Udayagiri

Udayagiri · udaya-giri, “the mountain of sunrise”

Udayagiri, also called Udayādri, is the eastern mountain of sunrise. The Vāmana Purāṇa names it in four accounts. On its slopes lies the Śaravaṇa, the reed forest where the river Kuṭilā released the divine tejas from which Skanda was born. Ghṛtācī searched all over it for her lost daughter Vedavatī, the gandharva maiden. Kaśyapa Maharshi went away to it after placing the garbha in Diti, and in his absence Indra cut Diti’s child into the forty-nine Maruts. And beside it lies a level stone plain where the deva army met the asura host of Bali, and where Bhagavān Vishṇu slew the great daitya Kālanemi with his cakra.

The reed forest on Udayādri

When the river Kuṭilā could no longer bear the tejas of Bhagavān Śiva that she held in her waters, Brahmā told her: “Go at once to Udayādri. There is a fearsome reed forest of a hundred yojanas. Release this tejas into it. After ten thousand years a boy will arise.” Kuṭilā went to Udayagiri and cast out the embryo there, on the slopes where the reeds spread. The whole forest shone golden with that tejas, and after ten thousand years Skanda was born there, radiant as the rising sun.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 31

In the account of Citrāṅgadā that King Daṇḍa told Arajā, the maiden Vedavatī, daughter of Parjanya and Ghṛtācī, had been lost. Ghṛtācī, not finding her daughter and sunk in sorrow, wandered all over Udayagiri searching for her. On the way she met the vānara, who was Viśvakarmā living in that form under a muni’s śāpa. “O kapi,” she said, “have you seen any maiden? Tell me the truth.” The vānara said he had seen a maiden named Devavatī and had left her in a great āśrama on the bank of the Kālindī, opposite the Śrīkaṇṭheśvara temple. “Her name is Vedavatī,” said Ghṛtācī. “Come, let us go there.” Taking long strides, the vānara brought her quickly to the river Kauśikī, where the ṛshi Ṛtadhvaja, his son Jābāli and the kings who travelled with them had come to bathe.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 39

Kaśyapa goes to Udayagiri

After the death of Hiraṇyakaśipu, Diti, seeing her sons slain, prayed to her husband Kaśyapa Maharshi for a son who could slay Indra. Kaśyapa said that if she kept herself pure and kept the rules of conduct and observance for a hundred divine years, a son would be born to her who would be a slayer of enemies and lord of the worlds. Diti agreed. Then that brahmarshi placed the garbha in her and went away to Udayagiri.

As soon as the muni had gone, Indra came to the āśrama and asked to serve Diti, and he brought her samidhs (sacred fuel) and leaves, watching closely for his chance. When the vrata was almost complete, Diti fell asleep with her hair loose and touching her feet, and so became impure. At once Indra entered her womb, cut the child with his vajra into seven, and each of the seven again into seven, saying “mā ruda, do not cry”. So the forty-nine became the Maruts, and Indra came to be called Gotrabhit.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 45

The battle on the stone plain

When Bali was crowned king of the daityas, the daityas reminded him of how his forebears had been slain, and he set out with all the asura hosts to fight the devas. Indra led out the devas, and Bhagavān Vishṇu came on Garuḍa and joined them. The deva army reached a stone plain beside Udayagiri, level and beautiful, with no trees, no shrubs, no birds and no beasts. There the two armies crashed together, and a tumultuous battle followed.

The devas, who had not yet drunk the amṛta, were overpowered, until Śrī Hari strung his divine Śārṅga bow and drove back the asuras with his arrows. Kālanemi swelled by māyā and began to devour the devas; then he hurled his mace at Garuḍa. Madhusūdana released his cakra, which shattered the mace and cut off both of Kālanemi’s arms and then his head, and Garuḍa struck the standing trunk to the ground. The daityas fled, throwing away their weapons and armour; only Bāṇāsura stood his ground.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 47

Sources

  • Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 31, 39, 45, 47