SAGE AGASTYA ATE VATAPI DEMON

Sage Agastya Marries Lopamudra, fulfils her wish and Sage kills two demon

During the exile, Sage Lomasa met with Pandavas. They all went on pilgrimage. They reached close to the hermitage of sage Agastya. Yudhishthira wished to know about the demon Vatapi who sage Agastya had eaten and had destroyed another demon Ilvala out of anger. Lomasa instructed the Pandavas on the story behind this which I'm going to narrate right here in brief.

Ilvala was the elder brother of Vatapi. Ilvala had the strength that he could make any lifeless individual come alive simply by way of calling his name whereas Vatapi was blessed to take anyone's form. One day Ilvala noticed an Ascetic Brahmin and wished for a son similar to Deiti Indra. That Brahmin denied doing such. Angry Ilvala in order to take revenge started out killing all the Brahmins. Vatapi took the shape of any goat, Ilvala cooked it and fed it to Brahmins. Then Ilvala via his power called his brother's name and who then killed all the Brahmins by coming back to life. Both brothers used to do this to all the Brahmins.

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During those days Agastya sage was once going somewhere and saw his ancestors hanging downwards from a pit. They all were suffering because of having no descendants as Agastya used to be unmarried. To relieve them from such stress, Sage agreed and sought for a woman to wed. He imagined a beautiful creature and shaped it into a tremendous lady. At that time Vidarbha King was meditating for a child. So Agastya blessed him with the girl. Brahmins named her 'Lopamudra'. She was properly behaved and pretty. She grew to be prepared for marriage. Agastya heard about it, went to the kingdom, and asked for her hand from the king. King was stunned by such a proposal. He couldn't say no to the sage. Seeing her father sad, Lopamudra told him to marry her off to the sage. King agreed to his daughter's wish and Sage Agastya and Lopamudra got married. Before leaving the palace Agastya asked his spouse to leave her expensive earrings and garments, that she was wearing at that time at the palace only and to put on clothes similar to an Ascetic.

She left the kingdom with Agastya. She was devoted and courteous towards her husband. One day Agastya was pleased with his wife and wished to be intimate with her.

Lopamudra politely told him, "Sage! I am aware of your desire for a son from me for sure. But I additionally have certain needs in my mind and want you to fulfil those for me. I wish to intimate with you on a luxurious bed just like my palace's mattress on which I  used to sleep in my father's kingdom and both of us to be dressed in pricey embellishes and garments before we get close to each other"

Agastya told her, "It is impossible as both of us are having no money. Also, I must not fetch gold, embellishes with the aid of my Ascetic power due to the fact that it will consequence me a loss in my Austerities disciplines. "

In order to fulfil her demands, He went to some kingdoms and begged for wealth. They welcomed him and presented him with their profits and expenditure details in front of the sage and requested him to take a certain quantity of the money. But Agastya could see that it would end up making certain humans suffer if he took any money out of it. So he left the kingdoms and in the end, reached the Kingdom of the Ikshavaku dynasty. King also did the same however Sage could not take any cash from him. King advised him to beg money from the wealthy demon Ilvala.

Agastya alongside some sages went to meet the demon Ilvala.  The demon welcomed all of them and as usual, cooked his brother Vatapi and served the meat to the sages. The sages were frightened to see Vatapi was cooked as a goat there. Agastya consoled them and ate the whole cooked meat of Vatapi. When Ilvala referred to by his brother's name he couldn't come out of Agastya's stomach. Agastya then farted loudly there and smilingly instructed Ilvala that he had already digested his brother Vatapi inside his stomach. Ilvala was aggrieved to hear about his brother's death. He could recognize Agastya's Ascetic power and requested to serve him. Agastya asked him for wealth and acquired a lot of cows, ornaments, and gold coins. Ilvala gave him there but later followed him with the intention to kill him on his way back to his hermitage. When Agastya discovered out this he burned the demon Ilvala into ashes.

Then he reached his hermitage and fulfilled all the wishes of his beloved wife. He blessed her with a son named Dridhasyu and then left for the forest to meditate.

Ref: Mahabharata book

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