Book Ii. Chapter I
*
"The Vishnu Purana", translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840],
p. 160 p. 161
Vishnu Purna.
Book Ii.
Chap. I.
Descendants of Priyavrata, the eldest son of Swyambhuva Manu: his ten sons: three adopt a religious life; the others become kings of the seven Dwpas, or isles, of the earth. Agndhra, king of Jambu-dwpa, divides it into nine portions, which he distributes amongst his sons. Nbhi, king of the south, succeeded by Rishabha; and he by Bharata: India named after him Bhrata: his descendants reign during the Swyambhuva Manwantara.
Maitreya.--You have related to me, venerable preceptor, most fully, all that I was curious to hear respecting the creation of the world; but there is a part of the subject which I am desirous again to have described. You stated that Priyavrata and Uttnapda were the sons of Swyambhuva Manu, and you repeated the story of Dhruva, the son of Uttnapda: you made no mention of the descendants of Priyavrata, and it is an account of his family that I beg you will kindly communicate to me.
Parara.--Priyavrata married Kmy, the daughter of the patriarch Kardama 1, and had by her two daughters, Samrt and Kukshi, and ten
p. 162
sons, wise, valiant, modest, and dutiful, named Agndhra, Agnibhu, Vapushmat, Dyutimat, Medha, Medhatithi, Bhavya, Savala, Putra, and the tenth was Jyotishmat 2, illustrious by nature as by name. These were the sons of Priyavrata, famous for strength and prowess. Of these, three, or Medha, Putra, and Agnibhu, adopted a religious life: remembering the occurrences of a prior existence, they did not covet dominion, but diligently practised the rites of devotion in due season, wholly disinterested, and looking for no reward.
Priyavrata having divided the earth into seven continents, gave them respectively to his other seven sons 3. To Agndhra he gave Jambu-dwpa; to Medhatithi he gave Plaksha-dwpa: he installed Vapushmat in the sovereignty over the Dwpa of Slmali; and made Jyotishmat king of Kua-dwpa: he appointed Dyutimat to rule over Krauncha-dwpa; Bhavya to reign over Ska-dwpa; and Savala he nominated the monarch of the Dwpa of Pushkara.
Agndhra, the king of Jambu-dwpa, had nine sons, equal in splendour to the patriarchs: they were named Nbhi, Kimpurusha, Harivarsha, Ilvrita, Ramya, Hiranvat, Kuru, Bhadrwa, and Ketumla 4, who was a prince ever active in the practice of piety.
Hear next, Maitreya, in what manner Agndhra apportioned Jambu-dwpa amongst his nine sons. He gave to Nbhi the country called Hima, south of the Himavat, or snowy mountains. The country of Hemakta he gave to Kimpurusha; and to Harivarsha, the country of
p. 163
[paragraph continues] Nishadha. The region in the centre of which mount Meru is situated he conferred on Ilvrita; and to Ramya, the countries lying between it and the Nla mountain. To Hiranvat his father gave the country lying to the north of it, called weta; and, on the north of the weta mountains, the country bounded by the ringavn range he gave to Kuru. The countries on the east of Meru he assigned to Bhadrwa; and Gandhamdana, which lay west of it, he gave to Ketumla 5.' Having installed his sons sovereigns in these several regions, the pious king Agndhra retired to a life of penance at the holy place of pilgrimage, lagrma 6.
The eight Varshas, or countries, Kimpurusha and the rest, are places of perfect enjoyment, where happiness is spontaneous and uninterrupted. In them there is no vicissitude, nor the dread of decrepitude or death: there is no distinction of virtue or vice, nor difference of degree as better or worse, nor any of the effects produced in this region by the revolutions of ages.
Nbhi, who had for his portion the country of Himhwa, had by his queen Meru the magnanimous Rishabha; and he had a hundred sons, the eldest of whom was Bharata. Rishabha having ruled with equity and wisdom, and celebrated many sacrificial rites, resigned the sovereignty of the earth to the heroic Bharata, and, retiring to the hermitage of Pulastya, adopted the life of an anchoret, practising religious penance, and performing all prescribed ceremonies, until, emaciated by his austerities, so as to be but a collection of skin and fibres, he put a pebble in his mouth, and naked went the way of all flesh 7. The country was
p. 164
termed Bhrata from the time that it was relinquished to Bharata by his father, on his retiring to the woods 8.
