Utanka Restrains Brihadashva from Retiring to the Forest

Brihadashva was a king of the Ikshvaku line, descended from the solar dynasty that ruled Ayodhya. He had ruled well, protected his subjects, and raised a son named Kuvalashva who surpassed him in every quality — learned, powerful, unassailable, always immersed in dharma. When the time came, Brihadashva instated Kuvalashva on the throne, handed over the kingdom's prosperity, and walked away. He went to a hermitage to practise austerities. This was not an abdication of responsibility, as he saw it. He had fulfilled his kingly duty: he had raised an heir, secured the succession, and passed the burden of rule to capable hands. Now he was free to pursue the higher calling — the life of renunciation, the quiet accumulation of spiritual merit in the forest. Many kings before him had done the same. The sage Utanka heard what Brihadashva had done. Utanka was a brahmana of immense energy, limitless in his soul, and he did not approve. He went directly to the king — the foremost among men, skilled in all weapons — and tried to restrain him. "O king," Utanka said, "it is your duty to protect, and you should perform that duty. It is through your favours that we live without anxiety. Protected by a great-souled one like you, we will be without anxiety. Therefore, you should not depart for the forest." He made the argument plainly: great dharma can be seen in protecting the subjects. That cannot be seen in the forest. There is no dharma like protecting the subjects. The rajarshis (royal sages) of earlier times had practised this. Protect the subjects as they should be protected by the king. Then he added: "Else, I will not be able to perform my austerities without anxiety." He explained why. Near his hermitage was a desert region — an ocean of sand called Ujjanaka, many yojanas long and many yojanas wide. Beneath that sand lived an asura (demon) named Dhundhu. He was the son of Madhu and Kaitabha, the two asuras who had been slain by Vishnu at the beginning of creation. Dhundhu was infinitely valorous, extremely terrible, and he lay under the ground, engaged in terrible austerities for the sole purpose of destroying the world. He breathed once at the end of each year. When he breathed, the entire earth trembled — mountains, forests, groves — for seven days. His breath raised a great cloud of dust that blocked the sun. Sparks and flames mixed with terrible smoke erupted from the sand. And Utanka could not remain in his hermitage when this happened. Dhundhu could not be killed by the gods, the daityas, the rakshasas, the nagas, the yakshas, or any of the gandharvas. He had obtained a boon from Brahma, the grandfather of all the worlds, that made him invulnerable to them all. But there was a way. Vishnu himself had given Utanka a boon: whichever king killed Dhundhu would be united with Vishnu's own unassailable energy. That king would be capable of the deed because his energy would be increased by Vishnu's energy. "You are quite capable of destroying him," Utanka told Brihadashva. "Kill him and then go to the forest. Achieve this great deed and attain eternal and undecaying fame. When this asura has been killed, the worlds will be healthy again." Brihadashva had thought his kingly duty was done. Utanka told him it was not.