Śālivāhana
Śālivāhana was the grandson of Vikramāditya and a great cakravartī (universal emperor) of Kali Yuga. He won victories over the Śakas, the Cīnas, the Bāhlīkas, Kāmarūpa and other regions, and he ruled a vast realm across Bhārata. The Bhavishya Purāṇa tells of his meeting with a fair-skinned man on a Himālayan peak, who called himself a teacher of the Mleccha peoples. Śālivāhana performed the Aśvamedha yajña (fire ritual) and ruled for sixty years. Then he went to svarga (heaven).
The succession after Vikramāditya
After Vikramāditya went to svarga, many kings ruled one after another. Over time the great empire grew smaller. In this unsettled time, Vikramāditya’s grandson Śālivāhana rose and took the throne. At once he filled his people with the spirit of dharma and śaurya (valour).
He led campaigns himself against the Śaka armies, the Cīna forces, the Bāhlīka kingdom, the Kāmarūpa kingdom and other realms on the borders of the Mlecchas. He won clear victories over all of them. His rule reached from Kapila-sthāna in the east to the Sindhu in the west, and from the Himālayan regions to the southern seas.
The meeting on the Himālayan peak
One day the cakravartī Śālivāhana climbed to the peak of the Himālayan range. There, on a mountain in the middle of Hūṇa-deśa (the land of the Huns), he met a man of beautiful form with a fair, glowing complexion. The man looked calm and peaceful, and quite unlike the warriors and kings Śālivāhana had known.
Śālivāhana went up to him and asked, “Who are you?”
The man replied, “I am the son of Īśa (God). I was born from a virgin. I am the teacher of Mleccha-dharma, firm in satya-vrata (the vow of truth).”
Śālivāhana, curious, asked, “What is your dharma?”
The man answered: “Mahārāja, I have come as a messenger and teacher among the Dasyus (the lawless ones). It is an age when satya (truth) has been destroyed and the Mleccha peoples have no guide. A woman named Īśāmasī has appeared among them. I have embraced her and set her up as a deva-pratīkā (a form of a deva) for them.”
Then the man gave his teaching:
- A person must first purify mind and body completely, until they are nirmala (pure).
- Only then should he worship his chosen deva (ishṭa-devatā).
- Speech should be given to satya alone and to nothing else.
- One must live only by righteous means (nyāya-sammata).
- One must take only what is one’s own, and never what belongs to others.
- One must give food and shelter to those in need.
The man said that in this way alone will both this world and the next be gained.
Śālivāhana listened to this teaching with respect. He bowed to this Mleccha-pūjya (one honoured by the Mlecchas) and went back to his kingdom.
Aśvamedha and reign
Śālivāhana came back from his campaigns and his Himālayan journey. He then performed the Aśvamedha yajña, the ancient rite of universal rule, and so confirmed his place as the dharmic lord of Bhārata. He ruled for sixty years with the qualities of his grandfather Vikramāditya. Then he reached svarga-loka.
Lineage and succession
After Śālivāhana went to svarga, ten kings of his line ruled for a total of five hundred years. All of them kept their svadharma (own duty) faithfully and in time went to svarga-loka. When they were gone, the keeping of dharma began to fade across the realm. In this time Bhoja Mahārāja rose in the line of Śālivāhana to meet the decline.
Sources
- Bhavishya Mahā Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 3