Friday 2 September 2011

The Origin of Aditya and an outline of Surya Vamsha

After the first Manu Swayambhu, the subsequent Manus were Swarochisha, Uttama, Taamasa, Raivata, Chakshusa and the current Manu Vaivaswata. The Manus to follow would be Saavarni, Bhoutya, Rouchya and four more Meru Savarnyas, thus totalling Fourteen Manus. As regards Vaivaswata, the back ground was that Maharshi Kashyapa and Daksha’s daughter gave birth to Vivaswaan / Surya Deva and his wife Sanjna was the daughter of Vishwakarma; their progeny were Prajapati Shraaddha Deva or popularly called as Vaivaswaa Manu, Yama and Yamuna. As Devi Sanjna could not bear the tremendous heat and illumination of Surya, she materialised Chhaya Devi exactly like her and instructed her to serve Surya Deva in all possible ways and left to her father’s house but since Vishwakarma pressurised her to return to Surya, she preferred to perform Tapasya in the form of a mare in far off mountain meadows. Meanwhile, Surya Deva without recognising a changed Chhaya Devi as different from Sanjna carried on normally and in course of time, they gave birth to Shanaischara and Saavarna.

As all the children grew up, the elder son Yama Dharma felt a noticeable change in the behaviour of Chhaya Devi and treated her own progeny of with partiality. In an argument with Devi Chhaya, Yama Raja had an argument with her and in a fit of anger raised his foot on her; she cursed Yama that his foot would fall away; Yama the eldest of the children for whom Surya had consideration and esteem convyed the entire incident to Surya Deva who enquired of the facts from Chhaya Devi who broke down and confessed the truth that she was not Sanjna Devi, that she materialised her shadow and so on. Surya approached Vishwakarma who too confirmed that Sanjna did return to his home after giving birth to two sons and a daughter, that she reprimanded her and sent her back to Surya and that he felt she returned to Surya again. In his celestial vision, Surya discovered that Sanjna assumed the form of a mare and had been performing meditation eversince. Surya Deva then assumed too the form of a horse and approached Sanjna the mare. As the mare sought to avoid the horse and turned around, she smelt the semen of the horse and then emerged two boys viz. Ashvini Kumaraas (named as Drasyulas or Naanyutas).

The episode ended happily as Yama Dharmaraja became the Head of Pitru Devas and Lokapalaka of ‘Dharma’ (Virtue) and ‘Nyaaya’ (Justice); Saavarana Prajapati was to become a future Manu still engaged in Tapasya atop Meru Mountain; Sanaischara became a powerful Planet; Yamuna turned out to be a River and Twashta or the ‘Surya Bimba’ (Sun Globe) when rubbed the particles of the periphery got converted as ‘Vishnu Chakra’ with which Vishnu Deva exterminated the evil Shaktis like Daityas.

Vaivaswa had nine sons viz. Ikshvaaku, Naabhaga, Dhrushta, Sharyaati, Narishyanta, Praamshu, Arishta, Karusha and Prushaghna. Once Vaivaswa performed one Yagna with the objective of begetting a daughter and Maharshi Mirtaavaruna was the Chief Priest; as the Maharshi offered a powerful oblation in the Agni Kunda, there emerged a maiden whom the Manu addressed as Ila and she took the permission of Matraavaruna and went near the Manu; the Manu blessed her, named her as Sudyumna and instructed her to expand Manu vamsha. She met Budha Deva in marriage and gave birth to Puru; she gave birth further to three sons viz. Utkal (whose Kingdom was the present Orissa), Gaya (the Capital of Gaya desha) and Vinataashva. Puru’s Kingdom was distributed into parts to accommodate the nine sons too. Ikshvaaku became the Ruler of Madhyadesaha. Ila and Sudyumna was one and the same but alternatively as a woman and as a man for each six months. Naashyanta’s son was Shaka; Nabhaaga begot Ambarisha; Dhrishta and Karusha begot sons of the same name; Pramshu was issueless; Sharyati got twin children-a boy named Anarta and a girl Sukanya who was wedded to Chyavana Maharshi. Anarta begot Raiva, and the latter’s son was Raivata, also known as Kakudmi who became the King of Kushasthala. Once Raivata accompanied by his daughter Revati visited Brahma loka and the latter was at that time engrossed in ‘Gandharva Gaana’/ the songs of Gandharva; after the singing session, Brahma when told of the purpose of their visit viz. to bless his daughter of a suitable match for her, Brahma smiled and stated that during his visit to Brahma loka, Yugas rolled by but blessed Revati to return to their place and that she would definitely wed a Mahatma. On return, the father and daughter discovered a complete change of their Place in Dwapara Yuga and on making local enquiries found Balarama, the elder brother of Krishna as a suitable life-partner for Devi Revati; thus the age-difference of Balarama and Devi Revati was a full Yuga!

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