Soma-Vaṃśa

Soma-Vaṃśa · soma-vaṃśa, “the line of the Moon”

Kapilā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kapilā. Kuśa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kuśa. Janamejaya has other meanings too: see all meanings of Janamejaya. Ṛshabha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Ṛshabha. Sahadeva has other meanings too: see all meanings of Sahadeva. Sumatī has other meanings too: see all meanings of Sumatī. Suvrata has other meanings too: see all meanings of Suvrata. Vijaya has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vijaya. Bhīma has other meanings too: see all meanings of Bhīma. Jaya has other meanings too: see all meanings of Jaya. Matsya has other meanings too: see all meanings of Matsya.

The Soma-vaṃśa, also called the Candra-vaṃśa or Lunar Dynasty, is the great royal family line that traces its origin to Candra (Soma), the deva of the moon. Candra was born to Atri Ṛshi, a son of Brahmā. The line comes down through Budha and Purūravas and then divides into two famous branches. The Yadu-vaṃśa gave the world Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. The Pūru-vaṃśa gave rise to the Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas, the families of the Mahābhārata.

The Agni Purāṇa sets out this line over five chapters (274 to 278). It covers the main trunk of the dynasty, the twelve great battles between the devas and asuras, and the full family tree of the Kurus down to the Pāṇḍavas. The Garuḍa Purāṇa and the Vāyu Purāṇa give their own accounts, and the Vāyu Purāṇa tells the stories of Candra’s birth, the war over Tārā, and Purūravas and Urvaśī in rich detail. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa gives its most detailed account of the dynasty in Chapters 65 to 71 of its Madhyama Bhāga.

In the Agni Purāṇa, Agni Deva opens the account with the words: “Now I shall tell of the vaṃśa which, when read, destroys pāpas.” He tells of Soma’s Rājasūya and the Tārakāmaya war, Purūravas and Urvaśī, the sons of Āyu and Nahusha, and the five sons of Yayāti (Chapter 274); the Yadu line with Kārtavīrya Arjuna, the many clans of the Sātvatas, the Syamantaka maṇi and the birth of Śrī Kṛshṇa (Chapter 275); the avatāra of Śrī Kṛshṇa and the twelve devāsura wars (Chapter 276); the lines of Turvasu, Druhyu and Anu down to Karṇa (Chapter 277); and the Pūru line, from Bharata and Bharadvāja through the Kāśī kings, the Pāñcālas, the kings of Magadha and the Kurus to the Pāṇḍavas and their sons (Chapter 278). He closes by telling Vasishṭha that Kāla (Time), which has swallowed all these kings, is the very form of Bhagavān Vishṇu. The same line opens the Agni Purāṇa’s short Harivaṃśa and Bhārata (Chapters 12 and 13), and the Purāṇa’s own list of its subjects names the Soma-vaṃśa among them (Chapter 383).

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa gives the fullest account of the line, in the last eleven chapters of its ninth skandha (Skandha 9, Chapters 14–24). Śrī Śuka Maharshi tells it to Parīkshit Mahārāja, who was himself born in it, and says that the very telling of the vaṃśa purifies the mind. He tells of Candra, born of the tears of joy of Atri; the war over Tārā and the birth of Budha; Purūravas and Urvaśī, and the three sacred fires that came at the start of the Tretā yuga. Then come the lines of Purūravas’s sons, with Gādhi, Viśvāmitra and Paraśurāma; the lines of Āyu’s sons, with Dhanvantari and the kings of Kāśi; Nahusha, Yayāti, Devayānī and Śarmishṭhā; the line of Pūru, with Dushyanta, Śakuntalā and Bharata, Rantideva, the Pāñcālas, the Kurus, the kings of Cedi and Magadha, Bhīshma, the Pāṇḍavas and the kings still to come; the lines of Anu, Druhyu and Turvasu; and last the line of Yadu, which Śuka calls the holiest of all, because in it Parabrahma took human form as Śrī Kṛshṇa. Hearing of the line of Yadu, the Purāṇa says, frees a man from every pāpa. It also foretells that the line will come to its end in the Kali yuga, and that Devāpi, who lives in yoga at Kalāpa grāma, will establish it again at the start of the Kṛta yuga.

Beginnings: Candra and the Tārakāmaya War

The Soma-vaṃśa begins with Brahmā. From Brahmā came Atri Ṛshi, and from Atri was born Candra (Soma, the moon). The Agni Purāṇa begins one step earlier: Brahmā himself was born from the lotus of Bhagavān Vishṇu‘s navel (Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 12, 274). Candra performed the Rājasūya yajña (the great royal fire ritual) and gave away the three worlds as dakshiṇā (the gift given at the end of a yajña). After the avabhṛtha-snāna, the closing bath of the yajña, nine divine women were overcome by his beauty. They left their own husbands and came to serve him:

Candra returned their love. Their husbands could not hold him back by śāpa or by weapon, and could do nothing (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 274).

The Agni Purāṇa says that the nine came to him of their own accord, wishing to see his form, burning with the arrows of Kāma, and served him; their husbands could punish him neither by śāpas nor by weapons. By his tapobala (the strength of his tapas) Soma became the sole lord of the seven lokas, and his mind, clouded by this lack of discipline, lost all vinaya (humility) (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 274).

Made bold by the power born of his tapas (austerity), Candra became sole ruler of the seven worlds. Pride then led him to insult Bṛhaspati, the son of Aṅgiras, and to carry off Bṛhaspati‘s wife Tārā by force. This shameful act set off the Tārakāmaya, a great war between the devas and the dānavas (a race of asuras) that threatened to destroy all the worlds. In the end Brahmā stepped in, held back Śukra, and had Tārā given back to Bṛhaspati. Tārā revealed that the child she carried was Candra’s son. Bṛhaspati told her to give birth to the child. She did, and the shining boy declared that he was Candra’s son. So Budha was born. From Budha and Ilā, the daughter of Vaivasvata Manu, was born Purūravas.

In the Agni Purāṇa’s account, Brahmā stopped Śukra at the end of the war and had Tārā given back to Bṛhaspati. Knowing she was with child, Bṛhaspati commanded, “Release this garbha,” and she did. A radiant son appeared and said, “I am the son of Soma.” So Soma had a son, Budha, and Budha’s son was Purūravas (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 274).

The Agni Purāṇa gives the same line briefly twice more. At the start of its Harivaṃśa: Brahmā from the lotus of Vishṇu’s navel, then Atri, Soma, Purūravas, Āyu, Nahusha and Yayāti, whose wife Devayānī bore Yadu and Turvasu, and Śarmishṭhā, daughter of Vṛshaparvan, bore Druhyu, Anu and Pūru; in the line of Yadu the Yādavas were born, and Vāsudeva is the highest of them (Chapter 12). At the start of its Bhārata, which shows the greatness of Śrī Kṛshṇa: Brahmā, Atri, Candra, Budha, Aila, Purūravas, Āyu, Nahusha, Yayāti and Pūru, in whose line Bharata was born, then Kuru, and in Kuru‘s line Śantanu (Chapter 13).

Purūravas and His Eight Sons

The apsarā (heavenly dancer) Urvaśī left svarga and took Purūravas as her husband. They lived together for fifty-nine years. At that time Purūravas kept a single sacred fire. Later he divided it into three, creating the system of the three sacred fires (tretāgni). In the end he rose to the Gandharva-loka as a great yogī. By Urvaśī, Purūravas had eight sons: Āyu, Dṛḍhāyu, Aśvāyu, Dhanāyu, Dhṛtimān, Vasu, Divijāta and Śatāyu (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 274).

The Line of Āyu and Nahusha

Āyu had five sons: Nahusha, Vṛddhaśarmā, Raji, Dambha and Vipāpmā. Raji had a hundred heroic sons, called the Rājeyas. Vishṇu gave Raji a vara. At the request of the devas, Raji fought the daityas (asuras) and killed them, and gave the kingdom to his son, who was born as Indra. Later, Raji’s sons took the kingdom back from Indra, who grieved greatly. Then Bṛhaspati, through graha-śānti (rites to calm the planets) and other rites, confused Raji’s sons, won back the kingdom and returned it to Indra. After this the sons of Raji fell away from dharma. The Agni Purāṇa says that when Raji gave the kingdom to Indra, who had been born as a son to him, Raji went to svarga (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 274).

Nahusha had seven sons: Yati, Yayāti, Uttama, Uddhava, Pañcaka, Śaryāti and Meghapālaka. Yati practised meditation on Vishṇu from childhood and reached Vishṇu-pada, the abode of Vishṇu (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 274).

Yayāti and the Two Great Branches

Yayāti had two wives: Devayānī, the daughter of Śukra, and Śarmishṭhā, the daughter of Vṛshaparvā. Devayānī bore two sons, Yadu and Turvasu. Śarmishṭhā bore three sons, Druhyu, Anu and Pūru. Of these five, Yadu and Pūru became the two great branches that carried the Soma-vaṃśa forward (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 274).

The Agni Purāṇa calls Yadu and Pūru the vardhakas (those who made the line grow) of the Soma-vaṃśa (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 274).

The Yadu-Vaṃśa

Yadu’s Five Sons and the Haihayas

Yadu‘s five sons were Nīlāñjika, Raghu, Kroshṭu, Śatajit and Sahasrajit, Sahasrajit being the eldest. Śatajit had three sons: Haihaya, Reṇuhaya and Haya. From Haihaya the line ran to Dharmanetra, then Saṃsāta, then Mahimaṇḍa, then Bhadrasena, then Durgama, then Kana. Kana’s sons were Kṛtavīrya, Kṛtāgni, Kravīra and Kṛtaujas. Kṛtavīrya’s son was Kārtavīryārjuna (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 275).

