In the history of Maharishis, the most famous one is Vasishta who was peerless as far as the strength of penance and knowledge of sastras were concerned. He was also fortunate to be one of the ' manasa putras ' of Brahma. It is said that he was born out of Brahma's breath. He was one of the seven Rishis who were called ' Sithira Sugandis'. He was the Rajaguru for the Kings of the famous Surya Vamsa. He had, a virtuous woman called Arundhathi as his wife. Sakthi, a Maharishi was his son. The sage Vyasa who had separated and sequenced the Vedas, wrote the famous epic Mahabharatha,and created Brahmasutra was his grandson. Thus he was known for his great progeny.

Viswamitra, who after Himalayan effort was bestowed with the 'Brahama Rishi' title by Lord Brahma was satisfied only after Vasishta accepted him as one. Thus sage Vasishta takes precedence in the line of maharishis. Puranas say that Vasishta was born three times and in all his three births he had Arundhathi as his wife. In her second birth Arundhathi was known as Akshamala. When Vasishta was born the third time, he was born to Mithra varunas. Mithra Varuna desired the celestial beauty apsaras Oorvashi, and both Vasishta and Agasthya were born out of this union.

In the age of Rig Veda, several groups ruled their respective places. Sudas was the leader of one such group and he was also known as Baijavanan. He was very strong and mighty. He waged war and won over the other groups and established a big rajya and crowned himself the King. He was benevolent in his attitude and generous to people around him. He was fortunate to have Vasishta as his Rajaguru. He performed many sacrifices and attained fame and glory.

Once the tribals in the other groups became jealous of Sudas. They joined together and waged a battle against him. There were ten groups who joined thus , so they were called as 'Dasaragna'. (Rig Veda). The battle continued for many days. Both the armies were on either side of the river Prushni - now called Ravi, and fighting. When the Dasaragna army tried to cross the river , Sudas' army fought with great fervour and the river turned red with blood. Both the armies were loosing and gaining respectively. The result of the battle became capricious.

Sudas became solicitous about the situation and discussed with sage Vasishta. Realising the exigency, the sage counselled him to perform sacrifice for Lord Indra. With the latter's blessings Sudas won the mighty war. The Dasaragna army lost the battle, left behind their chariots, horses, cows, gold, pearl, corals and food and ran away. Thus Sudas became more rich and under Vasishta's judicious supervision, performed many sacrifices and was magnanimous and beneficent towards his subjects.