Trisanku

As you heard in the previous story, this is the Trivikrama panel and it tells the story of the demon king, Mahabali. Depicted in this panel is the scene after Lord Vishnu has already taken the first two steps. Vishnu is seen with eight arms and is carrying weapons in all of them. Mahabali can be seen in the bottom part of the panel.

But if you look closely at the right side of this panel, you will see a man hanging in an awkward position, halfway up the panel. That man is King Trisanku, an ancestor of Lord Rama. His is an unusual story.

Story goes that Trisanku was a handsome king, who was very proud of his good looks. So proud that he did not want to leave his body behind after his death. He wanted his immortal soul AND his handsome body to ascend to Heaven. He asked his teacher, the wise sage Vasishta, to help.

But this was against all laws of nature, and Vasishta refused. So Trisanku went to Vashista’s arch rival - another equally wise sage named Vishwamitra. Vishwamitra saw this as an opportunity to outdo Vasistha. So using his considerable magical powers he sent Trisanku flying into outer space, right up to the doors of heaven.

But Indra, the king of heaven, was furious. How dare a mortal in his human form enter heaven? He pushed Trisanku out and slammed the doors of heaven on him. Trisanku started free-falling back to earth.

Meanwhile Vishwamitra watched all this with increasing despair. This was an insult to him. So he summoned all his powers and brought Trishanku to a screeching halt. Trisanku was now suspended upside down in mid-space. Indra would not let him go UP into heaven and Vishwamitra would not let him come DOWN to earth.. So there he hung in limbo.

Viswamitra and Indra eventually made peace and allowed Trisanku to enjoy his own small private Heaven, somewhere between the real Heaven and earth. And there he still resides.

So why is Trisanku depicted in this panel? The sculptors of this panel used Trisanku as a clever allegory - to show that Vishnu’s extended left leg stretches well beyond Trisanku’s Heaven into the real Heaven. Today, the word Trisanku is used to mean anything in limbo – anything that is neither here nor there.