Indradyumna, Son of Manu
Indradyumna · indra-dyumna, “the one with the splendour of Indra”
Indradyumna has other meanings too: see all meanings of Indradyumna.
Indradyumna is a rājarshi (a king who is also a ṛshi): the son of Manu, the brother of Ikshvāku, and the lord of the city of Śākala. The Vāmana Purāṇa honours him as “the great son of Manu, the hero who performed a thousand yajñas”, and calls him a cakravartin (a king whose rule turns everywhere). Brahmā himself had blessed the gandharva maiden Vedavatī to become his chief queen. His account is told in Chapter 39 of the Vāmana Purāṇa, inside the account of Citrāṅgadā that King Daṇḍa tells to Arajā, the daughter of Śukra, as Prahlāda recounts it and Pulastya Maharshi tells it to Nārada.
The text shows him as a king who honours the ṛshis, who takes up the search of others as his own, and who takes the weary and the young into his care. When a tree fell from the sky with Vedavatī clinging to it, he cut it apart. When Ṛtadhvaja Muni, his son Jābāli and Indradyumna’s nephew Śakuni came to Śākala worn out by a long search, he received them with honour and joined the search himself. At the Badarī āśrama he lifted his other nephew, Suratha, out of a tapas that was wasting his body. At the Hāṭakeśvara kshetra on the Sapta-Godāvarī it was Indradyumna who proposed the four weddings, and there he took Vedavatī as his wife.
Vedavatī and the falling tree
Vedavatī was the daughter of the gandharva Parjanya and of Ghṛtācī, and her home was Mount Meru. Once, as she played in a forest, a strong vānara saw her and cried out, “O Devavatī! Who brought you here from the āśrama on earth where I left you?” She told him, “My name is Vedavatī; I am not Devavatī,” but he would not listen and came after her. In fear she climbed a tall bandhujīva tree. With one fierce blow of his hand the vānara broke the tree and hurled it away towards the waters of the ocean, and Vedavatī, holding fast to one branch, fell with it.
All beings, moving and unmoving, saw the tree falling from the sky with the maiden on it and cried out. The siddhas and gandharvas lamented: “Alas! This chaste one was blessed by Brahmā himself to become the chief queen of Mahārāja Indradyumna, the great son of Manu, the hero who performed a thousand yajñas. And now this plight!” As soon as those words reached her ears Vedavatī fainted, so she never learned who cut the tree. Then Vāyu, the friend of Agni, carried her with great speed to Pushkara, where she met Citrāṅgadā.
It was Indradyumna who had cut it. Later he told Ṛtadhvaja: “Drawn by the words of the siddhas, I cut through a tree, huge as a mountain, that was falling from the sky. That beauty was not hurt at all. But I do not know where she fell or where she is, and I keep searching without rest.” On the strength of the siddhas’ words he already called her his wife.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 39
The search from Śākala
Meanwhile three searchers, Ṛtadhvaja Muni, his son Jābāli and Prince Śakuni, had wandered for many years in search of the lost maidens. After a thousand years, with Jābāli worn out by the weight of his jaṭās (matted locks), they gave up hope and came to Śākala.
Learning of their arrival, Mahārāja Indradyumna, the lord of that city, went out to meet them with the arghya vessel (water offered to an honoured guest). He honoured the ṛshis and greeted with honour Śakuni, his brother’s son. Ṛtadhvaja said to him: “Rājan, our child Nandayantī is lost. We have searched the whole earth for her and we are worn out. Rise at once, search for her and help us.” Indradyumna answered: “Great muni, my tender wife too is lost somewhere. I too am weary with searching for her. To whom shall I tell my pain?” And he told of the falling tree.
He rose quickly and had three chariots brought. He gave two chariots to the two ṛshis and to Śakuni, and mounted the third himself. Together they searched the four corners of the earth and came to the Badarī āśrama.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 39
Suratha at Badarī
At Badarī they saw a young tapasvī burning in severe tapas, his jaṭās thick with dust, his body wasted, drawing breath with great difficulty. The mighty-armed King Indradyumna asked him: “Young one! Hoping for what do you perform such severe tapas while still in your youth?” The youth answered: “Who are you, who ask with such love about me, a man stricken with grief?”
