Haihaya Vaṃśa
Haihaya Vaṃśa, “the line of the Haihayas”
Haihaya has other meanings too: see all meanings of Haihaya.
The Haihaya Vaṃśa is the line of the Haihaya kshatriyas, whose city in the Bhavishya Purāṇa is Māhishmatī. Its great kings there are Kṛtavīrya and his son Arjuna, called Kārtavīrya and Kārtavīryārjuna. Brahmā tells Bhagavān Vishṇu that fifty generations of this line attained amṛtatva (deathlessness) by the ārādhanā of Bhagavān Sūrya.
The kings of the line
Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Yudhishṭhira an ancient itihāsa of the great king Kṛtavīrya of the Haihaya vaṃśa, in the city of Māhishmatī. He named his son Arjuna, and being the son of Kṛtavīrya, this Arjuna was called Kārtavīrya (Uttara Parva, Chapters 105–106).
Śrī Kṛshṇa also speaks of Kṛtavīrya, the glory of the line of the Haihaya kshatriyas, in the Varāha Kalpa, in the Vaivasvata Manvantara, in the Satya Yuga. For seventy-seven thousand years he protected his people with dharma and nīti. His one hundred sons were burned by the śāpa of Cyavana Muni (Uttara Parva, Chapter 52).
Kṛtavīrya, ruler of the Haihayas, kept the Dharaṇī Vrata, and by its power he gained as his son the mighty cakravartī king Sahasrārjuna (Uttara Parva, Chapter 83).
Kārtavīryārjuna, king of Māhishmatī and adhipati of the Haihayas, came to Bhagavān Dattātreya and served him night and day (Uttara Parva, Chapter 58).
The Haihayas and the vratas
Brahmā tells Bhagavān Vishṇu that Sūrya ārādhanā with stotras, songs, instruments and the feeding of brāhmaṇas brought fifty generations of the Haihaya line to amṛtatva, as it did seventy-seven generations of Janaka and the others of the Videha line (Brahma Parva, Chapter 103).
Sumantu Muni tells King Śatānīka that among the Haihayas, the Tālajaṅghas, the Turushkas, the Yavanas and the Śakas, those who kept the upavāsa vrata gained the brāhmaṇatva they desired (Brahma Parva, Chapter 16).
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapters 16, 103; Uttara Parva, Chapters 52, 58, 83, 105–106