Bāṇa

Bāṇa was a son of Bali. The Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa tells of him in Chapter 65. At the moment when Bali was to be bound, Bāṇa spoke to Bhagavān Vishṇu and questioned whether the Trivikrama act was just.

After his father was sent to Sutala, Bāṇa took the earth. He built the fortress city of Śoṇita and ruled there as a daitya chief.

The argument at the yajña

Bhagavān Vishṇu had taken the Trivikrama form. With two paces he covered all three worlds, and no land was left for the third pace. He then told Bali that he must give space for the third step or be bound.

At that moment Bāṇa spoke. He laughed at first. Then he made his case in an orderly way.

• Bhagavān Vishṇu himself had made this whole world.
• Bali had already given in dāna (gift) what Vishṇu asked for.
• The cosmos that Vishṇu’s feet had now covered was Vishṇu’s own creation.
• Nothing was left outside what Vishṇu had made, and Bali had given all of it. So there was nothing more to give.
• The threat of binding was therefore unjust. How could anyone ask a giver for what no longer existed, when it had been given in good faith?

Bāṇa also pointed to a contrast. Vishṇu had seemed small when he asked for only three paces, yet what he took was immense. Bāṇa ended by saying that Vishṇu should stop speaking of binding. He should accept the dāna with grace and bless Bali.

Vishṇu’s reply

Bhagavān Vishṇu answered Bāṇa directly. He agreed that he had asked for only three paces of the measure of his own body. Bali had offered unlimited space, and so the three worlds were covered.

Vishṇu said that this generosity of Bali was what gave him a life lasting to the end of the kalpa (a day of Brahmā) and the throne of Indra in the Sāvarṇi Manvantara. The binding was not a punishment. It was the formal completion of the dāna, because the third step still had no land.

After Bali’s binding

Bali was sent to Sutala. Bāṇa then took possession of the earth. He built the beautiful fortress city of Śoṇita. He ruled there with the chief daityas as his companions. In this way daitya rule on earth continued after the Trivikrama event.

Sources

• Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 65