Barhishmatī
Barhishmatī · barhis + matī, “the city rich in barhis (darbha grass)”
Kuśa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kuśa.
Barhishmatī is the capital of Svāyambhuva Manu, the first Manu and the very first cakravartī. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa calls it a famous city full of all wealth, and tells that it stands where the hairs of Bhagavān Varāha, the form of yajña, fell to the earth and became darbha grass. Maitreya Maharshi tells of it to Vidura in Skandha 3, Chapter 22, as Manu returns there after giving his daughter Devahūti in marriage to Kardama Maharshi.
Manu’s return
Having given his daughter to a worthy groom, Manu was free of worry, yet he could not bear the parting; he embraced Devahūti, called her “Mother! Child!”, and wet her hair with his tears. He took leave of Kardama Maharshi and set out by chariot for his city, with his wife and attendants following. He travelled along the river Sarasvatī, on whose two beautiful banks stand the āśramas of maharshis devoted to nivṛtti, and gazed at their beauty. Knowing the king was coming, the people came out from Brahmāvarta with songs, stotras and musical instruments to meet him.
The hairs of Yajña-Varāha
When Bhagavān Varāha, Yajña-Varāha-mūrti, shook his body, his hairs fell at the place where Barhishmatī stands. Those hairs became the darbha grass, green in all seasons, and the reeds. With them the maharshis drove off the rākshasas who obstruct yajña, performed yajña and worshipped Śrī Hari.
Manu, who had received the earth from Bhagavān Varāha as his dwelling-place, spread a seat of darbha and reeds in this place and worshipped Śrī Hari, the Yajña-Purusha. “That place is the city Barhishmatī,” Maitreya says, “and Manu lived in it from then on.” The name comes from barhis, the sacred grass of the yajña. Manu reached the city and entered his palace, which removes the three kinds of tāpa.
Manu’s life in Barhishmatī
There Manu, with his wife and children, enjoyed bhogas in a way not opposed to dharma, artha and moksha. Apsarases and gandharvas sang his fame, yet every morning he heard the accounts of Śrī Hari with a heart full of bhakti. Though skilled in creating bhogas by his own will, he remained wholly given to Bhagavān Vāsudeva, and the bhogas could not move him even a little. He spent his time hearing and telling the accounts of Śrī Hari, meditating on him and serving him, and so every watch of his manvantara of seventy-one mahāyugas was fruitful. By the talk of Vāsudeva he passed beyond waking, dream and deep sleep, beyond the three kinds of tāpa, and beyond the three guṇas.
Maitreya asks how any affliction, of body or mind, from drought, from enemies or from snake-bite, can trouble one who has taken refuge in Śrī Hari. Manu, who always wished the good of all beings, taught the munis, when they asked, the many dharmas of all human beings and of the varṇas and āśramas.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 22
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 22