Dīvodāsa's Rule of Kāśī

Dīvodāsa was a king of Kāśī. When Bhagavān Śiva left Kāśī for Mount Mandara, Dīvodāsa ruled the city for eighty thousand years, and in all that time no fault was found in him or in his people. Bhagavān Śiva longed to return. He sent Gaṇeśa, Skanda, the sixty-four Yoginīs and Bhagavān Sūrya, one after another, to find a reason to remove the king. Each of them stayed in Kāśī instead. In the end Bhagavān Vishṇu and Gaṇeśa made the king ready to give up his throne, and Bhagavān Śiva came back. The Kāśī Khaṇḍa tells this in Chapters 43 to 50 and 56 to 58.

Śiva leaves Kāśī

Brahmā asked Bhagavān Śiva to go to Mount Mandara, and Bhagavān Śiva was also pleased with the tapas (austerity) of the mountain. He agreed to go. When Viśveśvara left Kāśī for Mandara, all the devas followed him. Bhagavān Vishṇu left the Vaishṇava shrines of the earth. Gaṇeśa left all the places holy to him. Skanda went to Mandara. Sūrya left his homes. All the other devas left their own holy places on earth. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 43)

When all the groups of devas had gone from the earth, King Dīvodāsa took sole rule over the kingdom, which had no rival. He made the ancient city of Vārāṇasī his capital. The wise king guarded his people with righteousness and made them prosper. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 43)

Dīvodāsa’s glorious reign

The Kāśī Khaṇḍa praises Dīvodāsa’s reign in high words, and compares him to each of the Lokapālas (guardians of the directions):

Like the Sun, he scorched the hearts of the wicked and lit the minds of the good.
Like Indra, he held an unbroken bow, and he struck down the armies of his enemies as Indra drives off clouds.
Like Dharmarāja, he told piety from impiety exactly, honouring the innocent and punishing the guilty.
Like Agni, he destroyed his enemies as fire burns down forests.
Like Varuṇa, he bound his enemies from far away.
Like Nirṛti, he was the protector of righteous people.
Like Kubera, he gave wealth to all good people.
Like the Moon, he was Kalāvān, master of all arts.

“Even as that Dīvodāsa was ruling Kāśī thus, every year passed off like a day and thus eighty thousand years elapsed.”

Not one bad quality was found in him: no lust, anger, greed, delusion, rivalry or pride. Even the deva of death could not conquer him. In his kingdom:

No one suffered from drought, disease or ill treatment by the king.
Every house was rich and every citizen was learned.
The gandharvas were beaten in singing, and the yakshas and rākshasas guarded his city.
Asuras served him in human form.

(Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 43)

Śiva’s longing for Kāśī

At Mandara, Bhagavān Śiva suffered greatly from the heat of being parted from Kāśī. The Kāśī Khaṇḍa gives a whole chapter, Chapter 44, to his lament:

The sandal-paste on his body, put there to cool him from the fire of separation, dried up and turned to ash.
The lotus stalks tied round his hands to take away the burning heat looked to him like serpents, and then they really became serpents. Such is the power of Śiva’s will.
The cool full moon, drawn from the Ocean of Milk, grew thin and its body wasted from the heat that came from Śiva’s head.
Even Gaṅgā in his matted hair could not cool him.

Bhagavān Śiva said:

“Even if the wind blowing from Kāśī were to embrace my limbs, the heat therein may subside — but not by diving into a vast expanse of snow.”

“When will I have the joyous pleasure of coming into contact with you, O Kāśī, whereby all my limbs shall cool down instantaneously?”

Pārvatī saw his grief and asked him about it. Bhagavān Śiva told her of his longing. Pārvatī spoke lovingly of Kāśī. It was the city where they had played in their youth. It was the city held up on Śiva’s trident even in pralaya (the dissolution of the world). It was the city where one dies without fear of rebirth. They decided to return. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 44)

Śiva’s attempts, one after another

Bhagavān Śiva could not go back openly while the righteous Dīvodāsa ruled. So he sent one agent after another, to make a reason for removing the king.

Gaṇeśa (Chapter 43)

Gaṇeśa was sent first. Even he could find no fault in Dīvodāsa’s rule, and he stayed in Kāśī.

Skanda (Chapter 43)

Skanda was sent too, and he stayed in Kāśī.

The sixty-four Yoginīs (Chapter 45)

The sixty-four Yoginīs entered Kāśī in disguise, in many forms and at different times. They looked for any wrong act in the king or his people that could be used to remove him. They found none. The city was so full of righteousness that even these powerful beings were won over by the holiness of Kāśī. Like the Sun who followed them, the Yoginīs chose to stay in Kāśī for good rather than report back to Bhagavān Śiva. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 45)

Bhagavān Sūrya and the Lolārka shrine (Chapter 46)

Last, Bhagavān Śiva sent Sūrya with this order:

“Do something so that the holy spot gets ruined due to the king’s transgression of piety. But do not think lightly of that king.”

