Nimi

Ikshvaku had a son named Nimi. Nimi once started a yajna that went on for a thousand years. He wanted Vashishtha to be the main priest. But Vashishtha said that he was already busy with the yajna that Indra planned to conduct for five hundred years. He asked Nimi to wait. He promised to come to Nimi’s Yajna as soon as Indra’s was over.

Nimi returned without saying and Vashishtha assumed that Nimi had agreed to wait. But Nimi began his ceremony with Goutama and other sages. After finishing Indra’s Yajna, Vashishtha came to Nimi’s yajna expecting to be the chief priest there. But he found that the sacrifice had already been begun with Goutama as the chief priest there. Since he felt insulted, Vashishtha the Cursed Nimi that he would henceforth be without a body. Nimi felt this curse to be unfair. So he too cursed that Vashishtha would be without a body.

Vashishtha however, received another body. Thanks to the gods Mitra and Varuna.