Kārtavīryārjuna

Dattātreya Ṛshi was pleased with Kārtavīryārjuna‘s tapas. He granted him rule over the whole earth of seven dvīpas (continents), a thousand arms and victory in every battle, with one warning: when he turned to adharma, Śrī Mahāvishṇu would kill him. Kārtavīryārjuna performed ten thousand yajñas. Simply remembering his name was enough to prevent the loss of wealth in any kingdom. He was greater than all others in courage in yajña, in the strength of his tapas and in knowledge of the śāstras.

He had five hundred sons. The five chief ones were Śūrasena, Śūra, Dhṛshṇokta, Kṛshṇa and Jayadhvaja. Jayadhvaja became king of Avantī, and from him came Tālajaṅgha. Among the Haihaya kshatriyas there were five chief clans: Bhoja, Avantī, Vītihotra, Svayaṃsanta and Śauṇḍikeya (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 275).

Kārtavīrya Arjuna was unequalled in yajña, dāna, tapas, valour and knowledge of the śāstras. Tālajaṅgha had many sons, who became famous under his name as the Tālajaṅghas. To Vītihotra was born Ananta, and to Ananta, Durjaya (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 275).

The Line of Kroshṭu and the Sātvata Clan

Śrī Mahāvishṇu himself was later born in the line of Kroshṭu. From Kroshṭu the line ran:

  1. Vṛjinīvān
  2. Svāhā
  3. Rushadgu
  4. Citraratha
  5. The great emperor Śaśabindu, a devoted Vishṇu-bhakta with ten thousand sons, the eldest being Pṛthuśravā
  6. Suyajña
  7. Uśanā
  8. Titikshu
  9. Marutta
  10. Ṛkmakavaca (also called Kambalabarhīśa), from whom many sons came

Rukmakavaca had fifty sons, beginning with Rukmeshu, Pṛthurukmaka, Rāvi, Jyāmagha and Pāpaghna. Jyāmagha was given over to his wives (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 275).

From Jyāmagha came Vidarbha, the son of Śaibyā. Vidarbha had three sons: Kauśika, Lomapāda and Krathu. After many generations came Sātvata, the most virtuous of all the Yādava kings. His four sons, Bhajamāna, Vṛshṇi, Andhaka and Devāvṛdha, founded four famous Yādava clans (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 275).

The Agni Purāṇa gives these generations in full. Lomapāda was the eldest of Vidarbha’s sons, and his son was Kṛti. Kauśika’s son was Cidi, and those of his line are famous as the Caidyas. To Pṛthu, a son of Vidarbha, was born Kunti; from Kunti came Dhṛshṭaka, then Dhṛti, then Vidūratha, who was also called Śūra. The text then gives the line of Daśārha: Vyoma, Jīmūta, Vikala, Bhīmaratha, Navaratha, Dṛḍharatha, Śakunti, Karambha, Devarāta, Devanetra, Madhu, Dravarasa, Puruhūta, Jantu and Sātvata, each the son of the one before (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 275).

Bhajamāna, Devāvṛdha and Babhru

To Bhajamāna were born Bāhya, Vṛshṇi, Kṛmi and Nimi. To Devāvṛdha was born Babhru, and of the two this śloka is told: “As we hear of their virtues from afar, so we see them from near. Babhru is the best among men; Devāvṛdha is equal to the devas.” To Babhru were born four sons, all bhaktas of Vāsudeva: Kukura, Bhajamāna, Śini and Kambalabarhisha. From Kukura the line ran Dhṛshṇu, Dhṛti, Kapotaroma, Tittiri, Nara, Ānakadundubhi, Punarvasu and Āhuka, called the son of Āhukī, each the son of the one before (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 275).

The Vṛshṇi and Andhaka Clans and Vasudeva

From the line of Sātvata and Bhajamāna, over many generations, came Ānakadundubhi (an ancestor of Vasudeva), then Punarvasu, then Āhuka. Āhuka’s two sons were Devaka and Ugrasena.

Devaka had four sons, Devavān, Upadeva, Sahadeva and Devarakshita, and seven daughters. Vasudeva married all seven: Devakī, Śrutadevī, Mitradevī, Yaśodharā, Śrīdevī, Satyadevī and Surāpi.

Ugrasena’s eldest son was Kaṃsa. Kaṃsa’s brothers were Nyagrodha, Sunāma, Kaṅka, Śaṅku, Sutanu, Rāshṭrapāla, Yuddhamushṭi and Sumushṭika (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 275).

The Lines of Vidūratha and Hṛdika

To Bhajamāna was born Vidūratha, an excellent rathī (chariot-warrior). To Vidūratha were born Rājādhideva and Śūra. Rājādhideva had two sons, Śoṇāśva and Śvetavāhana, and Śoṇāśva had five sons, beginning with Śami and Śatrujit.

From Kṛmi came Pratikshatra, then Bhoja, then Hṛdika. Of Hṛdika’s ten sons the chief were Kṛtavarmā, Śatadhanvā, Devārha and Bhīshaṇa. From Devārha came Kambalabarhi, and from him Samaujas, whose sons were Sudaṃshṭra, Suvāsa and Dhṛshṭa. Dhṛshṭa had two wives: Gāndhārī bore him Sumitra, and Mādrī bore him Yudhājit. Dhṛshṭa also had the sons Anamitra and Śini; Śini’s son was Devamīḍhusha (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 275).

The Story of the Syamantaka Jewel

From Anamitra came Nimna, and from Nimna came Prasena and Satrājit. Satrājit owned the famous Syamantaka maṇi (jewel), which he had received from Sūrya. Prasena wore it while hunting and was killed by a lion. Jāmbavān killed the lion and took the jewel. Śrī Kṛshṇa defeated Jāmbavān in battle and received both Jāmbavatī and the jewel. He returned to Dvārakā and gave the jewel back to Satrājit, clearing himself of every false charge. Later Śatadhanvā killed Satrājit. Śrī Kṛshṇa killed Śatadhanvā, took back the jewel and won great fame, and in the presence of Balarāma and the other Yādavas he gave the maṇi to Akrūra. In this way the false charge laid on Śrī Kṛshṇa was removed. The Agni Purāṇa says that whoever reads this account attains svarga. Satrājit had a son, Baṅkakāra, and a daughter, Satyabhāmā, who became a beloved wife of Śrī Kṛshṇa (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 275).

From Anamitra the line also ran Śini, Satyaka, Sātyaki (who had the other name Yuyudhāna), Dhuni and Yugandhara, each the son of the one before. To Yudhājit was born Svāhya, and to Svāhya, Ṛshabha and Kshetaka. Ṛshabha’s son was Śvaphalka; Śvaphalka’s son was Akrūra; and Akrūra’s son was Sudhanvaka (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 275).

Vasudeva’s Children and Śrī Kṛshṇa

Śūra was the father of Vasudeva and others, and of a daughter, Pṛthā. As Kuntī, Pṛthā became the wife of King Pāṇḍu and the mother of the Pāṇḍavas.

(Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 275)

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa: The Avatāra in the Yadu-Vaṃśa

Kaśyapa Maharshi and Aditi themselves were born again as Vasudeva and Devakī, and their divine son was Śrī Kṛshṇa. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa came down to uphold dharma, to end adharma, to protect the devas and to crush the daityas. The Agni Purāṇa calls him Śrī Kṛshṇa of great tapas, and says that Rukmiṇī, Satyabhāmā and Satyā were his dear wives, and that Satyabhāmā was his ārādhya-devī (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 276).

His chief wives were Rukmiṇī, Satyabhāmā, Satyā (the daughter of Nagnajit), Gāndhārī, Lakshmaṇā, Mitravindā, Kālindī, Jāmbavatī, Suśīlā, Mādrī, Kausalyā, Vijayā and Jayā, and there were many thousands more, sixteen thousand and more in all. From Rukmiṇī came Pradyumna and others, and from Jāmbavatī came Sāmba and others. In all, Śrī Kṛshṇa had one crore eighty thousand sons. From Pradyumna and a princess of Vidarbha was born the brave Aniruddha, whose sons included Vajra. The whole host of the Yādavas numbered three crore, mighty beyond measure.

At that time sixty lakh dānavas had been born as human beings and were troubling the world. Destroying them was also one of the purposes of Kṛshṇa’s descent (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 276). He came also for the sake of those who guard the bounds of karma. All the Yādavas were protected by Śrī Kṛshṇa, and Aniruddha is remembered as one who delighted in battle (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 276).

