Editing Vasu (section)

==Legend==
[[File:The wife of one of the vasus is tempted to steal the wish-bearing cow.jpg|thumb|The wife of one of the Vasus is tempted to steal the wish-bearing cow|260x260px]]
In the ''[[Ramayana]]'' the Vasus are children of [[Aditi]] and [[Kashyapa]].

The [[Mahabharata]] relates how the Vasus, led by "Prithu" (presumably here a male form of [[Prithvi]]), were enjoying themselves in the forest, when the wife of Prabhasa (also referred to as Dyaus) spotted [[Kamadhenu|a divine cow]] and persuaded her husband Prabhasa to steal it,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Buitenen |first1=Johannes Adrianus Bernardus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i8oe5fY5_3UC&dq=vasus+wife+cow&pg=PA221 |title=The Mahabharata, Volume 1: Book 1: The Book of the Beginning |last2=Buitenen |first2=J. A. B. van |last3=Fitzgerald |first3=James L. |date=1973 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-84663-7 |pages=221 |language=en}}</ref> which Prabhasa did with the agreement and aid of Prithu and his other brothers. Unfortunately for the Vasus, the cow was owned by the sage [[Vashishta]] who learned through his ascetic powers that the Vasus had stolen it.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Doniger |first1=Wendy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sktbYRG_LO8C&dq=vasus+wife+cow&pg=PA332 |title=The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology |last2=O'Flaherty |first2=Wendy Doniger |date=1988 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. |isbn=978-81-208-0386-2 |pages=332 |language=en}}</ref> He immediately cursed them to be born on earth as mortals. Vashishta responded to pleading by the Vasus by promising that seven of them would be free of earthly life within a year of being born and that only Prabhasa would pay the full penalty. The Vasus then requested the river-goddess [[Ganga in Hinduism|Ganga]] to be their mother. Ganga incarnated and became the wife of King [[Shantanu]] on condition that he never gainsaid her in any way. As seven children were born, one after the other, Ganga drowned them in her own waters, freeing them from their punishment and the king made no opposition. Only when the eighth was born did the king finally oppose his wife, who therefore left him. So the eighth son, Prabhasa incarnated, remained alive, imprisoned in mortal form, and later became known in his mortal incarnation as [[Bhishma]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Raman |first=Gowri |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VDvqDwAAQBAJ&dq=ashta+vasus&pg=PA3 |title=Mahabharatha |date=2020-06-09 |publisher=Blue Rose Publishers |pages=3 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ray |first1=Himanshu Prabha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H5eSEAAAQBAJ&dq=vasus+ganga&pg=PT182 |title=The Routledge Handbook of Hindu Temples: Materiality, Social History and Practice |last2=Kulshreshtha |first2=Salila |last3=Suvrathan |first3=Uthara |date=2022-10-13 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-78581-4 |pages=182 |language=en}}</ref>