Bharata, having religiously discharged the duties of his station, consigned the kingdom to his son Sumati, a most virtuous prince; and, engaging in devout practices, abandoned his life at the holy place, lagrma: he was afterwards born again as a Brahman, in a distinguished family of ascetics. I shall hereafter relate to you his history.
From the illustrious Sumati was born Indradyumna: his son was Parameshthin: his son was Pratihra, who had a celebrated son, named
p. 165
[paragraph continues] Pratihartt: his son was Bhava, who begot Udgtha, who begot Prastra; whose son was Prithu. The son of Prithu was Nakta: his son was Gaya: his son was Nara; whose son was Virt. The valiant son of Virt was Dhmat, who begot Mahnta; whose son was Manasyu; whose son was Twashtri: his son was Vraja: his son was Rja: his son was atajit, who had a hundred sons, of whom Viswagjyotish was the eldest 9. Under these princes, Bhrata-varsha (India) was divided into nine portions (to be hereafter particularized); and their descendants successively held possession of the country for seventy-one periods of the aggregate of the four ages (or for the reign of a Manu).
This was the creation of Swyambhuva Manu, by which the earth was peopled, when he presided over the first Manwantara, in the Kalpa of Varha 10
Footnotes
161:1 The text reads Kany; and the commentator has, 'he married the daughter of Kardama, whose name was Kany.' The copies agree in the reading, and the Vyu has the same name, Kany; but the Mrkandeya, which is the same in other respects as our text, has Kmy: Kmy also is the name elsewhere given by the Vyu to the daughter of Kardama (p. 83. n. 6). Kmy, as has been noticed, appears in the Brhma and Hari V. (p. 53. n. 6) as the mother of Priyavrata, but erroneously; and the same authorities specify a Kmy as the wife of that sovereign. So the commentator on the Hari V. states, 'another Kmy is mentioned (in the text), the daughter of Kardama, the wife of Priyavrata.' p. 162 The name Kany is therefore most probably an error of the copyists. The Bhgavata calls the wife of Priyavrata, Varhishmat, the daughter of Viwakarman.
162:2 These names nearly agree in the authorities which specify the descendants of Priyavrata, except in the Bhgavata: that has an almost entirely different series of names, or gnidhra, Idhmajihwa, Yajnabhu, Mahvra, Hiranyaretas, Medhatithi, Ghritaprishtha, Savana, Vitihotra, and Kavi; with one daughter, Urjjaswat. It also calls the Manus Uttama, Tamasa, and Raivata the sons of Priyavrata by another wife.
162:3 According to the Bhgavata, he drove his chariot seven times round the earth, and the ruts left by the wheels became the beds of the oceans, separating it into seven Dwpas.
162:4 Even the Bhgavata concurs with the other Purnas in this series of Priyavrata's grandsons.
163:5 Of these divisions, as well as of those of the earth, and of the minor divisions of the Varshas, we have further particulars in the following chapter.
163:6 This place of pilgrimage has not been found elsewhere. The term is usually applied to a stone, an ammonite, which is supposed to be a type of Vishnu, and of which the worship is enjoined in the Uttara Khanda of the Padma P. and in the Brahma Vaivartta, authorities of no great weight or antiquity. As these stones are found chiefly in the Gandak river, the Slagrma Trtha was probably at the source of that stream, or at its confluence with the Ganges. Its sanctity, and that of the stone, are probably of comparatively modern origin.
