This forest is situated on the banks of Kuber’s Pushkarini river, which has several Saugandhika flowers growing in it. In this forest grow a variety of different coloured bananas. Hanuman lives here as per Mahabharata Vanaparva Chapter 146.

The daughter of the sage Mankana.

There was once a town called Ikshumati, situated on the banks of a river by the same name. It was built by Vishwamitra. Mankana had built a hermitage by the river and meditated there. Once Menaka visited the place, and when the wind moved her garment and offered a glimpse of her body, Mankana ejaculated at the sight. Immediately a girl was born from it and she was Kadaligarbha. After she grew up, a king named Dridhavarma, who had come hunting to the forest, married her with the sage’s permission.

The devas advised her to drop seeds on her way to the palace so that she could trace her way back to the hermitage with the help of the plants that would grow from it, in case her husband left her. Later, the king left her because of the rumours spread by a barber. Though she found her way back to the hermitage, Mankana took her back to the king as per Kathasaritasagara Madanamanjukalambaka Taranga 6.

See Gunaddhya.

A warrior in Skanda’s army as per Mahabharata Shalyaparva Chapter 45 verse 67.

A puruvanshi king. He was the son of Sandhurodha’s brother, Pratiratha. Sandhurodha was the father of Dushyanta. As per Agnipurana, he had a son named Medhathithi.

A sage who was the foster father of Shakuntala. Among the rishikulas, Kanva’s kula was a very important one as per Rigveda. Born in the dynasty of Brahma’s son Kashyapa, Kanva is also known as Kaashyapa. As per Mahabharata Shantiparva Chapter 208 verse 27, Kanva’s father was Medhadhiti. Kanva built a hermitage on the banks of Malini and lived there with many students.

Kanva’s hermitage was to the north of the river Praveni, on the banks of the Malini as per Mahabharata Vanaparva. It is believed that it was located on the banks of the Chambal, 4 miles south of Kota in Rajasthan. The hermitage has been described by Kalidasa in Shakuntalam.

Once Indra sent Menaka to disrupt Vishwamitra’s meditation. They had a daughter who was left in the forest to fend for itself. The child was Shakuntala and was called so because of the Shakunta birds who fed her for a while. As per Mahabharata Adiparva Chapter 70, Kanva happened to see her in the forest and began raising her.

As per Mahabharata Adiparva Chapter 74 verse 130, Bharata, son of Dushyanta, conducted a yajna called Govitata with Kanva as the chief sage.

Once Kanva narrated to Duryodhana, the story of Matali and his wife Sudharma hunting for a groom for their daughter Gunakeshi as per Mahabharata Udyogaparva Chapter 97.

Kanva was among the sages who arrived from the east to visit Rama after his return from Lanka. Vasishta, Atri, Vishwamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, Bharadwaja, Sanakas, Sharabhanga, Durvasa, Matanga, Vibhandaka, Tumburu were the others in this group.

The Rigveda has 10 mandalas. Mandalas 2-7 have been created in separate rishikulas, as 2 – Bhargava, 3 – Vishwamitra, 4 – Vamadeva, 5- Atri, 6 – Bharadwaja, 7 – Vasishta. The eighth mandala and 50 suktas of the 1st mandala have been made by Kanva’s kula.

Rigveda Mandala 1 Anuvaka 4 Sukta 12, Kanva is about Kanva’s son Medhathithi becoming a rishi.

As per the Kathasaritasagara, Kanva had a daughter with Menaka called Indivaraprabhu. See Chandravaloka, Kaashyapa.

Skanda’s attendant as per Mahabharata Shalyaparva Chapter 46 verse 14.

A sage in ancient India. He was the father of Marisha (Varkshi), the wife of Prachetas.

It is believed that Marisha was born from the trees. Kandu built a hermitage on the banks of the Gomati and meditated there. To distract him, Indra sent an apsara named Pramlocha. The sage ended up marrying her and lived with her for a hundred years in the foothills of the Mandara mountains. After that Pramlocha sought permission from him to go back to devaloka. He asked her to wait for a while and they lived together for a hundred more years. She again asked for permission and was asked to wait, which turned out to be another hundred years. This went on for many centuries and the sage continued to be passionately in love with the apsara.

Once the sage got ready to leave his hermitage when Pramlocha asked him where he was off to. The sage told her that he was going for his evening prayers. Pramlocha commented that he had been ignoring it for several years now. Kandu replied that she had arrived at the hermitage only in the morning to which Pramlocha said that it had been many centuries since that morning. The sage asked her how long he had been with her and she replied that it had been 907 years 6 months and 3 days.

The sage was very angry and began scolding her. She started sweating profusely in fear and the sage asked her to leave. As she flew up towards devaloka, she wiped her sweat using some tree leaves and the sage’s seed which was already in her fell on them too. With the help of Vayu, the trees delivered that child who came to be known as Marisha as per Vishnupurana Ansh 1 Chapter 15.

There is a story in the Ramayana on how Hanuman and other vanaras who had set out in search of Sita ended in a desert which was created by Kandu’s curse. The place used to be a forest earlier and Kandu’s sixteen year old son had died there. The sage cursed the forest and made it a desert as per Ramayana Kishkindakanda Chapter 48.

When Rama became king, he was visited by sages from across the land. from the south came Dattatreya, Namuchi, Pramuchi, Valmiki, Soma, Kandu and Agastya as per Uttararamayana.

A sage. The valiant king Brahmadatta was born in his dynasty as per Mahabharata Shantiparva Chapter 342.

An attendant of Skanda as per Mahabharata Shalyaparva Chapter 46 verse 16.