Pṛthu and the Milking of the Earth
Pṛthu is the first true king (rājā). The Matsya Purāṇa tells in Chapter 10 how the ṛshis made him from the body of the wicked King Vena. When the earth, as a cow, kept back her produce, Pṛthu chased her and then milked her. Through this milking food and all the good things of the natural world came to living beings. The earth takes her name Pṛthvī from him.
Vena’s wickedness
King Vena came from the line of Manu, but his nature was spoiled from birth by the influence of his mother’s family, which had ties to the asuras. When he became king, Vena called himself the highest, equal to or above the devas. He forbade all yajña, pūjā and Vedic ritual. He ordered that no offering be made to any deva except himself. The brāhmaṇas and ṛshis warned him again and again, but Vena would not listen.
The ṛshis saw that the order of dharma was being torn down and that the yajñas that feed the devas and keep the world going had stopped. They acted. They struck Vena with blades of sacred kuśa grass. In the hands of ṛshis rich in tapas, these blades had the force of the brahmadaṇḍa (the rod of Brahman). Vena died.
With the king dead and no heir, the earth began to fall into disorder. The ṛshis saw the urgent need for a just ruler and churned Vena’s thigh. A dark, dwarfish being came out. He stood for the evil and adharma taken out of Vena’s line, and he was sent away. Then the ṛshis churned Vena’s right arm. From it came a shining, fully formed being of great divine beauty and power: Pṛthu.
Pṛthu’s appearance and coronation
Pṛthu came out fully armed, with a bow in his hand and a quiver at his side, and wearing divine ornaments. The ṛshis, devas and all beings who had gathered saw in him the marks of a great king and a partial manifestation of Bhagavān Vishṇu. He was at once consecrated as king, the first true rājā, with all the proper rites. Brahmā and the great ṛshis declared that the kingdom and its people would flourish under his just rule.
The earth keeps back her produce
At the time of Pṛthu’s coronation the earth was not giving her produce. The fields gave no grain, the trees bore no fruit and the cows gave no milk. The people came to Pṛthu, hungry and suffering, and asked him to put this right.
Pṛthu understood. In Vena’s reign the yajña had stopped and dharma had been neglected. The earth, angry at adharma, had swallowed all her own produce and would not give it up. She now had to be approached in the form of a cow (go-rūpa).
Pṛthu took his great bow and chased the earth, who fled as a cow. Bhūdevī ran, but she could not outrun Pṛthu, whose arrows could reach the ends of the universe. When she was cornered she turned and spoke to him. She said that if he killed her, every being that lives on her would die. A king cannot protect his people by destroying the ground they stand on. Pṛthu accepted her words. He then made a request, not a demand: that she give up her produce for the good of all beings.
The milking
The earth agreed on one condition: Pṛthu must make ready a proper calf to bring down her milk, and a proper vessel. Pṛthu used the great Svāyambhuva Manu, the first Manu and father of humankind, as the calf. The vessel was Pṛthu’s own hand. The earth then gave her produce: grain, plants, herbs, minerals and water, all that keeps life going on her surface.
Other beings then milked the earth in the same way, each with a fitting calf and vessel. The devas milked her with the sun as calf. The nāgas milked her with another nāga as calf. The pitṛs and ṛshis milked her in their own ways. Each received from the earth what suited its nature and purpose.
The name Pṛthvī
The account says Pṛthu levelled the uneven ground with his bow so that the land could be farmed. By this levelling and by the milking, which set the earth’s giving relationship with all beings, the earth received the name Pṛthvī, “she who was shaped and set up by Pṛthu.” Pṛthu is honoured as the first king who not only ruled but shaped and ordered the earth so that all beings could be fed.
Sources
- Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 10