The Twelve Great Battles (Dvādaśa-Saṅgrāma)

The Agni Purāṇa lists twelve great battles fought between the devas and the asuras over their shares of the inheritance of the universe (Chapter 276):

  1. Nārasiṃha-saṅgrāma
  2. Vāmana-saṅgrāma
  3. Vārāha-saṅgrāma
  4. Amṛta-manthana (the churning for nectar)
  5. Tārakāmaya-saṅgrāma
  6. Ājīvaka-saṅgrāma
  7. Tripura-dāha (the burning of the three cities)
  8. Andhaka-saṅgrāma
  9. Vṛtra-saṅgrāma
  10. Hālāhala (the battle of the Hālāhala poison)
  11. Paraśurāma-saṅgrāma
  12. Kolāhala-saṅgrāma

What happened in each:

  • Nārasiṃha-saṅgrāma: Narasiṃha tore open the chest of Hiraṇyakaśipu and made Prahlāda king.
  • Vāmana-saṅgrāma: Vāmana, born as the son of Kaśyapa and Aditi, outwitted Bali and gave the kingdom back to Indra.
  • Vārāha-saṅgrāma: Varāha killed Hiraṇyāksha, lifted up the sunken earth and was praised by the devas.
  • Amṛta-manthana: the devas and asuras churned the ocean, using Mount Mandara as the churning rod and Vāsuki as the rope. Śrī Mahāvishṇu made sure the amṛta (nectar) reached the devas.
  • Tārakāmaya-saṅgrāma: Brahmā, Indra and Bṛhaspati held back the war between the devas and dānavas and established the Soma-vaṃśa.
  • Ājīvaka-saṅgrāma: the ṛshis Viśvāmitra, Vasishṭha and others, free of rāga (attachment) and dvesha (hatred), turned the dānavas away and protected the devas.
  • Tripura-dāha: Śiva rode a chariot whose body was the earth and whose horses were the Vedas. Brahmā was the charioteer, and Śrī Mahāvishṇu himself became the arrow and burned the three cities.
  • Andhaka-saṅgrāma: Andhakāsura tried to carry off Gaurī. Rudra was hard pressed, but Śrī Hari, in the form of the beloved of Revatī, killed the asura.
  • Vṛtra-saṅgrāma: Vishṇu took the form of foam on the water and entered Indra’s vajra (thunderbolt), so that Indra could kill Vṛtra. In this way he protected the dharma of the devas.
  • Paraśurāma-saṅgrāma: Paraśurāma defeated Śālva and other dānavas and cleared the earth of kshatriyas twenty-one times.
  • Hālāhala: Mahāvishṇu, acting through Śaṅkara, destroyed the daitya who had arisen as the terrible Hālāhala poison.
  • Kolāhala-saṅgrāma: Mahāvishṇu defeated the daitya Kolāhala and upheld dharma for all the devas.

The text then declares that kings, princes, ṛshis and devas are all forms of Mahāvishṇu, both those named here and those not named. All of them, it says, are avatāras of Mahāvishṇu.

The Agni Purāṇa adds a few details to the battles. In the Vārāha battle Bhagavān Varāha also protected the devas and was praised by the devādhidevas. In the Tārakāmaya, Brahmā, Indra and Bṛhaspati protected the devas as well as stopping the war. In the Vṛtra battle Bhagavān Vishṇu freed the devas from their troubles. In the Paraśurāma battle he destroyed the kshatriyas and protected the devas. In the Hālāhala battle it was Madhusūdana who had the daitya destroyed by Śaṅkara, and so calmed the fear of the devas (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 276).

The Royal Lines of Turvasu, Druhyu and Anu

From Turvasu, Yayāti‘s son, the line ran: Varga, Godhāna, Śeśāna, Karandha, Marutta, Dushyanta, Varūtha, Gāṇḍīra, and then Gāndhāra. From Gāndhāra’s five sons arose the kingdoms of Gāndhāra, Keraśa, Cosha, Pāṇḍya and Kola (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 277). All five were very mighty.

From Druhyu the line ran: Babhru, Setu, Purovasu, Gāndhāra, Dharma, Mṛta, Vidusha and Pracetā. Pracetā’s hundred sons included the chief rulers Anādra, Sabhānara, Cākshusha, Para and Meśa.

From Sabhānara the line ran: Kānala, Sṛñjaya, Purañjaya, Janamejaya, Mahāśāla, Mahāmanas and Uśvara. Mahāmanas’ son by his wife Nṛgā was Nṛga. From Nṛga, by various wives, came Vara, Kṛmi, Suvrata and Śibi. The Agni Purāṇa names the mothers: Narā bore Nara, Kṛmī bore Kṛmi, Daśā bore Suvrata, and Dṛshadvatī bore Śibi. Śibi’s four sons, Pṛthudarbha, Vīraka, Kaikaya and Bhadraka, gave their names to four kingdoms (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 277).

From Uśīnara came Titikshu, then Rushadratha, then Paila, then Sutaka, and then the great yogī Bali. Bali’s sons were Aṅga, Vaṅga, Mukhyaka, Puṇḍra and Kaliṅga, who were all called the Bāleyas. The yogī Bali was of great strength. Among the kings of Aṅga a long line followed: Dadhivāhana, Diviratha, Dharmaratha, Citraratha, Satyaratha, Lomapāda, Caturaṅga, Pṛthulāksha, Campa, Haryaṅga, Bhadraratha, Bṛhatkarmā, Bṛhadbhānu, Jayadratha, Bṛhadratha, Viśvajit, and finally Karṇa, the great warrior of the Mahābhārata, and his son Vṛshasena (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 277). Agni Deva closes the chapter: “I have told of the kings born in the Aṅga vaṃśa. Now hear of the Pūru vaṃśa.”

The Pūru-Vaṃśa and the Kuru-Vaṃśa

From Pūru to Bharata

From Pūru, Yayāti‘s youngest son, the line ran: Janamejaya, Prācīnvān, Manasyu, Vītamaya, Śandhu, Bahuvidha, Saṃyāti, Rahovādī and Bhadrāśva.

Bhadrāśva had ten sons: Ṛceyu, Kṛsheyu, Saṃnateyu, Ghṛteyu, Citeyu, Sthaṇḍileyu, Dharmeyu, Saṃnateyu (a second of this name), Kṛteyu and Matināra.

Matināra had three sons: Taṃsurodha, Pratiratha and Pura. Pratiratha had four sons: Dushyanta, Pravīraka, Sumanta and Vīravara. From Dushyanta and Śakuntalā was born the mighty Bharata. From him this whole land is called Bhārata-varsha, and all his descendants are called Bhāratas (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278).

Bharata’s sons died because of their own mothers’ anger. Bharata then performed a yajña, and the Maruts brought him Bharadvāja, the son of Bṛhaspati, to be his son. This Bharadvāja became famous as Vitatha. From Vitatha came Suhota, Suhota (a second), Gaya, Garbha and Kapila, and then Suhotra, who was the father of Bṛhat. Bṛhat had three sons: Ajamīḍha, Dvimīḍha and Purumīḍha (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278).

Vitatha had other sons too: two named “Mahātmā” and Suketu, and after them Kauśika and Gṛtsapati. It was Suhotra, Vitatha’s son, who was the father of Bṛhat (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278).

The Line of Gṛtsapati: the Kings of Kāśī

Among the many sons of Gṛtsapati were brāhmaṇas, kshatriyas and vaiśyas. Two of them were Kāśa and Dīrghatama. From Dīrghatama came Dhanvantari, then Ketumān, then Himaratha, famous as Divodāsa, then Pratardana, whose sons were Bharga and Vatsa. From Vatsa came Anarka, then Kshemaka, then Varshaketu, then Vibhu, whose sons were Ānarta and Sukumāra. Sukumāra’s son was Satyaketu, and to Vatsarāja was born Vatsabhūmi (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278).

Ajamīḍha and the Pañcāla Kings

By his wife Keśinī, Ajamīḍha had Jahnu. From Jahnu came Ajakāśva, then Balākāśva, then Kuśika, and then Gādhi, who reached the rank of Indra. From Gādhi came a daughter, Satyavatī, and a son, Viśvāmitra. Viśvāmitra’s sons included Devarāta and many others. The Agni Purāṇa names Katimukha among them, and says that Ajamīḍha also had sons named Śunaśśepa and Ashṭaka (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278).

By another wife, Dhūminī, Ajamīḍha had Ṛksha. From Ṛksha came Saṃvara, and then Kuru, who set up the holy tīrtha of Kurukshetra, starting from Prayāga (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278).

Per Vāmana Purāṇa, at the beginning of the Kṛtayuga there was a king of great valour born in the Soma-vaṃśa, named Ṛksha. He made his son Saṃvaraṇa king while still a child. Bhagavān Vishṇu, who tells this account to the devas, says that Saṃvaraṇa was his bhakta from childhood, devoted to dharma. His purohita was Vasishṭha, the son of Varuṇa, with whom he studied the Vedas with all their aṅgas. Hunting alone in the Vaibhrāja forest, Saṃvaraṇa saw Tapatī, the daughter of Sūrya. Vasishṭha went to Sūrya, asked for her on the prince’s behalf and brought her to his āśrama, and Saṃvaraṇa married her in the prescribed way. Their son, born with the marks of a cakravartī, became famous by the name Kuru (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 22–23).

By his wife Nīlinī, Ajamīḍha had a son, Śānti. From Śānti came Purujāti, and from Purujāti, Bāhyāśva. Bāhyāśva had five sons, Mukula, Sṛñjaya, Bṛhadishu, Yavīnara and Kṛmila, who are famous as the Pāñcālas. Those of Mukula’s line are called the Kulyas: brāhmaṇas who follow kshātra dharma. Mukula’s son was Cañcāśva, to whom twins were born, a son, Divodāsa, and a daughter, Ahalyā (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278).

Also in Ajamīḍha’s line came Ahalyā, the daughter of a son of Mucala. From her and Śaradvān (Gautama) was born Śatānanda. From Śatānanda came the twins Kṛpa and Kṛpī of the Mahābhārata. The Agni Purāṇa names the generation between: Śatānanda’s son was Satyadhṛk, and to Satyadhṛk the twins Kṛpa and Kṛpī were born. To Divodāsa was born Maitreya, and to Maitreya, Somaka. Through another line of Ajamīḍha came the Pañcāla kings, including Drupada and his son Dhṛshṭadyumna (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278). The Agni Purāṇa gives this line from Sṛñjaya: Pañcahanushka, Somadatta, Sahadeva, Somaka, Jantu, Pṛshat, Drupada, Dhṛshṭadyumna and Dhṛshṭaketu, each the son of the one before (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278).