163:7 'The great road,' or 'road of heroes.' The pebble was intended either to compel perpetual silence, or to prevent his eating. The Bhgavata p. 164 adverts to the same circumstance. That work enters much more into detail on the subject of Rishabha's devotion, and particularizes circumstances not found in any other Purna. The most interesting of these are the scene of Rishabha's wanderings, which is said to be Konka, Venkata, Ktaka, and southern Karntaka, or the western part of the Peninsula; and the adoption of the Jain belief by the people of those countries. Thus it is said, "A king of the Konkas, Venkatas, and Ktakas, named Arhat, having heard the tradition of Rishabha's practices (or his wandering about naked, and desisting from religious rites), being infatuated by necessity, under the evil influence of the Kali age, will become needlessly alarmed, and abandon his own religious duty, and will foolishly enter upon an unrighteous and heretical path. Misled by him, and bewildered by the iniquitous operation of the Kali age, disturbed also by the delusions of the deity, wicked men will, in great numbers, desert the institutes and purifications of their own ritual; will observe vows injurious and disrespectful to the gods; will desist from ablutions, mouth-washings, and purifications, and will pluck out the hair of the head; and will revile the world, the deity, sacrifices, Brahmans, and the Vedas." It is also said, that Sumati, the son of Bharata, will be irreligiously worshipped by some infidels, as a divinity. Besides the import of the term Arhat, or Jain, Rishabha is the name of the first, and Sumati of the fifth Trthakara, or Jain saint of the present era. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the Bhgavata intends this sect; and as the Jain system was not matured until a comparatively modern date, this composition is determined to be also recent. The allusions to the extension of the Jain faith in the western parts of the Peninsula, may serve to fix the limit of its probable antiquity to the 11th or 12th century, when the Jains seem to have been flourishing in Guzerat and the Konkan. As. Res. Xvii. 232.
164:8 This etymology is given in other Purnas; but the Matsya and Vyu have a different one, deriving it from the Manu, called Bharata, or the cherisher, one who rears or cherishes progeny. The Vyu has, in another place, the more common explanation also: ###.
165:9 The Agni, Krma, Mrkandeya, Linga, and Vyu Purnas agree with the Vishnu in these genealogical details. The Bhgavata has some additions and variations of nomenclature, but is not essentially different. It ends, however, with atajit, and cites a stanza which would seem to make Viraja the last of the descendants of Priyavrata.
165:10 The descendants of Priyavrata were the kings of the earth in the first or Swyambhuva Manwantara. Those of Uttnapda, his brother, are placed rather incongruously in the second or Swrochisha Manwantara: whilst, with still more palpable inconsistency, Daksha, a descendant of Uttnapda, gives his daughter to Kayapa in the seventh or Vaivaswata Manwantara. It seems probable that the patriarchal genealogies are older than the chronological system of Manwantaras and Kalpas, and have been rather clumsily distributed amongst the different periods.
"The Vishnu Purana", translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840],
p. 160 p. 161
Vishnu Purna.
Book Ii.
Chap. I.
Descendants of Priyavrata, the eldest son of Swyambhuva Manu: his ten sons: three adopt a religious life; the others become kings of the seven Dwpas, or isles, of the earth. Agndhra, king of Jambu-dwpa, divides it into nine portions, which he distributes amongst his sons. Nbhi, king of the south, succeeded by Rishabha; and he by Bharata: India named after him Bhrata: his descendants reign during the Swyambhuva Manwantara.
Maitreya.--You have related to me, venerable preceptor, most fully, all that I was curious to hear respecting the creation of the world; but there is a part of the subject which I am desirous again to have described. You stated that Priyavrata and Uttnapda were the sons of Swyambhuva Manu, and you repeated the story of Dhruva, the son of Uttnapda: you made no mention of the descendants of Priyavrata, and it is an account of his family that I beg you will kindly communicate to me.
Parara.--Priyavrata married Kmy, the daughter of the patriarch Kardama 1, and had by her two daughters, Samrt and Kukshi, and ten
p. 162
sons, wise, valiant, modest, and dutiful, named Agndhra, Agnibhu, Vapushmat, Dyutimat, Medha, Medhatithi, Bhavya, Savala, Putra, and the tenth was Jyotishmat 2, illustrious by nature as by name. These were the sons of Priyavrata, famous for strength and prowess. Of these, three, or Medha, Putra, and Agnibhu, adopted a religious life: remembering the occurrences of a prior existence, they did not covet dominion, but diligently practised the rites of devotion in due season, wholly disinterested, and looking for no reward.
Priyavrata having divided the earth into seven continents, gave them respectively to his other seven sons 3. To Agndhra he gave Jambu-dwpa; to Medhatithi he gave Plaksha-dwpa: he installed Vapushmat in the sovereignty over the Dwpa of Slmali; and made Jyotishmat king of Kua-dwpa: he appointed Dyutimat to rule over Krauncha-dwpa; Bhavya to reign over Ska-dwpa; and Savala he nominated the monarch of the Dwpa of Pushkara.
