Vīrasvarga

Vīrasvarga · vīra-svarga, “the svarga of heroes”

Vīrasvarga is the svarga of heroes, the loka that a warrior reaches by falling in battle. The Brahma Purāṇa tells that Kārtavīryārjuna, the thousand-armed king of the Haihayas, reached it at the hand of Paraśurāma, just as he had asked in the vara he received from Dattātreya, and as the śāpa of Āpava Muni had foretold. Sūta tells this to the munis in his account of the royal lines descended from Yayāti.

How Kārtavīryārjuna reached it

Kārtavīryārjuna, the son of Kṛtavīrya, ruled the seven dvīpas. He performed hard tapas for ten thousand years and worshipped Dattātreya, and Datta-guru gave him four varas: to have a thousand arms; to protect the good from adharma; to conquer the whole earth and delight the people by dharma; and, after conquering many in battle, to be slain there, in battle, at the hand of one greater than all. He won the earth of seven dvīpas and performed seven hundred yajñas, and Nārada sang of him that no king could reach his state by yajña, dāna, tapas, valour or learning.

Once Agni begged alms of him, and the hero gave him the seven dvīpas with their cities, villages and countries. Agni burned them, and with them he burned to ash the āśrama of Āpava, the son of Varuṇa, who is Vasishṭha. Āpava, angered, pronounced a śāpa on him: “O Haihaya! You did not spare even the forest where I dwell. A great hero named Rāma, born as the son of the brāhmaṇa tapasvī Jamadagni, will cut off your thousand arms and slay you.”

So all the varas Kārtavīryārjuna had received came true: he had asked for death at the hand of one mightier than he, and, by the śāpa of the great muni Āpava, he reached vīra-svarga, the svarga of heroes, at the hand of Paraśurāma.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 13

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 13