Canto 1 - Boyhood
Bāla-kāṇḍa
Chapter 62: Śunaḥśepa Saved
Text 1.62.27

स च राजा नरश्रेष्ठ यज्ञस्य च समाप्तवान्।
फलं बहुगुणं राम सहस्राक्षप्रसादजम्॥

sa ca rājā nara-śreṣṭha yajñasya ca samāptavān
phalaṁ
bahu-guṇaṁ rāma sahasrākṣa-prasādajam

saḥ = that; ca = also; rājā = king; nara-śreṣṭha = O best of men; yajñasya ca = of his sacrifice; samāptavān = attained; phalam = the result; bahu-guṇam = many times over; rāma = O Rāma; sahasra-akṣa-prasādajam = by the grace of the thousand-eyed Indra.

O best of men, O Rāma, that king also attained the result of his sacrifice many times over by the grace of the thousand-eyed Indra.

One might ask, “The Bahv-ṛca Brāhmaṇa (Ṛg Veda, Aitareya Brāhmaṇa 7.13.1) has a narration about a sonless king descending from Ikṣvāku named Hariścandra.[2] The description here in Vālmīki-Rāmāyana contradicts that Ṛg Vedic history. How then can it be accepted?”

The answer is that Ambarīṣa can be understood to be another name of Hariścandra and thus this apparent contradiction can be reconciled.1

NOTE. The history of this Śunaḥśepa appears in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (9.7 and 9.16) with extra details.2

[2] hariścandro ha vaidhasa aikṣvāko rāja-putra āsa.

1 Kṣatriyas sometimes had more than one name. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we come across Parīkṣit being given a second name Viṣṇurāta after his birth in 1.12.17; Balarāma is given three names—Rāma, Bala and Saṅkarṣaṇa—in 10.8.12, while Kṛṣṇa is given a second name—Vāsudeva—in 10.8.13.

2 Śunaḥśepa is spelt in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as Śunaḥśepha.