Kuru and the Line of the Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas

Kuru had four sons: Sudhanvā, Sudhana, Parīkshit and Ripuñjaya.

Sudhanvā’s son was Suhotra, and Suhotra’s son was King Cyavana. In Girikā, the wife of Cyavana, seven sons were born by the aṃśa of Uparicara Vasu: Bṛhadratha, Kuśa, Vīra, Yadu, Pratigraha, Bala, Matsya and Kāli. From Bṛhadratha came the line of Jarāsandha: Kulāgra, Vṛshabha, Sudhanvā, Ūrṇa, Sambhava, Jarāsandha, Sahadeva, Udāpi and Śatakarmā (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278).

Kuru‘s son Parīkshit, the joy of the Kurus, had a son Janamejaya, who was supremely devoted to dharma, and Janamejaya had a son Trasaddasyu. To Jahnu, the son of Ajamīḍha, four sons were born: Suratha, Śrutasena, Ugrasena and Bhīmasena (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278).

The main Kuru line ran:

  1. Parīkshit, a descendant of Kuru
  2. Janamejaya
  3. Suratha and Mahimān
  4. Vidūratha, the son of Suratha
  5. Ṛshu
  6. Bhīmasena
  7. Pratīpa
  8. Śantanu

Śantanu had three sons: Devāpi, Bāhlīka and Somadatta. Bāhlīka’s son was Somadatta, whose sons were Bhūri, Bhūriśravā and Śala. From Śantanu and Gaṅgā was born Bhīshma. From Śantanu and Kālī (Satyavatī) was born Vicitravīrya. By the wives of Vicitravīrya, Śrī Kṛshṇa Dvaipāyana (Vyāsa) fathered Dhṛtarāshṭra, Pāṇḍu and Vidura (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278).

The Pāṇḍavas

Pāṇḍu‘s wife Kuntī (Pṛthā) bore three sons from divine aṃśas (portions of devas):

Mādrī bore Nakula and Sahadeva. These five Pāṇḍavas are called deva-aṃśa-sambhūta, “born of divine portions”. Draupadī was the shared wife of all five (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278).

Arjuna’s son by Subhadrā was Abhimanyu, and Abhimanyu’s son was Parīkshit, who carried on the Kuru line. The sons of Draupadī were:

Bhīmasena also had a son, Ghaṭotkaca, by Hiḍimbā.

The Agni Purāṇa ends its account of the Soma-vaṃśa with this reflection: all these are kings of the past, and no one can count those still to come. All of them have been swallowed by Kāla (Time). “O Vasishṭha! Kāla is the very form of Vishṇu. So worship that Vishṇu, and offer homa into agni in his name. He alone gives everything.” (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 278)

The Candra-Vaṃśa in the Garuḍa Purāṇa

The Garuḍa Purāṇa (Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapters 139 and 140) gives its own account of the Candra-vaṃśa. It traces the line as: Nārāyaṇa → Brahmā → Atri → Candra → Budha → Purūravas.

The Six Sons of Purūravas

From Purūravas and Urvaśī came six sons: Āyu, Dṛḍhāyu, Aśvāyu, Dhanāyu, Dhṛtimān and Vasu.

The Yadu-Vaṃśa

From Yadu, one of the descendants of Purūravas, came the Yadu-vaṃśa:

  • Yadu → Sahasrajit → Haihaya: the Haihaya line
  • The Haihaya branch produced Kārtavīrya Arjuna (Sahasrārjuna), the thousand-armed king who was in the end killed by Paraśurāma

Through the line that comes down to Vasudeva:

  • Vasudeva (father) and Devakī (mother) → Bhagavān Kṛshṇa
  • Rohiṇī, another wife of Vasudeva → Balarāma

So Bhagavān Kṛshṇa is the highest fruit of the Yadu-vaṃśa, born in the line of Candra. He belongs to the dynasty and yet stands above it.

The Pūru-Vaṃśa

The Pūru-vaṃśa, the other great branch of the Candra-vaṃśa, produced the line of the Kurus:

  • Pūru → Dushyanta → Bharata: from Bharata came the dynasty known as the Bhāratas, after whom Bhārata-varsha is named.
  • Bharata → Kuru → Śantanu: Śantanu was the great king whose two marriages gave rise to two great lines:

Śantanu’s first-born, by Gaṅgā → Bhīshma, who gave up the throne

From Vicitravīrya’s wives Ambikā and Ambālikā, with Vyāsa as the father under niyoga (the custom by which another man could father a son for a man who had died without children):

  • Dhṛtarāshṭra, born of Ambikā → Duryodhana and the 99 other Kauravas
  • Pāṇḍu, born of Ambālikā → the five Pāṇḍavas, through the help of the devas

The Birth of Viśvāmitra

The Garuḍa Purāṇa notes that Viśvāmitra was born as a son of Gādhi, a king of the Kuśa-vaṃśa, which it counts as a branch of the Sūrya-vaṃśa (Solar Dynasty). So Viśvāmitra was first a kshatriya, and he became a brāhmaṇa through tapas.

The Soma-Vaṃśa in the Vāyu Purāṇa

Somotpatti: The Birth of Candra

The Vāyu Purāṇa tells how Candra (Soma) was born from the tapas of Bhagavān Atri. Atri stood without moving, his arms raised, beyond the body and beyond speech, like a wooden post or a painted stone. Wishing for divine nature and living as an ūrdhvaretā (one whose vital energy flows upward, a perfect celibate), he performed tapas of unmatched severity for three thousand years as the devas count time. Through that tapas his very body began to glow with the nature of soma. The soma-light streamed out of both his eyes and lit up all ten directions.

At Brahmā‘s command, the ten dikdevatās (devīs of the directions) received this embryo and carried it together. But they could not bear its brightness for long, and the embryo fell from their wombs to the earth, pouring its cool light over the three worlds all the while. Seeing the moon-child come down, Brahmā, wishing for the welfare of all the worlds, took him and placed him on a chariot yoked to a thousand white horses. The seven brahmarshis, the mind-born sons (mānasa-putras) of Brahmā, praised him at once. Aṅgiras and the sons of Bhṛgu sang his glory with stotras of the Ṛg, Yajur and Atharvāṅgirasa. Bathed in praise, Candra‘s radiance spread across all three worlds. In that great chariot he circled the earth twenty-one times, and wherever his light fell, the plants of the earth began to shine. These plants are what feed all four kinds of living beings in the world.

Brahmā gave Candra rule over brāhmaṇas, waters and plants (bīja-oshadhis). Consecrated as king of kings, Candra performed the grand Rājasūya yajña with dakshiṇā counted in lakhs. Hiraṇyagarbha was the Udgātā (the chanter of the Sāma Veda), Brahmā served as the Brahman (the overseer of the rite), and Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa himself was among the sadasyas (members of the assembly). The yajña ended with the avabhṛtha-snāna. Nine divine beings served Candra in his glory: Sinī, Kuhū, Napu, Pushṭi, Prabhā, Vasu, Kīrti, Dhṛti and Lakshmī. Daksha, the son of Pracetas, gave him his twenty-seven daughters as wives. They are known to all as the nakshatras (lunar mansions), from Aśvinī to Revatī (Vāyu Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 2).

The Tārakāmaya: The War over Tārā

Overcome by the pride of power he had not earned, Candra insulted the sons of Aṅgiras. Filled with desire for Tārā, the famous wife of Bṛhaspati, he carried her off by force. Even when the devas and devarshis begged him to return her, Candra refused.

Śukra now openly took Candra’s side. He had long been jealous of Bṛhaspati, since the two had studied together under Aṅgiras. But Śiva, whom the text calls Śukra’s own father, loved Bṛhaspati, his son’s fellow student (gurubhāī). So Śiva, carrying his Pināka bow and with his whole following, stood behind Bṛhaspati as his guardian. Both sides let loose their great weapons. Śukra and Candra used the somāstra, and the great Rudra used the brahmaśira-astra. The war became the dreaded Tārakāmaya, a conflict that shook the worlds. At its height only three devas were left, and they took refuge with Brahmā, the Grandfather (Pitāmaha). Brahmā himself stepped in, held back Śukra and the elder Śaṅkara, and made Candra give Tārā back to Bṛhaspati.

When Bṛhaspati received Tārā back, he saw that she was with child. He told her to give birth. In time she bore a shining boy who blazed like fire in a thicket. The devas asked Tārā whether the child was Soma’s or Bṛhaspati’s. Tārā was ashamed and could not speak. Brahmā asked her directly, and at last she admitted that the child was Candra’s son. Candra kissed the boy’s head, and Brahmā the Creator (Dhātā) named him Budha, “the wise one”. The great Atri then freed Candra from his pāpa, and Candra was cured of rāja-yakshmā (the wasting disease) and shone at his full brightness once more (Vāyu Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 2).

Purūravas and Urvaśī

From Candra‘s son Budha and Ilā, the daughter of Vaivasvata Manu, was born Purūravas. He was full of radiance (tejasvī), famous for his dāna, a great performer of yajñas, a teacher of Brahman, never beaten by enemies in battle, more handsome than anyone in all the worlds, and truthful in speech. Urvaśī, the famous apsarā, put aside her shyness and chose this king as her beloved: a performer of yajñas, master of his senses and a knower of dharma.

