Vishvamitra

King Kaushika arrived at Vasishtha's hermitage with an army. The sage welcomed the king and his men, but the king soon noticed a cow unlike an ordinary animal. In Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana, the cow could fulfil every wish and provide the feast for the royal party. Kaushika wanted to take her with him.

He began with an offer. In Mahabharata Vol. 1 (Penguin Translated Texts), he asked Vasishtha to give him Nandini in exchange for his kingdom or ten thousand cows. A Ramayana account gives a different figure and names the cow Shabala, but the request is the same. Kaushika believed that wealth could replace the cow, while Vasishtha refused to surrender the animal that belonged in his hermitage.

Kaushika then ordered his men to take her by force. Shabala resisted when the soldiers dragged her away and ran back towards the rishi. Vasishtha called her, and the cow produced troops to defend him. The new forces attacked Kaushika's army from every side. In the Mahabharata account, the cow's ferocious troops scattered the large army. The king lost the contest he had expected to settle with rank and weapons.

Kaushika returned to his kingdom embarrassed and shocked. The defeat made him look at his own weapons differently. In The Ramayana, he threw down his bow and arrows and cried that a warrior's weapons were toys before the power of a brahmin. He began austerities and declared that he too would become a brahmarishi.

The episode closes with the king leaving the hermitage without the cow. He had offered a kingdom, then used an army, and both approaches had failed. The cow remained with Vasishtha, while Kaushika turned away from the force he had trusted and began the long discipline that would change his status.