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An emperor of ancient times, to whom Brahmā gave as a gift a palace which automatically produced everything desired by its owner. He was lord over the seven islands. About his former birth and the plenitude of his riches the Padma Purāṇa (Uttara khaṇḍa, Chapter 32) has the following story to say:- Hariścandra himself was surprised that he became so very rich in the matter of children and of wealth. Wondering what actions of his entitled him to so much wealth and to his position which was equal to Indra's the emperor went to Sumeru by vimāna where he questioned Sanatkumāra, a brahminical sage seated in meditation on a golden stone as to who he was in his past life and to which actions of his past life he owed all the present wealth and prosperity. The great sage replied as follows:- “In the past birth you were a truthful and purehearted vaiśya; you gave up your own profession and so you were ousted from home by your own people. At that time a famine and other scarcity conditions occurred there. One day you got into a pond along with your wife, collected lotus flowers from it and went to Kāśī to sell the flowers. But, no one purchased the flowers. At last, Candramatī, daughter of Indradyumna purchased the flowers for a yajña she was performing. When you saw Viṣṇu installed along with Ādityabhagavān (Sun-God) and worshipped with flowers, feelings of devotion swept your mind and you too worshipped the idols with lotus flowers. You enjoy today the fruits of that action in the past life. (It is not quite definite whether Hariścandra I and II are one and the same person).
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हरि—श्चन्द्र mfn. mfn. (See
चन्द्र) having golden splendour, [RV.]
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हरि—श्चन्द्र m. m.
N. of the 28th king of the solar dynasty in the त्रेता age (he was son of त्रि-शङ्कु, and was celebrated for his piety; accord. to the मार्कण्डेय-पुराण he gave up his country, his wife and his son, and finally himself, to satisfy the demands of विश्वामित्र; after enduring incredible sufferings, he won the pity of the gods and was raised with his subjects to heaven : accord. to [MBh. ii, 489 &c.] , his performance of the राज-सूय sacrifice was the cause of his elevation, and in the ऐतरेय-ब्राह्मण quite another legend is told about him See under शुनःशेप, p. 1082, col. 3 : in later legends हरि-श्चन्द्र is represented as insidiously induced by नारद to relate his actions with unbecoming pride, whereupon he was degraded from स्वर्ग, one stage at each sentence, till stopping in time and doing homage to the gods he was fixed with his capital in mid-air ; his aerial city is popularly believed to be still visible in the skies at particular times; cf. सौभ), [Br.] ; [MaitrUp.] ; [MBh.] &c.
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N. of various authors &c., [Inscr.] ; [Cat.]
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