The world overrun with trees; they are destroyed by the Pracetasas
The Vishnu Purana Chapter XV Peculiar to Vishnu puranam
The world is overrun with trees: they are destroyed by the Pracetasas. Soma
pacifies them, and gives them Māṛṣā to wife: her story: the daughter of the
nymph Pramlocā. Legend of Kaṇḍu. Māṛṣā's former history. Dakṣa the son of
the Pracetasas: his different characters: his sons: his daughters: their
marriages and progeny: allusion to Prahlāda, his descendant.
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WHILST the Pracetasas were thus absorbed in their devotions, the
trees spread and overshadowed the unprotected earth, and the people
perished: the winds could not blow; the sky was shut out by the forests;
and mankind was unable to labour for ten thousand years. When the sages,
coming forth from the deep, beheld this, they were angry, and, being
incensed, wind and flame issued from their mouths. The strong wind tore up
the trees by their roots, and left them sear and dry, and the fierce fire
consumed them, and the forests were cleared away. When Soma (the moon), the
sovereign of the vegetable world, beheld all except a few of the trees
destroyed, he went to the patriarchs, the Pracetasas, and said, “Restrain
your indignation, princes, and listen to me. I will form an alliance
between you and the trees. Prescient of futurity, I have nourished with my
rays this precious maiden, the daughter of the woods. She is called Māṛṣā,
and is assuredly the offspring of the trees. She shall be your bride, and
the multiplier of the race of Dhruva. From a portion of your lustre and a
portion of mine, oh mighty sages, the patriarch Dakṣa shall be born of her,
who, endowed with a part of me, and composed of your vigour, shall be as
resplendent as fire, and shall multiply the human race.
” There was formerly (said Soma) a sage named Kaṇḍu, eminent in holy
wisdom, who practised pious austerities on the lovely borders of the Gomati
river. The king of the gods sent the nymph Pramlocā to disturb his penance,
and the sweet-smiling damsel diverted the sage from his devotions. They
lived together, in the valley of Mandara, for a hundred and fifty years;
during which, the mind of the Muni was wholly given up to enjoyment. At the
expiration of this period the nymph requested his permission to return to
heaven; but the Muni, still fondly attached to her, prevailed upon her to
remain for some time longer; and the graceful damsel continued to reside
for another hundred years, and delight the great sage by her fascinations.
Then again she preferred her suit to be allowed to return to the abodes of
the gods; and again the Muni desired her to remain. At the expiration of
more than a century the nymph once more said to him, with a smiling
countenance, ‘Brahman, I depart;’ but the Muni, detaining the fine-eyed
damsel, replied, ‘Nay, stay yet a little; you will go hence for a long
period.’ Afraid of incurring an imprecation, the graceful nymph continued
with the sage for nearly two hundred years more, repeatedly asking his
permission to go to the region of the king of the gods, but as often
desired by him to remain. Dreading to be cursed by him, and excelling in
amiable manners, well knowing also the pain that is inflicted by separation
from an object of affection, she did not quit the Muni, whose mind, wholly
subdued by love, became every day more strongly attached to her.
“On one occasion the sage was going forth from their cottage in a
great hurry. The nymph asked him where he was going. ‘The day,’ he replied,
‘is drawing fast to a close: I must perform the Sandhya worship, or a duty
will be neglected.’ The nymph smiled mirthfully as she rejoined, ‘Why do
you talk, grave sir, of this day drawing to a close: your day is a day of
many years, a day that must be a marvel to all: explain what this means.’
The Muni said, ‘Fair damsel, you came to the river-side at dawn; I beheld
you then, and you then entered my hermitage. It is now the revolution of
evening, and the day is gone. What is the meaning of this laughter? Tell me
the truth.’ Pramlocā. answered, ‘You say rightly,’ venerable Brahman, ‘that
I came hither at morning dawn, but several hundred years have passed since
the time of my arrival. This is the truth.’ The Muni, on hearing this, was
seized with astonishment, and asked her how long he had enjoyed her
society: to which the nymph replied, that they had lived together nine
hundred and seven years, six months, and three days. The Muni asked her if
she spoke the truth, or if she was in jest; for it appeared to him that
they had spent but one day together: to which Pramlocā replied, that she
should not dare at any time to tell him who lived in the path of piety an
untruth, but particularly when she had been enjoined by him to inform him
what had passed.