Sūrya came to Kāśī and for a whole year took many disguises. He was a wandering ascetic, a beggar, an astrologer, a Kāpālika brāhmaṇa, a Buddhist teacher of philosophy, an alchemist, a householder, a forest-dweller and a recluse. He tried in every way to confuse the people, to find a gap, and to cause adharma (wrong). He found nothing at all, not in the king, not in any citizen, not in the whole of Kāśī.

Sūrya then thought. If he went back to Mandara without success, Bhagavān Śiva would be angry. But he had now seen Kāśī, and he could not bear to leave it. He decided:

“Hence I shall stay here forever. I will never leave this. I shall establish my hermitage in Vārāṇasī in accordance with the injunctions regarding permanent stay in a holy spot.”

Sūrya set up his lasting shrine where the river Asī meets the Gaṅgā, at the far south of Vārāṇasī. The shrine became known as Lolārka. It is one of the twelve Āditya shrines in Kāśī, and the most important of them. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 46)

The Āditya shrines of Kāśī

All of those sent to move Dīvodāsa stayed in Kāśī, and so several well-known Āditya shrines were set up:

Lolārka: the chief Āditya shrine, at the meeting of the Asī and the Gaṅgā (Chapter 46).
Uttarārka: the northern Āditya shrine (Chapter 47).
Sāmbāditya: set up by Sāmba, son of Kṛshṇa, who was cured of leprosy by the grace of Sūrya (Chapter 48).
Draupadāditya: set up by Draupadī when the Pāṇḍavas came to Kāśī (Chapter 49).
Mayūkhāditya (Chapter 49).
Khakholkāditya: its beginning is linked to the account of Kadrū, Vinatā and Garuḍa (Chapter 50).

Each of these shrines shows a side of Sūrya’s grace in the kshetra (holy ground) of Kāśī, and together they make a circle of the sun’s shrines within the holy city. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapters 46–50)

Khakholkāditya and the account of Kadrū, Vinatā and Garuḍa (Chapter 50)

The shrine of Khakholkāditya is linked to the account of Kadrū and Vinatā, the two wives of Kaśyapa and daughters of Daksha.

Kadrū made a wager with Vinatā about the colour of the horse Ucchaiḥśravās, which had risen from the churning of the Ocean of Milk. Kadrū said it was of mixed colour. Vinatā said it was white. Kadrū knew the horse was pure white, and she cheated. She sent her serpent sons to cling to the horse’s tail as dark hairs, so that it looked of mixed colour. Some of the serpent sons refused to take part in the trick. Kadrū cursed them (śāpa) to be eaten by Garuḍa. A few, obeying their mother, carried out the trick. Kadrū won the wager by fraud, and Vinatā became Kadrū’s servant.

Vinatā’s son Garuḍa was born later with unthinkable power. He took it on himself to free his enslaved mother. The serpents asked for amṛta (the nectar of immortality) as the price. Garuḍa went on his great quest for the nectar. He fought Indra and flew through all the worlds, and this brought him into contact with Sūrya. Through this meeting the Khakholkāditya shrine at Kāśī was set up and got its name. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 50)

Gaṇeśa as the old astrologer (Chapter 56)

Skanda and the sixty-four Yoginīs had failed to move Dīvodāsa and had become permanent dwellers in Kāśī. Bhagavān Śiva thought of a new way. Gaṇeśa, who rules over obstacles, left Mount Mandara for Vārāṇasī. He entered the city in the guise of an old brāhmaṇa astrologer. He went to every house. In the morning he told the people the dreams they had had in the night, and he foretold bad signs: evil movements of the planets, falling banners on palaces, floods in the ocean of milk, deer wandering through the market. Each sign pointed to coming ruin for the city and the kingdom.

By his māyā (power of illusion), the disguised Gaṇeśa entered the women’s rooms. He won the trust of Queen Līlāvatī by telling her things she had seen herself. The queens began to praise him to the king: “This brāhmaṇa is handsome, learned, truthful, selfless, unwilling to take gifts of money, and skilled in all branches of knowledge.” Dīvodāsa called for him and received him with honour. In private talk, Gaṇeśa in the form of the brāhmaṇa praised the king in matchless verses. He compared him to the Sun, Indra, Dharmarāja, Kubera and Manu. Then he foretold:

“Counting from today, on the eighteenth day a brāhmaṇa from the north will come to you and advise you. You must carry out his word without doubt. Whatever you have held dear in your heart will come true.”

With these words, and by using his māyā to make many citizens leave the city because of false signs of ruin, Gaṇeśa made ready the king’s mind for giving up the throne. His work done, Gaṇeśa stayed in Kāśī. He took up again the place that had been his before Dīvodāsa’s time. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 56)

Dhundhi Vināyaka and the fifty-six Vināyakas (Chapter 57)

Gaṇeśa had made the way for Bhagavān Vishṇu to enter Kāśī, and Dīvodāsa had left. Bhagavān Śiva then came back to Kāśī on Kārttika Śukla Prathama (the first day of the bright half of Kārttika) in a grand procession of all the worlds. He embraced Gaṇeśa and praised him:

“The fact that I have reached Kāśī — very difficult of access even to me — is due to the favour of this child alone.”

