Danu

Danu, “the mother of the dānavas”

Kapilā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kapilā. Śakuni has other meanings too: see all meanings of Śakuni.

Danu is one of the daughters of Daksha Prajāpati and one of the thirteen wives of Kaśyapa Prajāpati, the mothers of all beings. She is the mother of the dānavas: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa gives her sixty-one sons, and her line, the line of Danu, stands beside the line of her sister Diti, the line of the daityas, all through the Purāṇa. Among her sons are Śambara, Vṛshaparvā, Vipracitti, Puloma, Svarbhānu and Vaiśvānara; from Vaiśvānara’s daughters come the Paulomas and the Kālakeyas, and from Vipracitti come Rāhu and the Ketus. The children of Diti and Danu fight the devas again and again, yet the Purāṇa also tells that their bhaktas followed Śrī Hari to Pṛthu‘s yajña, that Prahlāda‘s conduct purified both lines, and that Bali, foremost of their line, conquered māyā itself.

Her birth and marriage

Śrī Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit that after Brahmā comforted Daksha, the son of the Pracetas, Daksha had sixty daughters by his wife Asiknī. Thirteen of them he gave to Kaśyapa Prajāpati. Śuka calls these thirteen the mothers of living beings, whose names are auspicious: Aditi, Diti, Danu, Kāshṭhā, Arishṭā, Surasā, Ilā, Muni, Krodhavaśā, Tāmrā, Surabhi, Saramā and Timi. From them this whole host of beings was born. Danu bore sixty-one sons.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 6

Her sons, the dānavas

Śuka names the chief dānavas among Danu’s sixty-one sons: Dvimūrdhā, Śambara, Arishṭa, Hayagrīva, Vibhāvasu, Ayomukha, Śaṅkuśiras, Svarbhānu, Kapila, Aruṇa, Puloma, Vṛshaparvā, Ekacakra, Anutāpana, Dhūmrakeśa, Virūpāksha, Vipracitti and Durjaya. (This Hayagrīva is a dānava, not the avatāra; this Kapila is not Kapila Maharshi; this Vibhāvasu is not the Vasu.)

Their children and marriages, as Śuka gives them:

  • Suprabhā, daughter of Svarbhānu, married Namuci.
  • Śarmishṭhā, daughter of Vṛshaparvā, married the mighty Yayāti, son of Nahusha.
  • Vaiśvānara had four beautiful daughters: Upadānavī, Hayaśirā, Pulomā and Kālakā. Hiraṇyāksha married Upadānavī and Kratu married Hayaśirā. Urged by Brahmā, Kaśyapa Prajāpati married the other two, Pulomā and Kālakā.
  • Pulomā‘s offspring are the Paulomas and Kālakā’s are the Kālakeyas (Kāleyas), rākshasas of Danu’s line, heroes who shine in battle. Sixty thousand dānavas of these two lines, the Nivātakavacas, used to spoil yajñas. Arjuna, the grandfather of Parīkshit, slew them alone when he went to svarga, and gave delight to Indra.
  • Vipracitti had a hundred and one children by Siṃhikā. The eldest is Rāhu, who became a graha; the other hundred are called the Ketus.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 6

The line of Danu

The Purāṇa speaks of the line of Danu, with the line of Diti, in many places. The Telugu often calls both lines rākshasas.

  • The milking of the earth. When Pṛthu milked Bhūdevī, the descendants of Diti and Danu made Prahlāda, the best among them, the calf, and milked intoxicating liquor into an iron vessel (Skandha 4, Chapter 18).
  • Pṛthu’s yajña. When Śrī Hari gave darśana at Pṛthu’s yajña, those of the lines of Diti and Danu who were bhaktas of Bhagavān Vishṇu followed him there with the siddhas, the vidyādharas and the yakshas (Skandha 4, Chapter 19).
  • Prahlāda. Prahlāda’s character and conduct purified the lines of Diti and Danu (Skandha 5, Chapter 18). Jaya and Vijaya, born as Diti’s sons Hiraṇyakaśipu and Hiraṇyāksha, were honoured by both lines (Skandha 7, Chapter 1), and Hiraṇyakaśipu called his asuras “rākshasas of the lines of Danu and Diti” (Skandha 7, Chapter 2). Prahlāda called his schoolfellows “you of the line of Danu” when he taught them bhakti (Skandha 7, Chapter 6). After Bhagavān Narasiṃha withdrew, Brahmā, with Śukrācārya and the maharshis, made Prahlāda lord of the lines of Diti and Danu (Skandha 7, Chapter 10).
  • The bila-lokas. In the seven worlds below the earth, Atala to Pātāla, the beings of the lines of Diti, Danu and Kadru live in rich mansions and sport in gardens and pleasure-grounds (Skandha 5, Chapter 24).
  • Vṛtra’s army. Sons of Diti and Danu, with yakshas and rākshasas in thousands, charged Indra‘s army in the war with Vṛtrāsura (Skandha 6, Chapter 10). Before that war the devas praised Śrī Hari: even the children of Diti and Danu are his vibhūtis, and when their time had not come he punished them as Vāmana, Śrī Rāma, Varāha, Narasiṃha and Matsya (Skandha 6, Chapter 9).
  • The churning of the ocean. Śrī Hari told the devas to make a pact with the lines of Diti and Danu until their purpose was achieved, for Kāla favoured them then (Skandha 8, Chapter 6). When Lakshmī Devī rose from the ocean she passed over the asuras of these lines, and they became weak, bound to enjoyment, without effort and without shame (Skandha 8, Chapter 8). Though they worked with care, they could not obtain the amṛta, because they had turned away from Vāsudeva (Skandha 8, Chapter 10).
  • Bali. When Bhagavān Vāmana took the three worlds, the commanders of the lines of Diti and Danu obeyed Bali, and, defeated by Vishṇu’s attendants, entered Rasātala (Skandha 8, Chapter 21). Śrī Hari himself said that Bali, foremost of the lines of Danu and Diti, had made their fame grow, had conquered the māyā that cannot be conquered, and was not deluded in calamity; in Sutala, he said, the bent for enjoyment that Bali had taken from the company of these lines would fade away (Skandha 8, Chapter 22).
  • The stutis. Ambarīsha praised the Sudarśana cakra, which Śrī Hari sends against the armies of the daityas and the dānavas, the children of Diti and Danu (Skandha 9, Chapter 5). In Sutala, Bali told Śrī Kṛshṇa and Balarāma that the sons of Diti and Danu, with many other beings, always hold firm enmity towards them (Skandha 10, Chapter 85).

Sources

  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapters 18–19; Skandha 5, Chapters 18, 24; Skandha 6, Chapters 6, 9–10; Skandha 7, Chapters 1–2, 6, 10; Skandha 8, Chapters 6, 8, 10, 21–22; Skandha 9, Chapter 5; Skandha 10, Chapter 85