But Urvaśī was under a śāpa of Brahmā and could live in the human world only under an agreement. She set four conditions before accepting Purūravas:

  1. She must never see him naked.
  2. He must not force union on her when she did not wish it.
  3. He must guard two rams she kept near her bed.
  4. She would live on ghee alone.

Purūravas agreed, and she would stay as long as he kept these conditions.

For sixty-four years Purūravas and Urvaśī lived in the greatest happiness in the loveliest places the devas visit: in the gardens of Caitraratha, on the banks of the Mandākinī, in the great city of Alakā, in the Nandana-vana (the garden of Indra), on the slopes of Gandhamādana, on the peaks of Meru, in Uttarakuru and in Kalāpa-grāma. The gandharvas were troubled to see one of their own drawn to a human for so long, and they made a plan.

Viśvāvasu, the finest speaker among the gandharvas, went at night to the place where Purūravas and Urvaśī lived. He stole one of the two rams, which she treated as her own children. Urvaśī, asleep beside Purūravas, cried out, “Someone is stealing my son!” But Purūravas thought that getting out of bed naked would break the first condition, so he stayed. The gandharvas came back and stole the second ram. Urvaśī cried again, “My sons are being stolen as if I had no husband!” This time Purūravas could not hold back. He ran after the gandharvas, naked, in the dark. The gandharvas then made a great flash of light, and in its brightness Urvaśī saw Purūravas without clothes. The agreement was broken, and Urvaśī vanished. Their aim fulfilled, the gandharvas let both rams go and disappeared.

Purūravas came back, found Urvaśī gone and wept bitterly. He wandered the whole earth looking for her. At last, at the Plaksha-tīrtha in Kurukshetra, he found her bathing in a pool, playing with five apsarā friends. She recognised him and pointed him out to her friends. Purūravas poured out many words of longing. Urvaśī told him, “I am carrying your child. A son will be born to you within a year. Come to me then.” Purūravas stayed with her for one night at that meeting. When he came back a year later, Urvaśī was again with him for one night. Consumed by longing, Purūravas begged her to stay with him for ever. She told him, “The gandharvas are willing to grant you a vara. Ask it of them yourself.”

Purūravas asked the gandharvas to let him live in their world for ever. They agreed and said, “Perform a yajña, and the gandharva world will be yours.” They gave him an agnikuṇḍa (a vessel of sacred fire). But as Purūravas was carrying the fire home with his son, he set it down in a forest. When he looked again, the fire had changed: an aśvattha tree now stood where the fire had been.

He went back to the gandharvas and told them what had happened. They instructed him: “Take that aśvattha and make from it the araṇi, the wooden fire-drill. Churn fire from it in the proper way, and then worship that fire in its three forms: Gārhapatya, Dakshiṇāgni and Āhavanīya. By performing yajñas of many kinds, you will reach a world equal to ours.” Purūravas did exactly this. He churned fire from the aśvattha araṇi, worshipped the three sacred fires, and through his yajñas won a home in the gandharva world. From this story comes the sacred practice of churning fire from the aśvattha, a teaching preserved in the Vedic system of the three fires (Vāyu Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 2).

The Candra-Vaṃśa in the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa gives its own account of the Candra-vaṃśa, the Lunar Dynasty, most fully in Chapters 65 to 71 of its Madhyama Bhāga, with the lines of Turvasu and Druhyu in Chapter 74; the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa (Pūrṇa Kāṇḍa, Chapters 1–4) is read with it. It is the other of the two great royal lines of the Purāṇas beside the Ikshvāku or Solar Dynasty.

Origin: Soma Born from Atri

The Lunar Dynasty begins with the birth of Soma (Candra) from the divine tapas of Atri Ṛshi. As Atri performed intense tapas, the divine energy gathered in his eyes. From those eyes came forth the shining being Soma, the lord of the moon. Brahmā saw Soma’s greatness and made him ruler of medicinal plants, the stars, the brāhmaṇas and the yajñas (fire offerings). Soma became the one who keeps plant life alive through his nightly dew and his monthly cycles.

Daksha’s 27 Daughters and Soma’s Favouritism

Soma married the 27 daughters of Daksha. These 27 wives are the 27 nakshatras (lunar mansions, the star groups the moon passes through). But Soma clearly favoured Rohiṇī, the most beautiful of the 27, and neglected the others.

The other 26 daughters complained to their father Daksha. Daksha warned Soma twice. When Soma kept favouring Rohiṇī, Daksha pronounced a śāpa on him: rāja-yakshmā (a wasting disease, consumption). Soma’s light faded, and all the plants and beings who depended on him suffered.

The ṛshis appealed to Brahmā. Brahmā sent them to the Prabhāsa tīrtha (holy place), where Soma performed tapas to Śiva. Śiva softened the śāpa: instead of fading away forever, Soma would wax and wane each month, partly recovering and then partly shrinking again. Atri Ṛshi later cured him of what remained of the disease.

Soma’s Rājasūya and the Tārakāmaya War

Soma performed a great Rājasūya yajña (the yajña of royal consecration). Brahmā himself served as the Brahman (the chief overseeing priest), and Vishṇu as the Sadasya (member of the assembly). This rite raised Soma to supreme rule among the devas.

But Soma’s pride grew, and he carried off Tārā, the wife of Bṛhaspati, the guru of the devas. This began the Tārakāmaya war, the war over Tārā. Śukrācārya took Soma’s side and Rudra took Bṛhaspati‘s side, and the whole universe was divided. In the end Brahmā stepped in and ordered Soma to return Tārā, and Soma obeyed. Soma’s child Budha was born from Tārā.

Budha and Ilā: The Start of the Earthly Line

Budha (the planet Mercury), born from Tārā, met Ilā (also known as Sudyumna) in the holy forest of Śiva and Pārvatī. From their union was born Purūravas, the first king of the Lunar Dynasty to rule on earth. With Purūravas, the dynasty that began in svarga became a dynasty of the earth.

From Purūravas to Nahusha

The line runs:

  1. Purūravas
  2. Āyu, the eldest of Purūravas’s six sons
  3. Nahusha, a great cakravartin (universal emperor). He ruled svarga for a short time while Indra was in hiding, grew arrogant, and in the end Agastya Ṛshi pronounced a śāpa on him, and he became a serpent.

Nahusha had six sons: Yati (who renounced the world), Yayāti, Saṃyāti, Āyāti, Viyāti and Kṛti.

Yayāti and the Five Branches

Yayāti was the great king whose story the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa tells in Chapter 68. His five sons divided the Lunar Dynasty into five great branches:

  1. Yadu: the Yādava, Haihaya and Vṛshṇi dynasties, leading at last to Śrī Kṛshṇa
  2. Turvasu: the Pāṇḍya, Kerala and Cola kingdoms (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Chapter 74)
  3. Druhyu: Gāndhāra and the northern frontier lands (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Chapter 74)
  4. Anu: Uśīnara, Śibi and the eastern kingdoms; through Bali of the east came Aṅga, Vaṅga and Kaliṅga
  5. Pūru: the Paurava dynasty, leading to Bharata, then Kuru, then the line of Dhṛtarāshṭra and Pāṇḍu, and so to the Pāṇḍavas and Kauravas

The Line of Amāvasu and Viśvāmitra

A line descended from Amāvasu, the third son of Purūravas. It included Jahnu. The Gaṅgā entered Jahnu’s ear and came out again, and so she earned the name Jāhnavī. Further down this line came Saunahotra, Kāśu, Gṛtsamada, Śunaka and Śaunaka, the great ṛshi of the Naimisha forest. Viśvāmitra, the brahmarshi (ṛshi who knows Brahman), also belongs to this Amāvasu line, through Gādhi‘s link to the family of Ṛcīka.

The Dhanvantari Branch and Kāśī

The Kāśī branch of the Lunar Dynasty runs:

Āyu → Nahusha → Kshatravṛddha → Saunahotra → Kāśu → … → Dhanvantari → Ketumān → Bhīmaratha → Divodāsa (king of Vārāṇasī)

Dhanvantari first appeared from the samudra-manthana (the churning of the ocean of milk), and in a second birth was born as the son of the king of Kāśī. This branch gave rise to the holy history of Avimukta (Kāśī).

The Lunar Dynasty and Bhāratavarsha

The Lunar Dynasty has the most complex family tree of all the Purāṇic dynasties. Its importance is not only as royal history. It also carries a spiritual message: the earthly world of Bhāratavarsha is ruled by the descendants of the moon’s light. That light feeds all plant life. It guides the rhythm of time through the months and tithis (lunar days). Its very radiance is Soma, the amṛta (nectar) of the devas. The great events of the Mahābhārata, the life of Śrī Kṛshṇa, and the founding of the classical kingdoms of India all trace back through this one shining family line.

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Śrī Śuka Maharshi tells the Candra-vaṃśa to Parīkshit Mahārāja as soon as he has finished the Sūrya-vaṃśa. “This telling of the vaṃśa is a cause of purity of mind,” he says. “So now I will tell of the Candra-vaṃśa. In that vaṃśa the kings beginning with Aila, of holy fame, are praised.” The summary at the close of the Purāṇa also names Aila as the root person of the Candra-vaṃśa (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 14; Skandha 12, Chapter 12).

