Kuśadhvaja of Vidarbha
Kuśadhvaja · kuśa-dhvaja, “the one whose banner bears the kuśa grass”
Kuśadhvaja has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kuśadhvaja.
Kuśadhvaja was a very mighty king of Vidarbha in ancient times. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells of him in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa, Chapter 65, when Mahārāja Yudhishṭhira, who has slain Bhīshma and Droṇa, asks for a means of release from the pāpa of killing. Hunting in the forest, Kuśadhvaja killed a brāhmaṇa tapasvin, mistaking him for a deer. He fell into Raurava naraka and passed through many despised births. Because he had once kept the Tāraka Dvādaśī vrata, he was released quickly, became again a dharmic king of Vidarbha, kept the vrata with bhakti, and at last reached Vishṇuloka.
The account
Yudhishṭhira said: “Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa! I am a great pātakī. I have slain mahātmās such as Bhīshma and Droṇa. In your grace tell me a means by which I may be freed from this mass of pāpa of killing.” Śrī Kṛshṇa then told him of Kuśadhvaja.
One day King Kuśadhvaja went into the forest to hunt. There, mistaking him for a deer, he killed a brāhmaṇa tapasvin with an arrow. After death, by that pāpa, he went to the terrible Raurava naraka.
After suffering the torments of naraka for a long time, he went into the fearful birth of a serpent. In the serpent birth too he did pāpa, so he received the birth of a lion. In this way he was born in several despised births, doing pāpa in each, and he suffered by this ripening of karma.
Because he had kept the Tāraka Dvādaśī vrata in a former birth, by the power of that vrata he was released from these births of pāpa quickly, one after another. At last he became again a dharmic king of Vidarbha, and he kept the Tāraka Dvādaśī vrata with bhakti. By its power he ruled for a long time without an enemy, and on dying he reached Vishṇuloka.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 65
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 65