”When the Muni, princes, had heard these words, and knew that it was
the truth, he began to reproach himself bitterly, exclaiming, ‘Fie, fie
upon me; my penance has been interrupted; the treasure of the learned and
the pious has been stolen from me; my judgment has been blinded: this woman
has been created by someone to beguile me: Brahma is beyond the reach of
those agitated by the waves of infirmity. I had subdued my passions, and
was about to attain divine knowledge. This was foreseen by him by whom this
girl has been sent hither. Fie on the passion that has obstructed my
devotions. All the austerities that would have led to acquisition of the
wisdom of the Vedas have been rendered of no avail by passion that is the
road to hell.’ The pious sage, having thus reviled himself, turned to the
nymph, who was sitting nigh, and said to her, ‘Go, deceitful girl, whither
thou wilt: thou hast performed the office assigned thee by the monarch of
the gods, of disturbing my penance by thy fascinations. I will not reduce
thee to ashes by the fire of my wrath. Seven paces together is sufficient
for the friendship of the virtuous, but thou and I have dwelt together. And
in truth what fault hast thou committed? why should I be wroth with thee?
The sin is wholly mine, in that I could not subdue my passions: yet fie
upon thee, who, to gain favour with Indra, hast disturbed my devotions;
vile bundle of delusion.’
“Thus spoken to by the Muni, Pramlocā stood trembling, whilst big
drops of perspiration started from every pore; till he angrily cried to
her, ‘Depart, begone.’ She then, reproached by him, went forth from his
dwelling, and, passing through the air, wiped the perspiration from her
person with the leaves of the trees. The nymph went from tree to tree, and
as with the dusky shoots that crowned their summits she dried her limbs,
which were covered with moisture, the child she had conceived by the Ṛṣi
came forth from the pores of her skin in drops of perspiration.
The trees received the living dews, and the winds collected them into
one mass. “This,” said Soma, “I matured by my rays, and gradually it
increased in size, till the exhalation that had rested on the tree tops became
the lovely girl named Māṛṣā. The trees will give her to you, Pracetasas:
let your indignation be appeased. She is the progeny of Kaṇḍu, the child of
Pramlocā, the nursling of the trees, the daughter of the wind and of the
moon. The holy Kaṇḍu, after the interruption of his pious exercises, went,
excellent princes, to the region of Viṣṇu, termed Puruṣottama, where,
Maitreya, with his whole mind he devoted himself to the adoration of Hari;
standing fixed, with uplifted arms, and repeating the prayers that
comprehend the essence of divine truth.”
The Pracetasas said, “We are desirous to hear the transcendental
prayers, by inaudibly reciting which the pious Kaṇḍu propitiated Keśava.”
On which Soma repeated as follows: “'Viṣṇu is beyond the boundary of all
things: he is the infinite: he is beyond that which is boundless: he is
above all that is above: he exists as finite truth: he is the object of the
Veda; the limit of elemental being; unappreciable by the senses; possessed
of illimitable might: he is the cause of cause; the cause of the cause of
cause; the cause of finite cause; and in effects, he, both as every object
and agent, preserves the universe: he is Brahma the lord; Brahma all
beings; Brahma the progenitor of all beings; the imperishable: he is the
eternal, undecaying, unborn Brahma, incapable of increase or diminution:
Puruṣottama is the everlasting, untreated, immutable Brahma. May the
imperfections of my nature be annihilated through his favour.' Reciting
this eulogium, the essence of divine truth, and propitiating Keśava, Kaṇḍu
obtained final emancipation.
