Sindhusena

Sindhusena · sindhu-sena, “he whose army is like the ocean”

Yajña has other meanings too: see all meanings of Yajña.

Sindhusena was a rākshasa who harassed and defeated the devas, carried off Yajña (the yajña itself) and went down with it to pātāla, so that the earth was left without yajña. Bhagavān Vishṇu took the form of Varāha, went down to Rasātala, slew the rākshasas and dānavas who lived there, and brought Yajña back in his mouth. Brahmā tells Nārada of him in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa, as the origin of the Varāha tīrtha.

Yajña carried to pātāla

Long ago the rākshasa Sindhusena defeated the devas and carried Yajña away to the nether region. When yajña perishes, there is neither this world nor the next, and such was the state of things then. The devas, with Indra at their head, pursued him into pātāla but could not conquer him. They went to Bhagavān Vishṇu, the Purāṇa-Purusha, and told him how the rākshasa had destroyed yajña completely.

Bhagavān Vishṇu as Varāha

Bhagavān Vishṇu said: “Taking the body of a Varāha, with the śaṅkha, the cakra and the gadā in my hands, I shall go to the nether region, slay the chief asuras and bring back the holy Yajña. Let the devas go to svarga, free of care.” By the path by which the Gaṅgā had reached the nether regions, the bearer of the cakra hurried down to Rasātala, breaking through the earth. In the form of Varāha he slew the rākshasas and dānavas who lived in Rasātala, took the great Yajña in his mouth, and came back by the same path to Brahmagiri, where the devas waited. He washed his limbs in the Gaṅgā, and the place became known as Varāhakuṇḍa; then he placed Yajña before the devas, and so Yajña was born from his mouth.

The Varāha tīrtha is the holiest of tīrthas and grants every desire. Bathing and giving dāna there give the fruit of all yajñas, and the pitṛs of one who remembers them there are freed from all pāpas and go to svarga.

Indra’s loss of his throne

Brahmā also tells that Indra was ousted from his place three times: once by Nahusha after the slaying of Vṛtra, once on the killing of Sindhusena, and once for his offence against Ahalyā.

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapters 9, 52