Raghu, the son of King Dilipa, was a famous ruler of the Ikshvaku dynasty. He had a long and glorious reign. Shree Ramachandra was his great grandson. Mahakavi Kalidasa authored a major novel, Raghuvansham, which portrayed the lives of Raghu and his successors.
Every day he used to go to the field with the cow. One month had passed. One day, as usual, King Dilipa was in the field with the divine cow. The weather was beautiful, and Dilipa was observing the beauty of nature. Nandini was eating grass calmly. Suddenly, he heard the terrible roaring of a lion. He saw that there was a huge lion who was just about to kill the cow. Nandini was quivering in fear of seeing her impending death. The king swiftly picked up his bow and arrows. But before shooting his arrow, miraculously, his hands became frozen. He could no longer move from his position. By surprise to the king, the lion spoke in a clear voice. He said that though he was an animal, he was a devotee of Lord Shiva and the king could never kill him. He told the king that he was hungry and needed to eat an animal. So, the king might go. But he would eat the cow.
The king, Dilipa, requested the lion to free the cow and eat him instead. The lion initially rejected the idea. But the king was persistent. Finally, the lion agreed to release Nandini and to eat King Dilipa. So, the king left his weapons on the ground and sat before the lion calmly to be devoured by the beast. However, the lion vanished, and Nandini informed the king that she had created the illusion to put the king to the test. She was very pleased and blessed the king to have a son. The king and his queen drank the blessed milk of Nandini in Vashistha's ashram before returning to Ayodhya. Soon, the queen became pregnant, and a son was born. The son was named Raghu.
Raghu showed a spark of intelligence from a very early age. He learnt different branches of knowledge from Guru Vashistha and excelled in all of them. He proved himself a brave and skilled warrior as well. King Dilipa and his wife were very happy to see the god-like qualities in their son. Hence, after completing formal education, King Dilipa employed him in the administration of his kingdom. As expected, Raghu proved his capabilities there as well.
One day, Dilipa called for his son and told him that he wished to perform one hundred Ashwamedha yagnas, something which was not accomplised by anyone but Devraj Indra himself. Raghu had to lead his army. Raghu was more than willing to serve his father for this task.
During the Ashwamedha yagna, the king would release a sacred sacrificial horse which would roam around in various places. The horse was watched over by a large army of soldiers, led by the veteran generals. Whenever the horse entered a foreign territory, the ruler of the land had to either accept the superiority of the king or fight the army.
Dilipa completed ninety nine such yagnas without much difficulty. The success of Dilipa made Lord indra jealous. During the last yagna, Lord Indra himself, went to the sacrificial ground becoming invisible with some spell and stole the horse. He kept the horse hidden in some place, no human could ever find that. No one knew what actually happened and who stole the horse. Raghu was extremely disheartened. Hence he went to the hermitage of Vashistha for advise and from the Nandini cow he came to know about the truth. So Raghu decided to go for a battle with Indra.
Raghu attacked Swargya Rajya with a large army. Though the gods were very powerful and were equipped with divine weapons, Raghu and his army fought valiently and earned the respect of the gods. Finally indra told them that he was about to destroy them with vajrayudha. Raghus army was terrified, but Raghu appeared without hesitation to confront Dev-raj.
Indra was utterly impressed and did not want to kill the brave young man who came to the battle to make his father proud. Indra requested a truce and informed him that he would never return the horse but that he could ask for anything else from him. Raghu also understood that it was impossible to win a battle against the gods, and he had an opportunity to come to a respectful negotiation. Hence, he said that though his father could not complete his hundredth aswamedha, Dilipa should get the benefit of the same and should go to heaven after death with his queen. Indra fulfilled his wish, and Raghu retuned to his father's empire as a winner. Soon Dilipa and Sudakshina coronated Raghu as the king and they themselves left for heaven.
Raghu was an efficient ruler and an indomitable warrior. He virtuously extended his empire till the end of the world. After achieving sky-touching success at an early age, he decided to start a sahashramedha yagna, an enormous sacrificial rite. After the yagna, Raghu started to donate gifts and wealth to everybody. He gave every last coin from his treasury. Each and every soul was very happy, and everyone praised Raghu for his charity.
When Rishi Kautsya arrived, everyone else was gone by then. Raghu was happy to see him and he washed his feet with water. Sage Kautsya informed him that as his guru taught him fourteen vidyas, he had to give him fourteen crore gold coins in dakshina. This was a very large amount and Raghu has already expended his wealth for charity. But Raghu assured him that he would do whatever it took to fulfil the request.
Hence, Rghu asked blessings from Vashistha, and decided to go to battle against Kubera, the god of wealth. Raghu became virtually invincible after the successful yagna. Kuber was afraid of him. So, Kubera showered the gold coins as rain at night. In the morning, Raghu found that his treasury was full of coins. Hence, he cancelled his plan to go for war against Kubera, and donated the promised amount to Sage Kautsya.
Raghu ruled his empire for a long time before handing it over to his son Aja. Aja was the father of King Dasharatha, and the grandfather of Raja Ramchandra. Because of his glorious reign and extraordinary feats, after Raghu, his dynasty came to be known as Raghuvansham.
Origin: Hindu Mythology (Raguvansham by Kalidasa, Ramayana)
Absolutely gripping storytelling. Loved it.
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