Candra, Tārā and the birth of Budha

From the lotus that grew in the lake of the navel of Purushottama, who has endless heads, Brahmā appeared. Brahmā’s son Atri was equal to his father in every quality, and from Atri’s tears of joy was born Candra, whose very nature is amṛta. Brahmā made Candra lord of the brāhmaṇas who know the Veda, of the trees and plants, and of the hosts of nakshatras.

Candra conquered the three worlds and performed the rājasūya yāga. Then his pride grew, and he carried off Tārā, the wife of Bṛhaspati, guru of the devas. Bṛhaspati asked for her again and again, but Candra in his pride would not let her go. Because of her, enmity arose between the devas and the rākshasas. Śukrācārya, because Bṛhaspati hated him, took Candra’s side with the consent of the rākshasas. Rudra, who is ever surrounded by the hosts of bhūtas, took Bṛhaspati’s side with affection, for Bṛhaspati was the son of Aṅgiras, whom the text calls Rudra’s guru. Devendra, with all the hosts of the devas, stood with Bṛhaspati. In the war fought for Tārā, devas and rākshasas alike were destroyed. Then Aṅgiras told Brahmā, and Brahmā warned Candra sternly and handed Tārā back to her husband.

But Bṛhaspati came to know that she was with child. “Put away the embryo placed by another in the field that is mine,” he told her. “Though you have done wrong, because you are a woman, and because I desire offspring, I will not burn you to ash.” Tārā, ashamed, gave birth to a son shining with golden light. Bṛhaspati and Candra both wanted the boy, and each said, “He is mine, not yours.” The maharshis and the devas asked Tārā whose he was, but in her shame she gave no answer. Then the boy himself spoke to his mother: “Why do you not answer? Your shame is useless. Tell us at once of the wrong you did.” Brahmā called Tārā to a quiet place, spoke gently to her and asked her, and softly she said, “Candra’s child.” Candra took the boy, and Brahmā, the self-born, named him Budha. Candra, king of the nakshatras, rejoiced in this son of subtle intellect (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 14).

Iḷā and the birth of Purūravas

Budha‘s son Purūravas was born of Iḷā. Sudyumna, son of Vaivasvata Manu, had been born as the daughter Iḷā and made a man by the vara of Śrī Hari at Vasishṭha‘s prayer. Later he entered the Ilāvṛta forest, where by the word of Rudra whoever came became a woman, and he became Iḷā once more. As Iḷā wandered from garden to garden with her followers, who had also become women, Budha, son of Candra, lord of the oshadhis (the healing plants), saw her near his own āśrama and desired her. Iḷā of the fine brows loved Budha and wished him for her husband, and to Budha in her was born a son, Purūravas. By the grace of Śaṅkara, won by Vasishṭha’s service, Sudyumna afterwards was a man for one month and a woman for the next. He ruled from the city of Pratishṭhāna, and when he grew old he handed the kingdom to his son Purūravas and went to the forest (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 1).

Purūravas and Urvaśī

In the palace of Indra, Devarshi Nārada described Purūravas: his form, his qualities, his largeness of heart, his good conduct, his wealth and his valour. Urvaśī Devī heard of them, was pierced by the arrows of Manmatha, and came to him. She had come into a human state through the śāpa of Mitra and Varuṇa. When Purūravas saw her, his eyes opened wide with joy and his whole body thrilled. “Welcome,” he said. “Sit. What shall we do for you? Delight with me, and may our joy together go on unbroken for many years.” Urvaśī answered, “Whose eyes and mind would not be fixed on you?” She set her conditions: he must guard the two rams she would leave with him; she would take only ghee as food; and he must never appear naked before her except in union. The king accepted them just as they were. “When an apsarā comes of herself,” he said, “what man would not serve her?” With her he moved at will in Caitraratha, Nandana and the other gardens where the devas play, and spent many months and years in happiness, captivated by the fragrance of her face, like the pollen of lotuses.

Indra missed Urvaśī. “Without Urvaśī my court does not shine,” he said, and he sent the gandharvas to bring her. At midnight, in thick darkness, they dragged away the two rams, which Urvaśī had tended like her own sons. Hearing them cry, she reproached Purūravas: “My husband thinks himself a hero, yet he is no man at all. I trusted him and I am ruined. Thieves have stolen my children. He is a man by day, but at night he sleeps in fear like a woman.” Her words pierced him as a goad pierces an elephant. Naked, sword in hand, he ran after the thieves. The gandharvas left the rams where they were and made lightning flash, and as Purūravas brought the rams back, Urvaśī saw her husband naked in the lightning. When he came back he did not find her in the bed. His mind was shaken; he grieved, and meditating on her alone he wandered over the earth like a madman.

At Kurukshetra, on the bank of the Sarasvatī, he saw Urvaśī with five companions, their faces full of joy. He spoke to her in words that are a sūkta known in the Veda: “Stay, beloved, stay. Do not cast me into the grief of separation without giving me joy even today. This body, which has not won your favour, will fall right here, and wolves and vultures will eat it.” Urvaśī answered, to turn him from dying: “You must not die. You are a man. Do not let the senses, which are like wolves, devour you. The love of wilful women is not steady; they have no pity and seek ever new lovers.” Then she said, “After a year you will spend one night with me, and you will have more children.”

Seeing that Urvaśī was with child, Purūravas went to his city. After a year he went again to Kurukshetra; she had borne him a heroic son, and he spent that night happily with her. The next day, as he grieved at parting, she said, “Praise these gandharvas; they can give me to you.” He praised them, and the gandharvas, pleased, gave him a vessel for setting up the sacred fire (the agni-sthālī), so that by homa in it he might reach the loka of the devas. But the king thought the vessel was Urvaśī herself. Wandering in the forest he came to know it was only a vessel, left it there, went home, and kept meditating on her (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 14).

The three sacred fires and the Tretā yuga

Meanwhile the Tretā yuga began, and the three Vedas, Ṛg, Yajus and Sāma, which teach the rites, appeared in Purūravas‘s heart. He went back to the place in the forest where he had left the vessel and saw an aśvattha tree grown at the foot of a śamī tree. From its wood he made the two araṇis, the sticks for churning fire. Wishing to reach the loka of Urvaśī, he churned fire with mantras, meditating on the lower stick as Urvaśī, the upper stick as himself and the wood between them as the son, and from the churning Agni was born. By worshipping this Agni, the Purāṇa says, a man obtains all prosperity.

With the knowledge of the three Vedas, Purūravas divided Agni into three forms: Āhavanīya, Gārhapatya and Anāhāryapacana (so the name of the third fire is printed). He made that Agni his son, and through it he worshipped Śrī Hari, the Yajñeśvara (master of yajña), the form of all the devas, who is not reached by the means of knowing that begin with direct perception. In the Kṛta yuga, Śuka says, the Oṃkāra alone, the seed of all speech, was the Veda; the Deva was Nārāyaṇa alone; Agni was one; and the varṇa too was one, called Haṃsa. At the start of the Tretā yuga the three Vedas came forth through Purūravas himself. The king worshipped that Agni, obtained offspring, and reached the gandharva-loka (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 14).

The sons of Purūravas and the line of Vijaya

To Purūravas, the son of Iḷā, six sons were born of Urvaśī: Āyu, Śrutāyu, Satyāyu, Raya, Vijaya and Jaya. Śrutāyu’s son was Vasumān; Satyāyu’s son was Śrutañjaya; Raya’s son was Eka; and Jaya’s son was Amita. From Vijaya the line ran Bhīma, Kāñcana, Hotraka and Jahnu, each the son of the one before. Jahnu held the Gaṅgā in his mouth and drank her up. Jahnu’s son was Pūru (not Pūru the son of Yayāti), and from him came Balāka, Ajaka and Kuśa. Kuśa had four sons: Kuśāmbu, Vasu, Kuśanābha and one more, whose name the text does not give clearly. Kuśāmbu’s son was Gādhi (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 15).

Satyavatī, Ṛcīka and the birth of Jamadagni

Gādhi‘s daughter was Satyavatī. Ṛcīka, a brāhmaṇa of the Bhṛgu line, asked for her hand. Gādhi did not think him a fitting bridegroom and said, “We are of the Kuśika line. As the bride-price for our maiden you must give a thousand horses shining like the moon, each with one ear black.” Ṛcīka understood what Gādhi meant, went to Varuṇa, brought such horses from him, and married the fair-faced Satyavatī.

Both Satyavatī and her mother asked Ṛcīka for offspring. He cooked a caru (an oblation of rice) for each with mantras: with brāhmaṇa mantras for his wife and with kshatriya mantras for his mother-in-law, and went to bathe. Thinking her daughter’s caru must be the better one, the mother asked for it, and Satyavatī gave it to her and ate her mother’s caru herself. When Ṛcīka learned of it he said to Satyavatī, “You will have a son of cruel nature who bears weapons, and your younger brother will be the best of the knowers of the Veda.” Satyavatī pleaded, “Let it not be so,” and won his favour. “Then your son’s son will be such a one,” he said. So Jamadagni, of peaceful nature, was born to her. Satyavatī, a great puṇyātmā, became the river Kauśikī, which flows and purifies people.

Jamadagni married Reṇukā, daughter of Reṇu Maharshi. Their sons were Vasumān, Vasu, Susheṇa and Rumaṇvān, and the youngest, who became famous in the world as Rāma, Paraśurāma. He is an aṃśa-avatāra of Śrī Hari, who brought the line of the Haihayas to its end and made the earth empty of kshatriyas twenty-one times. Those kshatriyas were full of rajas and tamas and oppressed the knowers of the Veda; though their offence was small, he slew them and removed the burden of the earth (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 15).

