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Aja

AJA. [Source: Dowson's Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology] 'Unborn.' An epithet applied to many of the gods.

A prince of the Solar race, sometimes said to be the son of Raghu, at others the son of Dilipa, son of Raghu.

He was the husband chosen at her swayamvara by Indumati, daughter of the Raja of Vidarbha, and was the father of Dasaratha and grandfather of Rama.

The Raghuvansa relates how on his way to the swayamvara he was annoyed by a wild elephant and ordered it to be shot. When the elephant was mortally wounded, a beautiful figure issued from it, which declared itself a gandharva who had been transformed into a mad elephant for deriding a holy man. The gandharva was delivered, as it had been foretold to him, by Aja, and he gave the prince some arrows, which enabled him to excel in the contest at the swayamvara.

When Dasaratha grew up, Aja ascended to Indra's heaven.

Modern Languages MLLL-4993. Indian Epics. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. The textual material made available at this website is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. No claims are made regarding the status of images used at this website; if you own the copyright privileges to any of these images and believe your copyright privileges have been violated, please contact the webmaster. Page last updated: October 16, 2007 12:22 PM