Priyavrata Upākhyāna

Priyavrata was the eldest son of Svāyambhuva Manu. As a boy he wanted to renounce the world and follow Nārada Maharshi. Brahmā himself persuaded him to take up the rule of the earth. Priyavrata ruled for eleven crore years. The Bhāgavata says that the wheels of his chariot cut seven furrows around the earth. These became the seven oceans and the seven dvīpas (island-continents). He shared the earth among seven of his sons and in the end renounced his kingship and went back to the path of moksha. This is told in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 5th Skanda, Chapter 1.

Priyavrata’s first wish

Priyavrata was the eldest son of Svāyambhuva Manu and Śatarūpā, the first couple. From his earliest childhood his heart was drawn not to kingship but to renunciation and the company of wise souls. He became a disciple of Nārada Maharshi and took the path of vairāgya (freedom from desire for worldly things). He gave himself to meditation on Bhagavān Hari. He had no wish for marriage, children or rule.

Brahmā comes and gives counsel

Svāyambhuva Manu saw this with worry and went to Brahmā. The eldest son of the first Manu was meant by the order of the cosmos to rule the earth and begin the line of kings. Yet he refused his duty. Brahmā came down from Satyaloka on his divine vehicle, with all the devas and great ṛshis, to speak to Priyavrata himself.

Brahmā’s words were a teaching, not an order. He told Priyavrata that even the greatest renunciants serve the will of Bhagavān Hari. These include Brahmā himself, Śiva, Manu, and the great ṛshi Nārada, who had become Priyavrata’s own guru. The cosmos has an order, and within it each being has a work to do. Life as a householder and the rule of a king are not lower than sannyāsa (renunciation). Everything done as service to Bhagavān Hari is equally the highest path.

Brahmā reminded Priyavrata that the will of Bhagavān Hari is the highest rule. All beings, from Brahmā down to a blade of grass, are tools of that will. For Priyavrata at that moment in the cosmos, the will of Bhagavān Hari was that he should rule the earth, begin the line of kings, and show the world that a king too can live fully aware of Bhagavān Hari. Priyavrata understood the teaching and accepted it with full surrender. He took up his royal duties.

Marriage and sons

Priyavrata married Barhishmatī, the daughter of the Prajāpati Viśvakarmā. She bore ten chief sons: Āgnīdhra, Idhmajihva, Yajñabāhu, Mahāvīra, Hiraṇyaretas, Ghṛtakṛshṇa, Savana, Medhātithi, Vītihotra and Kavi. Three of them, Kavi, Mahāvīra and Savana, gave up the world from the very start of their lives and followed the paramahaṃsa path (the highest path of renunciation). This shows that even in a royal family the path of full renunciation stays open to those who are called to it.

By a second wife Priyavrata had three more sons: Uttama, Tāmasa and Raivata. They became the lords of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Manvantaras. His daughter Ūrjasvatī was given in marriage to Śukrācārya, and from them was born Devayānī, the famous wife of King Yayāti.

The seven sons who became rulers of the seven dvīpas were Āgnīdhra (Jambū-dvīpa), Idhmajihva (Plaksha-dvīpa), Yajñabāhu (Śālmali-dvīpa), Hiraṇyaretas (Kuśa-dvīpa), Ghṛtakṛshṇa (Krauñca-dvīpa), Medhātithi (Śāka-dvīpa) and Vītihotra (Pushkara-dvīpa).

The rule of eleven crore years

Priyavrata ruled the earth for eleven crore years, which is 110 million years. His rule covered the whole inhabited bhū-maṇḍala (circle of the earth). He was so strong that he could not bear that one half of the earth should always be in darkness while the sun lit the other half. He decided to change this.

Priyavrata mounted his golden chariot of great power and drove it around the earth, along exactly the path of the sun. He went around the earth seven times in this way. The wheels of the chariot cut deep into the surface of the earth. The seven furrows filled with water from the great ocean and became the seven seas that lie between the seven dvīpas. The seven raised ridges between the furrows became the seven island-continents. In this way the bhū-maṇḍala was cut out by the wheels of Priyavrata’s chariot.

The dvīpas shared out

When the seven dvīpas were made, Priyavrata gave the rule of each to one of his seven capable sons:

Each dvīpa was set up as a world of its own, with its own land, peoples, devas, rivers and mountains. These are described in the later chapters of the fifth Skanda.

Priyavrata’s final renunciation

Priyavrata finished his duties in the cosmos. He set his sons over the seven dvīpas and ruled the earth for eleven crore years. Then his first wish, the wish for moksha that he had held since childhood, rose again. He gave up his kingship and went back to the path of the paramahaṃsa. The Bhāgavata records this as the natural close of his life of dharma. He had served the cosmic order as a tool of Bhagavān Hari, and now he was free to seek moksha. The same ātmā that had accepted kingship in obedience to Brahmā’s counsel now reached moksha, true to its deepest nature.

Śuka’s answer to Parīkshit

Śuka Maharshi tells the Priyavrata Upākhyāna in answer to a question from Parīkshit. How could a great devotee like Priyavrata, who had taken shelter with Nārada, become caught up in worldly life? The answer is that giving up the world and taking part in the world are not opposed. What matters is the spirit in which a person acts. Priyavrata ruled as a tool of Bhagavān Hari, not as a self seeking his own pleasure. The Bhāgavata uses his story to teach that the will of Bhagavān Hari and the path of the individual ātmā to moksha do not clash when the ātmā acts with full surrender.

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 5th Skanda, Chapter 1