was celebrated for his piety and justice. There are several legends about him. The Aitareya Brâhmana tells the story of his purchasing Sunahsephas to be offered up as a vicarious sacrifice for his own son. The Mahâbhârata relates that he was raised to the heaven of Indra for his performance of the Râjasûya sacrifice and for his unbounded liberality. The Mârkandeya Purâna expands the story at considerable length. One day while Haris Chandra was hunting he heard female lamentations, which proceeded from the Sciences, who were being mastered by the austerely fervid sage Viswamitra, and were crying out in alarm at his superiority. Haris Chandra, as defender of the distressed, went to the rescue, but Viswamitra was so provoked by his interference, that the Sciences instantly perished, and Haris Chandra was reduced to a state of the most abject helplessness. Viswamitra demanded the sacrificial gift due to him as a Brâhman, and the King offered him whatever he might choose to ask—gold, his own son, wife, life, kingdom, good fortune, whatever was dearest. Viswamitra stripped him of wealth and kingdom, leaving him nothing but a garment of bark and his wife and son. In a state of destitution he left his kingdom, and Viswamitra struck Saibya, the queen, with his staff to hasten her reluctant departure. To escape from his oppressor he proceeded to the holy city of Benares, but the relentless sage was waiting for him and demanded the completion of the gift. With bitter grief wife and child were sold, and there remained only himself. Dharma, the god of justice, appeared in the form of a hideous and offensive Chandâla and offered to buy him. Notwithstanding the exile’s repugnance and horror, Viswamitra insisted upon the sale, and Haris Chandra was carried off bound, beaten, confused, and afflicted, to the abode of the Chandâla. He was sent by his master to steal clothes from the graves in a cemetery. In this horrid place and degrading work he spent twelve months. His wife then came to the cemetery to perform the obsequies of her son, who had died from the bite of a serpent. They recognised each other, and Haris Chandra and his wife resolved to die upon the funeral pyre of their son, though he hesitated to take away his own life without the leave of his master. After all was prepared he gave himself up to meditation of Vishnu. The gods then arrived headed by Dharma and accompanied by Viswamitra. Dharma entreated him to refrain from his intention, and Indra informed him that he, his wife, and son had conquered heaven by their good works. Haris Chandra declared that he could not go to heaven without the permission of his master the Chandâla. When this difficulty was removed, Harischandra objected to go to heaven without his faithful subjects. This request was granted by Indra, and after Viswamitra had inaugurated Rohitaswa, the king’s son, to be his successor, Haris Chandra, his friends and followers, all ascended in company to heaven. There he was induced by the sage Nârada to boast of his merits, and this led to his expulsion from heaven. As he was falling, he repented of his faults and was forgiven. His downward course was arrested, and he and his followers dwell in an aerial city, which, according to popular belief, is still occasionally visible in mid air.”