Agndhra, the king of Jambu-dwpa, had nine sons, equal in splendour to the patriarchs: they were named Nbhi, Kimpurusha, Harivarsha, Ilvrita, Ramya, Hiranvat, Kuru, Bhadrwa, and Ketumla 4, who was a prince ever active in the practice of piety.
Hear next, Maitreya, in what manner Agndhra apportioned Jambu-dwpa amongst his nine sons. He gave to Nbhi the country called Hima, south of the Himavat, or snowy mountains. The country of Hemakta he gave to Kimpurusha; and to Harivarsha, the country of
p. 163
[paragraph continues] Nishadha. The region in the centre of which mount Meru is situated he conferred on Ilvrita; and to Ramya, the countries lying between it and the Nla mountain. To Hiranvat his father gave the country lying to the north of it, called weta; and, on the north of the weta mountains, the country bounded by the ringavn range he gave to Kuru. The countries on the east of Meru he assigned to Bhadrwa; and Gandhamdana, which lay west of it, he gave to Ketumla 5.' Having installed his sons sovereigns in these several regions, the pious king Agndhra retired to a life of penance at the holy place of pilgrimage, lagrma 6.
The eight Varshas, or countries, Kimpurusha and the rest, are places of perfect enjoyment, where happiness is spontaneous and uninterrupted. In them there is no vicissitude, nor the dread of decrepitude or death: there is no distinction of virtue or vice, nor difference of degree as better or worse, nor any of the effects produced in this region by the revolutions of ages.
Nbhi, who had for his portion the country of Himhwa, had by his queen Meru the magnanimous Rishabha; and he had a hundred sons, the eldest of whom was Bharata. Rishabha having ruled with equity and wisdom, and celebrated many sacrificial rites, resigned the sovereignty of the earth to the heroic Bharata, and, retiring to the hermitage of Pulastya, adopted the life of an anchoret, practising religious penance, and performing all prescribed ceremonies, until, emaciated by his austerities, so as to be but a collection of skin and fibres, he put a pebble in his mouth, and naked went the way of all flesh 7. The country was
p. 164
termed Bhrata from the time that it was relinquished to Bharata by his father, on his retiring to the woods 8.
Bharata, having religiously discharged the duties of his station, consigned the kingdom to his son Sumati, a most virtuous prince; and, engaging in devout practices, abandoned his life at the holy place, lagrma: he was afterwards born again as a Brahman, in a distinguished family of ascetics. I shall hereafter relate to you his history.
From the illustrious Sumati was born Indradyumna: his son was Parameshthin: his son was Pratihra, who had a celebrated son, named
p. 165
[paragraph continues] Pratihartt: his son was Bhava, who begot Udgtha, who begot Prastra; whose son was Prithu. The son of Prithu was Nakta: his son was Gaya: his son was Nara; whose son was Virt. The valiant son of Virt was Dhmat, who begot Mahnta; whose son was Manasyu; whose son was Twashtri: his son was Vraja: his son was Rja: his son was atajit, who had a hundred sons, of whom Viswagjyotish was the eldest 9. Under these princes, Bhrata-varsha (India) was divided into nine portions (to be hereafter particularized); and their descendants successively held possession of the country for seventy-one periods of the aggregate of the four ages (or for the reign of a Manu).
This was the creation of Swyambhuva Manu, by which the earth was peopled, when he presided over the first Manwantara, in the Kalpa of Varha 10
Footnotes
161:1 The text reads Kany; and the commentator has, 'he married the daughter of Kardama, whose name was Kany.' The copies agree in the reading, and the Vyu has the same name, Kany; but the Mrkandeya, which is the same in other respects as our text, has Kmy: Kmy also is the name elsewhere given by the Vyu to the daughter of Kardama (p. 83. n. 6). Kmy, as has been noticed, appears in the Brhma and Hari V. (p. 53. n. 6) as the mother of Priyavrata, but erroneously; and the same authorities specify a Kmy as the wife of that sovereign. So the commentator on the Hari V. states, 'another Kmy is mentioned (in the text), the daughter of Kardama, the wife of Priyavrata.' p. 162 The name Kany is therefore most probably an error of the copyists. The Bhgavata calls the wife of Priyavrata, Varhishmat, the daughter of Viwakarman.
