01Seer of the seventh Mandala
The seventh Mandala of the Rigveda belongs to Vasishtha and his family. Its hymns to Varuna are among the most personal in the Veda, a rishi asking what fault has turned his friend away. The same Mandala holds the Maha Mrityunjaya mantra (7.59.12), ‘tryambakam yajamahe’, chanted in every Shiva temple today. In Mandala 7.18 Vasishtha stands beside King Sudas of the Tritsu-Bharatas at the Battle of the Ten Kings on the Parushni, the river now called the Ravi.
02Guru of Shri Rama
In the Ramayana, Vasishtha is purohita to Dasharatha. He performs the rites of Rama’s birth and naming, teaches the four princes, and later crowns Rama in Ayodhya. The Yoga Vasishtha, a long dialogue in which he answers the young Rama’s doubts about the world, carries his name. His quarrel with Vishvamitra over Nandini, the cow of plenty, ends with the king turning to tapas until Vasishtha himself calls him Brahmarshi.
