Jaya and Vijaya, Sons of Kardama

In the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 110, Jaya and Vijaya are not first doorkeepers of Vaikuṇṭha. They are the two elder sons of the ṛshi Kardama and his wife Devahūtī. They fall into low births after a quarrel, and Bhagavān Vishṇu’s cakra frees them in the month of Kārtika. Then Bhagavān Vishṇu makes them the doorkeepers (dvārapāla) of Vaikuṇṭha.

Sons of Kardama and Devahūtī

Jaya and Vijaya were the two elder sons of Kardama and Devahūtī. The third and youngest son of the same couple was Bhagavān Kapila, the avatāra who gave the Sāṃkhya teaching. Jaya was the elder and Vijaya the younger. Devahūtī was the daughter of Svāyambhuva Manu. Kardama was the ṛshi whose tapas (austerity) brought Bhagavān Kapila into the world. The two brothers were born into a family of great holiness.

The quarrel over Marutta’s dakshiṇā

The cause of their fall was a quarrel about dakshiṇā, the gifts given at the end of a great yajña (fire ritual). King Marutta was known for his great yajñas. He held a yajña at which the dakshiṇā was of very fine quality and very large. Jaya and Vijaya both took part in giving out this dakshiṇā, and they quarrelled over how to divide it between them.

The quarrel grew until the two brothers put a śāpa (curse) on each other in anger. The śāpa sent each brother into a low animal birth. One became an elephant and the other a crocodile. They had been sons of Kardama and Devahūtī, and they fell to the animal world through each other’s śāpa.

Reborn on the Gaṇḍakī bank

After the animal births, Jaya and Vijaya were born again on the bank of the holy river Gaṇḍakī, in forms that matched what was left of their earlier puṇya as men. The Śālagrāma stones are found in the bed of the Gaṇḍakī. They are svayambhū (self-born) forms of Bhagavān Vishṇu, and this gives the river great holiness. Living near such a river kept the two brothers close to liberation, even in birth that was not human.

Freed at Harikshetra in Kārtika

Bhagavān Vishṇu’s Sudarśana cakra freed Jaya and Vijaya at a holy place called Harikshetra (the field of Hari). This happened in the month of Kārtika. In this month Bhagavān Vishṇu himself dwells in the water, and the waters carry the Vedic presence of Bhagavān Vishṇu. The cakra touched their bodies in this most auspicious month, and they were freed from their earthly condition.

Made doorkeepers of Vaikuṇṭha

After they were freed, Bhagavān Vishṇu made Jaya and Vijaya the doorkeepers of Vaikuṇṭha. In this account the two at the gate of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s highest abode are sons of great ṛshis who were freed by the grace of the month of Kārtika and by the direct action of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 110