Bhagavān Śiva praised the elephant-faced Gaṇeśa with the Sarvasaṃpatkara stotra, of forty-four verses. He called him Dhundhi, from the root dhundh, which means “to search”, because Gaṇeśa searches out and gives his devotees whatever they need. Bhagavān Śiva said:

“O Dhundhirāja, O Vināyaka — which embodied soul can obtain access to Kāśī without your pleasure? If a resident of Kāśī bows down to your lotus-like feet first and then bows down to me, I reach up to the root of his ear and impart the Tāraka Mantra before the departure of the lifebreath, so he is not reborn.”

Bhagavān Śiva then named the fifty-six Vināyakas, whom Gaṇeśa placed in seven rings around the Viśvanātha temple, eight in each ring, as the lasting guardians of the Avimukta-kshetra. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 57)

Vishṇu as Puṇyakīrti, the Buddhist teacher (Chapter 58)

Gaṇeśa caused a delay in Kāśī. Bhagavān Śiva quickly met Adhokshaja (Bhagavān Vishṇu) and urged him to act. Bhagavān Vishṇu told Bhagavān Śiva that success was already near, and went to Vārāṇasī. First he washed his feet at the meeting of the Gaṅgā and the Varaṇā. This made the Pādodaka Tīrtha, where a bath destroys the pāpa (sin) of seven births. He set up the image of Ādikeśava there. Then he went partly out of Kāśī, having set up a lasting image so that the puṇya (merit) of Kāśī would stay with him. He made a region called Dharmakshetra to the north.

There Bhagavān Vishṇu took the form of a Buddhist teacher named Puṇyakīrti, beautiful and charming to the three worlds. Lakshmī became his woman disciple, Vijñānakaumudī. Garuḍa became his chief disciple, Vinayakīrti. Puṇyakīrti taught that the world arose of itself, that all souls are equal, and that the highest virtue is not harming any being. In this way he quietly weakened the Vedic yajñas of Kāśī. Meanwhile Vijñānakaumudī went among the women of the city. She taught that bodily pleasure is the only reality and she did away with varṇa distinctions. She won over the ladies of the palace by magic arts, cured women who had no children, and gave many of them Buddhist mantras.

Slowly, through this double work, the wonderful excellence of Kāśī, where plants grew without seed and crops without farming, began to fade as pāpa grew. The king’s power was gently weakened. On the eighteenth day, as Gaṇeśa the astrologer had foretold, Puṇyakīrti himself came to the king in the form of a brāhmaṇa from the north. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 58)

Dīvodāsa gives up the throne and rises (Chapter 58)

Dīvodāsa received Puṇyakīrti with great honour and told him of his own weariness: “All enemies have been destroyed; all pleasures have been enjoyed; subjects have been protected like children. Now no activity attracts my mind. What is conducive to my welfare?” Puṇyakīrti praised the king in high words, comparing him to every Lokapāla and to Manu. Then, as if unwilling, he said: “Only one defect I see: that Viśveśvara has been made to stay far from Kāśī by you. The means to quell that pāpa is the installation of a Liṅga. Even if one has committed pāpas as numerous as the hairs on the body, all vanish when a Liṅga is installed.”

Dīvodāsa at once had a Liṅga set up at the place called Bhūpālaśrī on the west bank of the Gaṅgā. He spent on it all the wealth he had won in battle. He named the Liṅga Dīvodāseśvara. Then Puṇyakīrti spoke from his vision of knowledge: “You will be attaining the greatest position with this very body. Since you have installed a Liṅga, a divine aerial chariot of Śambhu will come on the seventh day to take you away. Even if one takes care of a single resident of Vārāṇasī, one will have this same benefit at the time of the death of his body.”

On the seventh day Dīvodāsa crowned his eldest son Samarañjaya and went back to Kāśī. A divine aerial chariot came. Rudra maidens waved chowries (fly-whisks) around it. It was full of attendants carrying tridents and clubs topped with skulls, and it blazed like the sun and fire. The attendants dressed Dīvodāsa in divine garlands, perfumes and silk robes. His forehead became three-eyed, his throat blue, and his body four-armed and decked with serpents, with a crescent moon on his head. He took the very form of Śiva, and he was taken to svarga (heaven). The place became the lasting tīrtha of Bhūpālaśrī, where a śrāddha done and a visit to Dīvodāseśvara give freedom from rebirth. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 58)

Sources

Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 43 (Śiva leaves Kāśī; Dīvodāsa’s reign; Gaṇeśa and Skanda)
Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 44 (Śiva’s lament at Mandara)
Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 45 (the sixty-four Yoginīs)
Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapters 46–50 (Sūrya and the Āditya shrines; Khakholkāditya, Chapter 50)
Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 56 (Gaṇeśa as the astrologer)
Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 57 (Dhundhi Vināyaka and the fifty-six Vināyakas)
Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 58 (Puṇyakīrti; Dīvodāsa’s ascent)

Dīvodāsa’s Rule of Kāśī