”Who Māṛṣā was of old I will also relate to you, as the recital of
her meritorious acts will be beneficial to you. She was the widow of a
prince, and left childless at her husband's death: she therefore zealously
worshipped Viṣṇu, who, being gratified by her adoration, appeared to her,
and desired her to demand a boon; on which she revealed to him the wishes
of her heart. ‘I have been a widow, lord,’ she exclaimed, ‘even from my
infancy, and my birth has been in vain: unfortunate have I been, and of
little use, oh sovereign of the world. Now therefore I pray thee that in
succeeding births I may have honourable husbands, and a son equal to a
patriarch amongst men: may I be possessed of affluence and beauty: may I he
pleasing in the sight of all: and may I be born out of the ordinary course.
Grant these prayers, oh thou who art propitious to the devout.’
Hṛṣikeśa, the god of gods, the supreme giver of all blessings,
thus prayed to, raised her from her prostrate attitude, and said, ‘In
another life you shall have ten husbands of mighty prowess, and renowned
for glorious acts; and you shall have a son magnanimous and valiant,
distinguished by the rank of a patriarch, from whom the various races of
men shall multiply, and by whose posterity the universe shall be filled.
You, virtuous lady, shall be of marvellous birth, and you shall be endowed
with grace and loveliness, delighting the hearts of men.’ Thus having
spoken, the deity disappeared, and the princess was accordingly afterwards
born as Māṛṣā, who is given to you for a wife."
Soma having concluded, the Pracetasas took Māṛṣā, as he had enjoined
them, righteously to wife, relinquishing their indignation against the
trees: and upon her they begot the eminent patriarch Dakṣa, who had (in a
former life) been born as the son of Brahmā. This great sage, for the
furtherance of creation, and the increase of mankind, created progeny. Obeying
the command of Brahmā, he made movable and immovable things, bipeds and
quadrupeds; and subsequently, by his will, gave birth to females, ten of
whom he bestowed on Dharma, thirteen on Kaśyapa, and twenty-seven, who
regulate the course of time, on the moon. Of these, the gods, the Titans,
the snake-gods, cattle, and birds, the singers and dancers of the courts of
heaven, the spirits of evil, and other beings, were born. From that period
forwards living creatures were engendered by sexual intercourse: before the
time of Dakṣa they were variously propagated, by the will, by sight, by
touch, and by the influence of religious austerities practised by devout
sages and holy saints.
Maitreya said:—Dakṣa, as I have formerly heard, was born from the right
thumb of Brahmā: tell me, great Muni, how he was regenerate as the son of
the Pracetasas. Considerable perplexity also arises in my mind, how he,
who, as the son of Māṛṣā, was the grandson of Soma, could be also his
father-in-law.
Parāśara said:—Birth and death are constant in all creatures: Ṛṣis and
sages, possessing divine vision, are not perplexed by this. Dakṣa and the
other eminent Munis are present in every age, and in the interval of
destruction cease to be: of this the wise man entertains no doubt. Amongst
them of old there was neither senior nor junior; rigorous penance and
acquired power were the sole causes of any difference of degree amongst
these more than human beings.
Maitreya said:—Narrate to me, venerable Brahman, at length, the birth of
the gods, Titans, Gandharvas, serpents, and goblins.
Parāśara said:—In what manner Dakṣa created living creatures, as commanded
by Brahmā, you shall hear. In the first place he willed into existence the
deities, the Ṛṣis, the quiristers of heaven, the Titans, and the
snake-gods. Finding that his will-born progeny did not multiply themselves,
he determined, in order to secure their increase, to establish sexual
intercourse as the means of multiplication. For this purpose he espoused
Asiknī, the daughter of the patriarch Vīraṇa[8], a damsel addicted to
devout practices, the eminent supportress of the world. By her the great
father of mankind begot five thousand mighty sons, through whom he expected
the world should be peopled. Nārada, the divine Ṛṣi, observing them
desirous to multiply posterity, approached them, and addressed them in a
friendly tone: “Illustrious Haryaswas, it is evident that your intention is
to beget posterity; but first consider this: why should you, who, like
fools, know not the middle, the height, and depth of the world, propagate
offspring? When your intellect is no more obstructed by interval, height,
or depth, then how, fools, shall ye not all behold the term of the
universe?” Having heard the words of Nārada, the sons of Dakṣa dispersed
themselves through the regions, and to the present day have not returned;
as rivers that lose themselves in the ocean come back no more.