The king said: “I am the son of Manu, the brother of Ikshvāku, lord of the city of Śākala.” Then the young tapasvī told him all that had befallen him. Hearing it, the rājarshi said: “Child! Do not give up your body. You are my brother’s son. Come, let us search for your beloved.” He embraced the wasted youth, seated him on his own chariot and brought him to the ṛshis.
The youth was Suratha, the son of Sudeva. Ṛtadhvaja comforted him: “Come, child, come! I will bring about what is dear to you. Citrāṅgadā, whom you saw in Naimishāraṇya: it was I who left her at the Sapta-Godāvarī tīrtha. Let us go to the Sapta-Godāvarī saṅgama; there we shall find the maidens.” So they all mounted their chariots and set out.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 39
At the Kauśikī and the Sapta-Godāvarī
On the way the three rājarshis, Indradyumna, Śakuni and Suratha, and the two munis came to the river Kauśikī and went down to bathe. There Jābāli saw the vānara who had once tied his jaṭās to a tree, and cried out to his father and to the great cakravartin Indradyumna. Śakuni, blazing with anger, asked the maharshi and the king for leave to bring the vānara down with a single arrow. But Ṛtadhvaja stopped him: “In this world no one kills anyone. Deaths and bondages come only according to each one’s own karma.” At the muni’s word the vānara untied the knots of Jābāli’s jaṭās, and then revealed himself as Viśvakarmā, the craftsman of the devas, living as a vānara under Ṛtadhvaja’s own śāpa. Ṛtadhvaja declared its end: on the day Viśvakarmā begot a mighty son by Ghṛtācī, his vānara form would leave him. All bathed in the holy river, performed the pitṛ-devārcana, the offerings to the pitṛs and the devas, and went on.
At midday they reached the Sapta-Godāvara kshetra. The charioteers washed and watered the horses and let them graze. Then they drove to the temple of Hāṭakeśvara Mahādeva, where the four maidens, Citrāṅgadā, Devavatī, Nandayantī and Vedavatī, were singing before Hāṭakeśvara. The company worshipped Hāṭakeśvara and offered stotras in due order. Citrāṅgadā rose with her friends and bowed, and the maharshi’s son and the kings returned the greeting. Ghṛtācī came with the vānara and embraced her daughter Vedavatī; the fathers of the other maidens were brought; and Gālava Maharshi came from Māhishmatī. The maidens chose to wait so that Citrāṅgadā might marry in her father’s presence. After ten months Ghṛtācī bore a son, Nala, at that Godāvarī tīrtha, and Viśvakarmā returned to his own form. He called Indra in his mind, and Śakra came with the Maruts, the suras and the Rudra-gaṇas.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 39
The four weddings
When the devas, gandharvas and apsarases had all gathered, Indradyumna said to Ṛtadhvaja, best of ṛshis: “Brahmarshi! Give the daughter of Kandaramālī to your son Jābāli, and have the marriage performed according to vidhi. The handsome Śakuni can wed Nandayantī. I will take Vedavatī. Suratha will marry the daughter of Viśvakarmā.” Ṛtadhvaja said, “Good,” and with joy the rite of marriage began.
Gālava Muni took the office of ṛtvij (the officiating priest) and performed the wedding homas, while the gandharvas danced and sang auspicious songs. The brides’ hands were taken in this order:
- Jābāli took the hand of Devavatī, the daughter of the daitya Kandaramālī.
- Indradyumna took Vedavatī.
- Śakuni took Nandayantī, the daughter of the yaksha Añjana.
- Suratha took Citrāṅgadā.
When the weddings were complete, Ṛtadhvaja told Indra and the devas that it was best for them to dwell in the holy Sapta-Godāvarī tīrtha, above all in the month of Vaiśākha, and they did so. Then the devas went to their own abodes, the munis went with Ṛtadhvaja and Jābāli to their places, and the kings went to their cities with their wives and lived enjoying every happiness. So Indradyumna returned to Śākala with Vedavatī, the chief queen whom Brahmā had promised him.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 39
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 39