THE PREGNANT KING YUVANASHVA

Exceptional Birth of King Mandhata

King Yuvanashva (or Yuvanashwa) despite being a male, had given birth to his son Mandhata! Strange is not it? Well, it is true. During the Pilgrimage of Pandavas, Sage Lomash referred to the birth of King Mandhata and his nature which I am going to share with you all in this post.

Once there was a pious king named Yuvanashva in the Ikshvaku dynasty who performed many auspicious yajnas, executed lots of Aswamedha yajnas and gave plenty of wealth to the Brahmins. Unfortunately, he had no son of his own. Therefore he gave his kingdom's responsibility to his minister's hand and went to the woodland to engross his thought in God only. One day because of fasting he felt thirsty and therefore longed for water. He observed the hermitage of wonderful sage Bhrigu, entered inside, and noticed one large water vessel. All the tired sages after completing the fire sacrifice rituals were sleeping there. When King Yuvanashva entered the hermitage, and solicited water from all of them, his voice was not audible on account that his throat had already dried up because of thirst. Hence the king took the vessel and drink the water by himself. He was unaware of the fact that the water vessel was stored there that night via Sage Bhrigu's son Chyavana: who had cast a spell on that water with the purpose to assist the king in having a child and solely the queen had to drink the water in order to conceive and give birth to a mighty son similar to Indra.

Please click the below video in Hindi 👇

Sage Chyavana after understanding the whole thing did not admire the act of the king. He informed Yuvanashva that He had put all his Brahmanical virtue into that vessel after performing rigorous penance and because of the impact of his Ascetic power the king would have to give birth to the child. The sage then also assured the king that he would not feel any ache throughout the pregnancy.

After completing a hundred years, the sages and saints arrived to help him during delivery and they slit open the left aspect of Yuvanashva's abdomen. Luckily the king was not dead by then. Indra himself reached there to see the glorious child of Yuvanashva. Other deities asked Indra what to feed him. Indra then put his finger inside the baby's mouth and instructed them that, 'Man Dhata' which means 'will drink mine'. Therefore the toddler was once named Mandhata. Indra put his finger inside Mandhata's mouth and milk came out of it as a result Mandhata grew very fast. He reached the age of 12 within twelve days.

Later Mandhata was offered many divine weapons and was crowned as the king By Indra himself. Mandhata triumphed over all the three lokas. He carried out many yajnas, acquired nearly half of the throne of Indra in heaven and gave many cows to the Brahmins. He gained management over his thoughts and with his Ascetic power he protected all the deities, humans, tiryak, and stavara lokas.

Ref: Mahabharata book

Read about sage Ourba who was born from thigh..