The Haryaswas having disappeared, the patriarch Dakṣa begot by the
daughter of Vīraṇa a thousand other sons. They, who were named Savalāswas,
were desirous of engendering posterity, but were dissuaded by Nārada in a
similar manner. They said to one another, “What the Muni has observed is
perfectly just. We must follow the path that our brothers have travelled,
and when we have ascertained the extent of the universe, we will multiply
our race.” Accordingly they scattered themselves through the regions, and,
like rivers flowing into the sea, they returned not again. Henceforth
brother seeking for brother disappears, through ignorance of the products
of the first principle of things. Dakṣa the patriarch, on finding that all
these his sons had vanished, was incensed, and denounced an imprecation
upon Nārada.
Then, Maitreya, the wise patriarch, it is handed down to us, being
anxious to people the world, created sixty daughters of the daughter of
Vīraṇā; ten of whom he gave to Dharma, thirteen to Kaśyapa, and
twenty-seven to Soma, four to Aṛṣṭanemi, two to Bahuputra, two to Aṅgiras,
and two to Kriśāśva. I will tell you their names. Arundhaṭī, Vasu, Yāmī,
Lambā, Bhānū, Marutvatī, Saṅkalpa, Muhūrttā, Sādhyā, and Viśvā were the ten
wives of Dharma, and bore him the following progeny. The sons of Viśvā were
the Viśvādevas; and the Sādhyas, those of Sādhyā. The Māruts, or winds,
were the children of Marutvatī; the Vasus, of Vasu. The Bhānus (or suns) of
Bhānu; and the deities presiding over moments, of Muhūrttā. Ghoṣa was the
son of Lambā (an arc of the heavens); Nāgavīthī (the milky way), the
daughter of Yāmī (night). The divisions of the earth were born of
Arundhaṭi; and Saṅkalpa (pious purpose), the soul of all, was the son of
Saṅkalpā. The deities called Vasus, because, preceded by fire, they abound
in splendour and might, are severally named Āpa, Dhruva, Soma, Dhava
(fire), Anila (wind), Anala (fire), Pratyūṣa (day-break), and Prabhāsa
(light). The four sons of Āpa were Vaitaṇḍya, Śrama (weariness), Srānta
(fatigue), and Dhur (burthen). Kāla (time), the cerisher of the world, was
the son of Dhruva. The son of Soma was Varchas (light), who was the father
of Varcasvī (radiance). Dhava had, by his wife Manoharā (loveliness),
Draviṇa, Hutahavyavāha, Śiśira, Prāṇa, and Ramaṇa. The two sons of Anila
(wind), by his wife Śivā, were Manojava (swift as thought) and Avijñātagati
(untraceable motion). The son of Agni (fire), Kumāra, was born in a clump
of Śara reeds: his sons were Sākha, Visākha, Naigameya, and Pṛṣṭhaja. The
offspring of the Krittikās was named Kārtikeya. The son of Pratyūṣa was the
Ṛṣi named Devala, who had two philosophic and intelligent sons. The sister
of Vācaspati, lovely and virtuous, Yogasiddhā, who pervades the wholes
world without being devoted to it, was the wife of Prabhāsa, the eighth of
the Vasus, and bore to him the patriarch Viswakarmā, the author of a
thousand arts, the mechanist of the gods, the fabricator of all ornaments,
the chief of artists, the constructor of the self-moving chariots of the
deities, and by whose skill men obtain subsistence. Ajaikapād, Ahirvradhna,
and the wise Rudra Tvaṣṭri, were born; and the self-born son of Twashtri
was also the celebrated Viśvarūpa. There are eleven well-known Rudras,
lords of the three worlds, or Hara, Bahurūpa, Tryambaka, Aparājita,
Vṛṣakapi, Sambhu, Kaparddī, Raivata, Mrigavyādha, Sarva, and Kapāli; but
there are a hundred appellations of the immeasurably mighty Rudras.
