SANDEEPANI MAHARSHI

 SANDEEPANI RISHI AND HIS LOST CHILD

In the KrishNAvatAra, after killing Kamsa and crowning ugrasEna as the king of mathurA, Krishna went to the city of avanti to learn shAstras from the virtuous brAhmin, sAndeepani.

On the completion of Gurukula vAsam, KrishNa asked SANDEEPANI RISHI what gurudakshiNa would be apt. SANDEEPANI Rishi asked KrishNa and BalarAma to bring back his son believed to have drowned in the prabhAsa kshEtra (sOmnAth) 12 years back. The brothers explored and found out that the child was kidnapped by the asura PANCHAJANA (shankhAsura) who slept in a seashell (conch) in the deep waters. They then dived into the deep sea, killed the asura and brought the conch up. The son was then retrieved by blowing the conch.  Saadeepani Rishi then named the conch “pAnchajanya” and gave it to KrishNa.