Kārtavīryārjuna and Paraśurāma

Parīkshit asked what the kshatriyas’ offence had been. Śuka answered that Kārtavīryārjuna, lord of the Haihaya line, had served Dattātreya, the aṃśa-avatāra of Nārāyaṇa, and by his grace received a thousand arms, freedom from defeat, undiminished power of the senses, wealth, tejas, strength, fame and might. He became a master of yoga, with siddhis such as aṇimā and garimā, and moved through the worlds like the wind. Proud of his power, he was sporting in the Narmadā with young women, wearing the Vaijayantī garland, when he stopped the river’s flow with his arms. The water turned back and flooded the camp of ten-headed Rāvaṇa nearby. Rāvaṇa, who prided himself on his heroism, behaved improperly towards him, and Kārtavīrya caught him as easily as a monkey, bound him in the city of Māhishmatī, and later let him go.

One day, hunting, Kārtavīrya came by chance to the āśrama of Jamadagni Maharshi, whose only wealth was tapas. By the grace of his Kāmadhenu, Jamadagni gave hospitality to the king, his army, his ministers and even his animals. The wealth of the āśrama surpassed the king’s own, and he came to desire the Kāmadhenu. In his pride he had his men drag away the Maharshi’s homa-dhenu, crying, together with her calf, to Māhishmatī.

When Rāma came back and heard of it, he rose like a cobra whose tail has been trodden on. He took up his fearful axe, a shield, a quiver and a bow and went after the king like a lion after an elephant, wearing a deer-skin, his jaṭā shining like the rays of the sun. Kārtavīrya sent against him seventeen akshauhiṇīs of elephants, chariots, horses and foot-soldiers, with maces, swords, arrows, spears, spiked clubs and darts, and Rāma alone destroyed that whole army, striking with his axe at the speed of mind and wind until the field was mud with blood. Then Kārtavīrya himself came on, loosing arrows from five hundred bows at once. Rāma, foremost of the knowers of astras, cut them all to pieces with arrows from his one bow. Kārtavīrya tore up mountains and trees and ran at him; Rāma cut off his arms like the hoods of serpents with his sharp axe, and then struck off his head, which was like a mountain peak. His ten thousand sons fled.

Rāma brought the cow and her calf back to the āśrama and offered her to his father. But Jamadagni said: “Rāma, your strength of arm is great, but by slaying in vain a king, who is the embodiment of all the devas, you have done pāpa. We brāhmaṇas become worthy of honour through forbearance; by forbearance Brahmā attained Satyaloka, and Śrī Hari, master of the world, is quickly pleased with the forbearing. To slay a consecrated king is a greater pāpa than brahmahatyā. Fix Acyuta in your mind, visit the puṇya-kshetras, and wash away the pāpa” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 15).

Paraśurāma went from tīrtha to tīrtha for a year and returned. One day Reṇukā went to the Gaṅgā for water and saw Citraratha, king of the gandharvas, sporting with apsarās in a garland of lotuses. Watching him, she forgot that the time of her husband’s homa had come, and a slight desire for Citraratha arose in her. Fearing Jamadagni’s śāpa, she came back, set the water-pot before him and stood bowing with joined palms. Jamadagni knew what had been in her mind and commanded his sons, “Slay her.” The elder sons would not. Paraśurāma slew his mother and his brothers, for he knew well the power of his father’s yoga and tapas. Pleased, Jamadagni told him to ask a vara, and he asked that his mother and brothers should live again and should have no memory of being slain. They rose up whole, as if from sleep.

Kārtavīrya’s sons could not forget their father’s death. One day, when Paraśurāma had gone to the forest with his brothers, they fell upon the āśrama. Jamadagni was seated in the room of the sacred fire, his mind fixed on Śrī Hari, and they slew him; though Reṇukā pleaded piteously, they cut off his head and carried it away. Reṇukā, a pativratā, beat her breast and cried, “Rāma! Rāma! Come!” Paraśurāma heard her from far off, hurried back, and saw his father slain. “Father,” he said, “you were a sādhu firm in dharma, and you have gone to svarga.” He gave his father’s body to his brothers, took up his axe, and resolved to end the kshatriyas.

In the middle of Māhishmatī he raised a mountain of the heads of the princes who had committed brahmahatyā and made a river of their blood. Taking his father’s slaying as the occasion, he made the earth empty of kshatriyas twenty-one times, and at Samantapañcaka in Kurukshetra he filled five lakes with their blood. He joined his father’s head to the body upon darbha grass and worshipped with yajñas Śrī Hari, who is himself and the embodiment of all the devas. As dakshiṇā he gave the east to the hotā, the south to the brahmā, the west to the adhvaryu and the north to the udgātā; the intermediate directions to the prastotā and the other ṛtvijas; the middle land to Kaśyapa; Āryāvarta to the upadrashṭā; and the land beyond the middle to the sadasyas. He took the avabhṛtha bath in the Sarasvatī, who is of the form of the Veda, was freed from every pāpa, and shone like the sun freed from clouds. Jamadagni received a body made of saṅkalpa and became the seventh ṛshi of the Saptarshi-maṇḍala.

Bhagavān Paraśurāma, the lotus-eyed son of Jamadagni, will be the maharshi who sets the Vedas going in the coming Sāvarṇi manvantara. Even today he lives on Mount Mahendra, having given up all violence, his mind serene, while the siddhas, gandharvas and cāraṇas sing of his deeds. So Śrī Hari, whose form is the world and who is its ātmā and master, descended among the Bhṛgus and slew the kings who had become a burden on the earth (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapters 15–16).

Viśvāmitra, his sons and Devarāta

Gādhi‘s son was Viśvāmitra, who blazed with tejas like a well-kindled fire. By the power of his tapas he gave up his kshatriya state and attained brahma-varcas, the splendour of a brāhmaṇa. He had a hundred and one sons. The middle one was Madhucchandas, and all of them came to be known as the Madhucchandases.

Viśvāmitra adopted as his son Śunaśśepa of the Bhṛgu line, the son of Ajīgarta, and told his sons to take him as their elder brother. Śunaśśepa’s parents had sold him to be the purusha-paśu (the human offering) in the yajña of Hariścandra. He praised Brahmā and the other devas and was freed from the cords that bound him to the yūpa; because the devas set him free in that Varuṇa-yajña, he became famous among the descendants of Gādhi as Devarāta, “given by the devas”. The fifty elder Madhucchandases would not accept him as their elder, and Viśvāmitra pronounced a śāpa on them: “Become mlecchas!” But Madhucchandas, with the fifty younger sons, said, “We will stand by whatever you command,” and they accepted Śunaśśepa, the mantra-drashṭā (one to whom mantras are revealed), as their eldest brother. Viśvāmitra blessed them: “You have kept my honour; you too will have worthy sons. This Devarāta is a Kuśika of your own gotra.” Viśvāmitra had other sons too: Ashṭaka, Hārīta, Jaya, Kratumān, Gālava and others. Because some of his sons received a śāpa and others a blessing, the Kauśika gotra became of many kinds, and because they accepted Devarāta as their elder, they came to have the Devarāta pravara (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 16).

The line of Āyu

Āyu, the son of Purūravas, had five sons: Nahusha, Kshatravṛddha, Raji, the valiant Rambha and Anenas.

Kshatravṛddha’s son was Suhotra, who had three sons, Kāśya, Kuśa and Gṛtsamada. Gṛtsamada’s son was Śunaka, and Śunaka’s son was Śaunaka Maharshi, best of those who study the Ṛgveda. From Kāśya the line ran Kāśi, Rāshṭra, Dīrghatama and Dhanvantari. Dhanvantari set Āyurveda going in the world. He is an aṃśa of Bhagavān Vāsudeva and has a share in the yajña-bhāgas, and merely by remembering him the sorrows of men go away. From Dhanvantari the line ran Ketumān, Bhīmaratha, Divodāsa and Dyumān, who was also called Pratardana, Śatrujit, Vatsa, Ṛtadhvaja and Kuvalayāśva. His sons began with Alarka, who, ever young, ruled for sixty-six thousand years; no one else ruled so long. From Alarka the line ran Santati, Sunītha, Suketana, Dharmaketu, Satyaketu, Dhṛshṭaketu, Sukumāra Mahārāja, Vītihotra, Bharga and Bhārgabhūmi Mahārāja, each the son of the one before. These are the kings of the Kāśi line, in the line of Kshatravṛddha.

Rambha’s son was Rabhasa, Rabhasa’s son Gambhīra, and Gambhīra’s son Akriya, from whose wife a brāhmaṇa line came forth. Anenas’s son was Śuddha, and from him came Śuci, Trikakut, Dharmasārathi and Śāntaraya, who had ātma-jñāna and was a jīvanmukta, free while still living.

Raji had five hundred sons of boundless strength. When the devas prayed to him, Raji conquered the rākshasas and gave svarga to Indra. Indra, fearing Prahlāda and his other enemies, took hold of Raji’s feet and gave himself over to him. When Raji died, his sons would not give svarga back to Indra, even when he asked, and took the shares of the yajña as well. Then, while Bṛhaspati offered homa, Indra slew the sons of Raji, who had fallen from the path of dharma, and not one was left.

Kuśa, the son of Suhotra, had a son Prati, and from him the line ran Sañjaya, Jaya, Kṛta, Haryavana Mahārāja, Sahadeva, Hīna, Jayasena, Saṅkṛti and Jaya, a mahāratha firm in kshatriya dharma. “These are the kings of the line of Kshatravṛddha,” Śuka says. “Now hear of the line of Nahusha” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 17).