162:2 These names nearly agree in the authorities which specify the descendants of Priyavrata, except in the Bhgavata: that has an almost entirely different series of names, or gnidhra, Idhmajihwa, Yajnabhu, Mahvra, Hiranyaretas, Medhatithi, Ghritaprishtha, Savana, Vitihotra, and Kavi; with one daughter, Urjjaswat. It also calls the Manus Uttama, Tamasa, and Raivata the sons of Priyavrata by another wife.
162:3 According to the Bhgavata, he drove his chariot seven times round the earth, and the ruts left by the wheels became the beds of the oceans, separating it into seven Dwpas.
162:4 Even the Bhgavata concurs with the other Purnas in this series of Priyavrata's grandsons.
163:5 Of these divisions, as well as of those of the earth, and of the minor divisions of the Varshas, we have further particulars in the following chapter.
163:6 This place of pilgrimage has not been found elsewhere. The term is usually applied to a stone, an ammonite, which is supposed to be a type of Vishnu, and of which the worship is enjoined in the Uttara Khanda of the Padma P. and in the Brahma Vaivartta, authorities of no great weight or antiquity. As these stones are found chiefly in the Gandak river, the Slagrma Trtha was probably at the source of that stream, or at its confluence with the Ganges. Its sanctity, and that of the stone, are probably of comparatively modern origin.
163:7 'The great road,' or 'road of heroes.' The pebble was intended either to compel perpetual silence, or to prevent his eating. The Bhgavata p. 164 adverts to the same circumstance. That work enters much more into detail on the subject of Rishabha's devotion, and particularizes circumstances not found in any other Purna. The most interesting of these are the scene of Rishabha's wanderings, which is said to be Konka, Venkata, Ktaka, and southern Karntaka, or the western part of the Peninsula; and the adoption of the Jain belief by the people of those countries. Thus it is said, "A king of the Konkas, Venkatas, and Ktakas, named Arhat, having heard the tradition of Rishabha's practices (or his wandering about naked, and desisting from religious rites), being infatuated by necessity, under the evil influence of the Kali age, will become needlessly alarmed, and abandon his own religious duty, and will foolishly enter upon an unrighteous and heretical path. Misled by him, and bewildered by the iniquitous operation of the Kali age, disturbed also by the delusions of the deity, wicked men will, in great numbers, desert the institutes and purifications of their own ritual; will observe vows injurious and disrespectful to the gods; will desist from ablutions, mouth-washings, and purifications, and will pluck out the hair of the head; and will revile the world, the deity, sacrifices, Brahmans, and the Vedas." It is also said, that Sumati, the son of Bharata, will be irreligiously worshipped by some infidels, as a divinity. Besides the import of the term Arhat, or Jain, Rishabha is the name of the first, and Sumati of the fifth Trthakara, or Jain saint of the present era. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the Bhgavata intends this sect; and as the Jain system was not matured until a comparatively modern date, this composition is determined to be also recent. The allusions to the extension of the Jain faith in the western parts of the Peninsula, may serve to fix the limit of its probable antiquity to the 11th or 12th century, when the Jains seem to have been flourishing in Guzerat and the Konkan. As. Res. Xvii. 232.
164:8 This etymology is given in other Purnas; but the Matsya and Vyu have a different one, deriving it from the Manu, called Bharata, or the cherisher, one who rears or cherishes progeny. The Vyu has, in another place, the more common explanation also: ###.
165:9 The Agni, Krma, Mrkandeya, Linga, and Vyu Purnas agree with the Vishnu in these genealogical details. The Bhgavata has some additions and variations of nomenclature, but is not essentially different. It ends, however, with atajit, and cites a stanza which would seem to make Viraja the last of the descendants of Priyavrata.
165:10 The descendants of Priyavrata were the kings of the earth in the first or Swyambhuva Manwantara. Those of Uttnapda, his brother, are placed rather incongruously in the second or Swrochisha Manwantara: whilst, with still more palpable inconsistency, Daksha, a descendant of Uttnapda, gives his daughter to Kayapa in the seventh or Vaivaswata Manwantara. It seems probable that the patriarchal genealogies are older than the chronological system of Manwantaras and Kalpas, and have been rather clumsily distributed amongst the different periods.
