DIVINE INFORMATION2-24 Matsya Purana part ’ 5
Posted by: "DILIP KUMAR RAVINDRAN" [email protected] prdili Mon Aug 30, 2010 7:00 am (PDT) The Maruts Although the gods and thedemons were cousins, they did not like each other and fought amongst themselvesall the time. Many daityas were killed by Vishnu and the other gods. Diti was disconsolate tosee her children suffer thus. She resolved that she would meditate so as toobtain a son who would be so powerful that he would kill Indra, the king of the gods. There was a tirtha (placeof pilgrimage) named Syamantapanchaka on the banks of the sacred riverSarasvati. Diti went there and started to pray to the sage Kashyapa. She livedon roots and fruits and meditated for a hundred years. These prayers pleasedKashyapa. "Ask for a boon," he said."Please grant me a son who will kill indra," repliedDiti. "It shall be as youwish," said Kashyapa. "But there are some conditions. You will haveto live in this hermitage fora hundred years more. Throughout these hundred years you will bear the baby inyour womb. But there are certain conditions of cleanliness that you mustobserve. You must not eat in the evening, nor must you sleep under a tree atnight. Exercise is not permitted in any form. Do not sleep with your hair unbraided, or withouthaving head a bath. If you can observe these rules for a hundred years, youwill have the son you wish for." Kashyapa went away and Ditibegan to observe the rites that the sage had prescribed. But Indra had got toknow what was afoot and he was naturally in no mood to permit the birth of ason who would be the cause of his own destruction. He hung around Diti ’ s hermitage, pretending to serve his aunt. He brought her firewood and fruit and servedher in other ways. But in reality, he was merely waiting for an opportunity. Hewas waiting for the moment when Diti would fail to observe the norms ofcleanliness that had been laid down for her. Ninety-nine years and threehundred and sixty-two days passed. That is, only three days were left for theperiod of one hundred years to be over. (In some other Puranas, it is statedthat ninety years had passed uneventfully. ) Diti was tired on oneparticular occasion. Since the period of her ordeal was soon to end, she hadalso become somewhat careless. She fell asleep without washing her hair. What was worse, shewent to sleep without having braided her hair. This was an act of gross uncleanliness. Indra seized his chance.Since Diti had committed an unclean act, her defences had been lowered. Indra entered’ s womb in atrice. Indra has a wonderful weapon named vajra. (This is sometimeswith a club.) With the vajra, Indra sliced the baby in Diti s womb intoseven parts. These parts started to cry. "Ma ruda," saidIndra. "Don ’ ’¹t cry." But the parts continued tocry. Indra therefore chopped up each of the parts into seven more sections, so that there were forty-nine parts in all. Since Diti had failed toobserve the prescribed rites, these forty-nine sections were no longer a threatto Indra. When they were born, they came to be known as the maruts fromthe words Indra had used in addressing them. They were elevated to thestatus of gods and became Indra’s friends and constant companions. Matsya purana... part 7 Posted by: "DILIP KUMAR RAVINDRAN" [email protected] prdili Wed Sep 1, 2010 6:58 am (PDT) Prithu A king named Anga wasdescended from Svayuambhuva Manu. Anga married Sunitha, the daughter of Mrityu, and they had a son named Vena. Mrityu wasan evil person. From his childhood, Vena associated with this maternal grandfather of his and thus came toacquire evil ways. When Vena became king after Anga, he started to oppress the world. He stopped all yajnas and the prayers to thegods. He insisted thatpeople should pray only to Vena. Thesages did their level best to persuade Vena to return to the righteous path, but Vena would not listen. The sages then killed Vena.(The Matsya Purana merely states that Vena died as a result of the curseimposed on him by the sages. The other Puranas say that the sages actually killed him with some straw over which incantations had been chanted.) Vena had no sons and akingdom does not flourish in the absence of a king. Therefore, when Vena was dead, the sages started toknead the dead body so that a sonmight be born. The first being that emerged as a result of this kneading was a dark anddwarfish son. All the evil that was inVena’s body entered the body of this son so that there was no more evil left in the dead body. (OtherPuranas state that this son came to beknown as nishada and this name was also passed on to his descendants. The nishadas became a class ofhunters and fishermen.) When the kneading continued, a handsome son was born from Vena’s right hand. He was born fully grown and held bows,arrows and clubs in his hands when heemerged. His entire body was cladin shining armour. The word prithumeans great. Since the son was born after a great deal of effort, he was given the name Prithu. (Some other Puranas have an alternativederivation. Vena’s right palm was very plump and the word prithu alsomeans plump. Since the sonborn as a result of the kneading of this plumpright palm, he was called Prithu.) The sages made arrangementsfor Prithu’s coronation. Prithu was a good king who ruled well. But Prithu’s subjects stilldid not have the wherewithal to make a living. They asked their king to do something about this. Prithu decided that since the earth was not providing anyfood grains, he would kill the earth.The earth adopted the form of a cow and started to flee. Wherever the earthwent, the king followed in hot pursuit. The earth finally realized thatshe could not escape by running away. She told Prithu, "Please do not kill me. Then your subjects willnot even have a place to live in. Yourobject is to find a means of living foryour subjects. How will that be accomplished if you kill me? Milk me instead of killing me. The foodgrainsthat the milking will yield will providethe sustenance for your subjects." prithu accordingly milked the earth. It is because of this thatthe earth is known as prithivi. Prithu also levelledout the earth with his bow so that his subjects could live in the plains thuscreated. The earth prospered duringPrithu’s rule. Poverty, disease and sins were unknown. Everyone was righteous. I will continue in next posting. Posted by R. Gopalakrishnan on 24-11-2021 to google groups. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1945305738.2935351.1637720291909%40mail.yahoo.com.
