King Sagara belonged to the Suryavansha dynasty. He was the son of Vijayanti (known as Yashomati) of Ikshvaku Dynasty in Ayudhya and Sumitra, the Kshatriya King. King Sagara’s wives were Keshini, Bhadra and Sumati. He was the younger brother of the second Tirthankara named Bhagvan Ajitanathaswami.
Sagara was an eminent king in Vidarbha of the Suryavansha dynasty, according to Hindu mythology. The deity belonged to the ‘Sivi’ royal lineage.
In the process of proving his supremacy, Sagara performed the Ashwamedha Yajna – horse sacrifice. During the results of the Yajna, Indra the leader of the demigods took a decision in fear to steal the horse. After stealing the horse he left it at the Kapila’s ashram, at a time when he was involved in deep meditation.
The sixty thousand sons of King Sagara (born to Queen Sumati) besides Asamanja his son (born to Queen Keshini) were sent to search for the horse. They thought he had stolen the horse when they found it at the ashram. They decided to attack Kapila Sage while in meditation. Fire immerged from the bodies of Sagara’s sons are they showed disrespect to the great sage and turned to ashes immediately.
Sagara did not have any children though he had beautiful queens. So he decided to please the gods, undertook penance and after many years Lord Shankara appeared to him stating 60,000 sons would be born to one of his queens, however they would perish together while the other queen would have one son from whom the royal lineage would continue. Accordingly Asamanja was born to the queen Shaibya it is said. His other queen Vaidarbhi gave birth to a huge squash. He was forced by a celestial force to store the seeds in separate urns. Eventually 60,000 sons were born from these urns.