The daughters of Dakṣa who were married to Kaśyapa were Aditi, Diti,
Danu, Aṛṣṭā, Surasā, Surabhi, Vinatā, Tāmrā, Krodhavaśā, Iḍā, Khasā, Kadru,
and Muni; whose progeny I will describe to you. There were twelve
celebrated deities in a former Manvantara, called Tuṣitas, who, upon the
approach of the present period, or in the reign of the last Manu, Cākṣuṣa,
assembled, and said to one another, “Come, let us quickly enter into the
womb of Aditī, that we may be born in the next Manvantara, for thereby we
shall again enjoy the rank of gods:” and accordingly they were born the
sons of Kaśyapa, the son of Marīci, by Aditī, the daughter of Dakṣa; thence
named the twelve Ādityas; whose appellations were respectively, Viṣṇu,
Śakra, Āryaman, Dhūtī, Tvāṣṭri, Pūṣan, Vivaswat, Savitri, Mitra, Varuṇa,
Aṃśa, and Bhaga. These, who in the Cākṣuṣa Manvantara were the gods called
Tuṣitas, were called the twelve Ādityas in the Manvantara of Vaivaśvata.
The twenty-seven daughters of the patriarch who became the virtuous wives
of the moon were all known as the nymphs of the lunar constellations, which
were called by their names, and had children who were brilliant through
their great splendour. The wives of Aṛṣṭanemi bore him sixteen children.
The daughters of Bahuputra were the four lightnings. The excellent
Pratyaṅgirasa Ricas were the children of Aṅgiras, descended from the holy
sage: and the deified weapons of the gods were the progeny of Kriśāśva.
These classes of thirty-three divinities are born again at the end of a
thousand ages, according to their own pleasure; and their appearance and
disappearance is here spoken of as birth and death: but, Maitreya, these
divine personages exist age after age in the same manner as the sun sets
and rises again.
It has been related to us, that Diti had two sons by Kaśyapa, named
Hiraṇyakaśipu and the invincible Hiraṇyākṣa: she had also a daughter,
Siṅkā, the wife of Viprachitti. Hiraṇyakaśipu was the father of four mighty
sons, Anuhlāda, Hlāda, the wise Prahlāda, and the heroic Sanhlāda, the
augmentor of the Daitya race. Amongst these, the illustrious Prahlāda,
looking on all things with indifference, devoted his whole faith to
Janārddana. The flames that were lighted by the king of the Daityas
consumed not him, in whose heart Vāsudeva was cherished; and all the earth
trembled when, bound with bonds, he moved amidst the waters of the ocean.
His firm body, fortified by a mind engrossed by Achyuta, was unwounded by
the weapons hurled on him by order of the Daitya monarch; and the serpents
sent to destroy him breathed their venomous flames upon him in vain.
Overwhelmed with rocks, he yet remained unhurt; for he never forgot Viṣṇu,
and the recollection of the deity was his armour of proof. Hurled from on
high by the king of the Daityas, residing in Swerga, earth received him
unharmed. The wind sent into his body to wither him up was itself
annihilated by him, in whom Madhusūdana was present. The fierce elephants
of the spheres broke their tusks, and veiled their pride, against the firm
breast which the lord of the Daityas had ordered them to assault. The
ministrant priests of the monarch were baffled in all their rites for the
destruction of one so steadily attached to Govinda: and the thousand
delusions of the fraudulent Samvara, counteracted by the discus of Kṛṣṇa,
were practised without success. The deadly poison administered by his
father's officers he partook of unhesitatingly, and without its working any
visible change; for he looked upon the world with mind undisturbed, and,
full of benignity, regarded all things with equal affection, and as
identical with himself. He was righteous; an inexhaustible mine of purity
and truth; and an unfailing model for all pious
men.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
K RAJARAM IRS 20624 21624
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