Vishwamitra
विश्वामित्रBrahmarshi; former king Kaushika; guru who led the young Rama on his first deeds. Also called Kaushika, Brahmarshi, Gadhija, seer of the Gayatri.
Vishwamitra, born the king Kaushika, won the rank of Brahmarshi through immense austerity. In the Ramayana he takes the young Rama and Lakshmana to guard his sacrifice, has Rama slay Tataka and receive divine weapons, frees Ahalya, and leads the brothers to Mithila and the breaking of Shiva's bow. He is the seer of the Gayatri mantra.
Who was Vishwamitra?
Vishwamitra (विश्वामित्र) is one of the most striking sages of the Ramayana: a king who won brahminhood by sheer will, the seer to whom the Gayatri mantra is revealed, and the guru who draws the young Rama out of Ayodhya and into his destiny. His life is a long contest between power and the peace of the spirit.
The king who would be a sage
Vishwamitra was born Kaushika, a mighty king. On a visit to the hermitage of the sage Vasishtha, he coveted the wish-granting cow Nandini, and when force failed to take her he understood that the power of a brahmarshi outweighed any army. He gave up his throne for the forest. Through ages of austerity, broken by pride, by the apsara Menaka, by anger, and each time begun again, he rose from rajarshi to maharshi and at last was acknowledged as Brahmarshi, the title he had most desired, by Vasishtha himself.
Rama’s first guru of adventure
It is Vishwamitra who comes to King Dasharatha and asks for the boy Rama to guard his fire-sacrifice from rakshasas. Reluctantly the king agrees, and Rama and Lakshmana set out with the sage. Under his guidance Rama slays the demoness Tataka, drives off Maricha and kills Subahu, and receives a storehouse of divine weapons. Vishwamitra then leads the brothers on, freeing the cursed Ahalya along the way, to the court of King Janaka at Mithila.
The bow and the wedding
At Mithila it is Vishwamitra who presents Rama to the assembly and bids him attempt Shiva’s great bow. The breaking of the bow wins Rama the hand of Sita, and the sage blesses the marriages that join Ayodhya and Mithila. Having set the whole story in motion, Vishwamitra returns to his austerities.
Seer of the Gayatri
Beyond the Ramayana, Vishwamitra is revered as the rishi of the Gayatri mantra, the most sacred verse of the Vedas, and as a composer of much of the third mandala of the Rig Veda. His quarrel and final reconciliation with Vasishtha is one of the great themes of the tradition: two kinds of greatness, the fiery and the serene, learning at last to honour each other.