Nahusha and his six sons

As embodied beings have six senses, the ear, the skin, the eye, the tongue, the nose and the mind, so Nahusha had six sons: Yati, Yayāti, Saṃyāti, Āyati, Niyati and Kṛti. Nahusha gave the kingdom to the eldest, Yati, but Yati would not take it, for he knew that one who enters the affairs of a kingdom cannot know the true nature of the ātmā. Nahusha desired union with Śacī Devī, the wife of Indra; for that fault he was struck by the śāpa of Agastya and the other maharshis, fell from the seat of Indra and became a python. Then Yayāti became king. He set his four younger brothers to rule the people in the four directions, married the daughter of Śukrācārya and the daughter of Vṛshaparvā, king of the rākshasas, and ruled the kingdom (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 18).

Devayānī and Śarmishṭhā

Parīkshit asked how a kshatriya king came to marry the daughter of the brahmarshi Śukrācārya. Śuka answered: Vṛshaparvā’s young daughter Śarmishṭhā, with a thousand companions, was playing in the city garden with Devayānī, the daughter of Śukrācārya, guru of the dānavas. The garden was thick with flowering trees, and its lakes were full of lotuses humming with bees. The maidens left their garments on the bank and played in the water. Just then Bhagavān Śiva, who dwells on Kailāsa, passed by with Devī Pārvatī on the divine vāhana Nandī, and the maidens hurried to the bank and covered themselves. In the hurry Śarmishṭhā put on Devayānī’s sārī, thinking it her own.

Devayānī was very angry. “See what she has done! As a dog touches the havis in a yajña, she has put on the garment meant for us. The knowers of the Veda created this world by their tapas; they are the mouth of Purushottama and hold Parabrahma in their hearts. The devas who guard the worlds bow to them, and so does Śrī Hari, the dwelling of Lakshmī. Among them we are of the Bhṛgu line, and her father is our disciple.” Śarmishṭhā, stung, sighed like a serpent and said, “You are a beggar-woman. Do you not wait, like the crows and dogs, for the food we throw out at our house?” She pulled away Devayānī’s garment and pushed her into a well, and went home.

Just then Yayāti, out hunting, came to that well by the will of Īśvara to quench his thirst, and saw Devayānī. In his compassion he gave her his upper cloth, took her hand and drew her out. “You have taken my hand,” Devayānī said. “No other man may take it. This bond is made by Īśvara, not by men. Once Kaca, son of Bṛhaspati, pronounced a śāpa on me that I would not marry a brāhmaṇa, and I pronounced one on him in return.” Yayāti saw that Īśvara had brought about this bond he had not sought, and accepted her word.

Devayānī went weeping to her father and told him everything. Śukrācārya, troubled, condemned the life of a purohita, praised the uñchavṛtti of living on grains gleaned from the fields like pigeons, and left the city with his daughter. Vṛshaparvā feared that he would go over to the devas, met him on the road and bowed his head at his feet. Śukrācārya’s anger lasts only half a moment. “Fulfil Devayānī’s wish,” he said, “for I cannot leave this motherless girl uncared for.” Devayānī asked that Śarmishṭhā and her companions should go with her to whatever house her father gave her in marriage. Śarmishṭhā saw that the safety of her father’s kingdom rested on keeping Śukrācārya, and with her thousand companions she served Devayānī like a dāsī.

Śukrācārya gave Devayānī in marriage to Yayāti, and Śarmishṭhā went with her. “Never have union with Śarmishṭhā,” Śukrācārya told the king. In time Devayānī had children. Seeing this, Śarmishṭhā one day in a lonely place chose Yayāti and asked him for a child. He weighed the dharma and remembered Śukrācārya’s warning, yet he thought it the decree of daiva. To Devayānī were born Yadu and Turvasu, and to Śarmishṭhā, Druhyu, Anu and Pūru (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 18).

Śukrācārya’s śāpa and Pūru’s gift

When Devayānī learned that Śarmishṭhā had borne the king’s children, she went away in anger to her father’s house. Yayāti followed her and tried to win her back with kind words and by touching her feet, but failed. Śukrācārya said to him in anger, “Fool, your greed for women is great, and you do not shrink from untruth. Let old age, which deforms men, enter you!” “I am not yet satisfied with the pleasures I have known with your daughter,” said Yayāti. “Then exchange your old age with anyone who will give you his youth,” said Śukrācārya.

Yayāti asked his eldest son Yadu to take his old age and give him his youth. “I do not wish to live as an old man in middle age,” Yadu answered. “Without enjoying the pleasures of the senses a man does not gain vairāgya.” Turvasu, Druhyu and Anu refused too, for they did not know dharma and took youth, which passes, to be lasting. Then Yayāti turned to Pūru, the youngest, small in age but great in virtues. Pūru answered: “Who in the world can repay the debt he owes the father who gave him birth? By the father’s grace the son gains the highest good. The son who does what is in his father’s mind without being told is the best; the one who does what he is told is middling; the one who does it without śraddhā is the lowest; and the one who does not do it at all is like his father’s dirt.” Joyfully Pūru took on his father’s old age, and Yayāti, with Pūru’s youth, enjoyed the pleasures he wished.

Yayāti was lord of seven dvīpas and ruled his people like a father, and Devayānī gave him delight beyond all. He worshipped Śrī Hari, the master of yajña, whose forms are all the devas and the Vedas, with kratus giving great dakshiṇās. The Purāṇa teaches here that this world, like a dream or a magic show, is only the play of the mind; it appears in Śrī Hari, its ātmā and ground, as clouds appear in the sky, shines only in his light, and in deep sleep and pralaya dissolves in him. Holding in his heart only Nārāyaṇa, who dwells in the heart of every being, Yayāti worshipped him with yajñas. Yet though he enjoyed the objects of the senses for thousands of years without a break, he did not reach contentment (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 18).

The gīti of Yayāti

At last Yayāti saw that enjoyment covers the true nature of the ātmā, and he became free of attachment. He told Devayānī a gīti. A lone he-goat in the forest saw a she-goat that had fallen into a well. Desiring her, he dug a path up the side of the well with the tips of his horns and drew her out, and she loved him. Many other she-goats desired him too, and possessed by the piśāca of kāma he forgot himself. One day the first she-goat saw him sporting with another; she could not bear it and went back to her master, a brāhmaṇa. The he-goat followed her crying “me, me”, but could not win her back. In anger the brāhmaṇa cut off the he-goat’s testicles, and then, for his daughter’s good, joined them again. After that the he-goat enjoyed desires with her for a long time, yet even to this day he has not found contentment. “I too am in the same state,” Yayāti said. “Bound by your love, I do not know my own true nature.”

Then he spoke his verses on desire. All the grain, cattle, gold and women on earth together cannot satisfy one ruined by desire. Thirst for the objects of the senses is never quenched by enjoying them; like fire fed with ghee, it only grows. When a man sees the one Paramātmā in all beings and holds no feeling of difference towards any, then every direction gives him joy. The body weakens with age, but thirst does not; one who seeks the good should give it up quickly, for it is the home of sorrows. One should not sit on one seat even with one’s mother, sister or daughter, for the senses drag even the learned into thirst. “For a thousand years I have enjoyed the pleasures of the senses, and still the thirst rises,” he said. “I will give it up, fix my mind on Parabrahma, go beyond pleasure and pain, and wander free of ahaṅkāra in the forest with the animals. The pleasures seen in this world and heard of in the next are false; knowing this, the sādhaka gains ātma-jñāna.”

Desire left Yayāti. He gave Pūru back his youth and took back his old age. He made Druhyu lord in the south-east, Yadu in the south, Turvasu in the west and Anu in the north; Pūru, the most fit of all, he consecrated as samrāṭ, with the elder brothers under him. Then he went to the forest. As a bird whose wings have grown leaves its nest, he gave up in a moment the pleasures he had enjoyed for so many years. With the fire of jñāna he burned away the liṅga-deha, the subtle body born of the three guṇas, gained the moksha that comes through upāsanā of Bhagavān Śrī Hari, and merged in Parabrahma, beyond prakṛti, the ground of the world and a mass of consciousness.

Devayānī at first thought he was reproaching her; then she saw that he had told the gīti as if in jest, to spare her the pain of parting. She saw that the company of father, husband and kin is like travellers meeting at a water-shed, and that the world is false like a dream. Giving up attachment to husband, sons and kingdom, she filled her mind with Śrī Kṛshṇa and merged in Īśvara. Her namaskāra was: “O Śrī Hari, you alone are the mass of consciousness who gives the world its being and light. You created the world and are the refuge of all beings. You are the peace beyond the stream of the guṇas. To you, beyond all bounds of place and time, many namaskāras” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 19).

The line of Pūru to Dushyanta

“Now I shall describe the line of Pūru,” Śuka told Parīkshit. “It is in this line that you were born, and in it were born rājarshis and brahmarshis.” From Pūru the line ran Janamejaya, Pracinvanta, Pravīra, Namasyu, Cārupada, Sudyu, Bahugava, Saṃyāti, Ahaṃyāti and Raudrāśva, each the son of the one before. By the apsarā Ghṛtācī, Raudrāśva had ten sons, like the ten senses of the chief prāṇa: Ṛteyu, Kuksheyu, Sthaṇḍileyu, Kṛteyu, Jaleyu, Santateyu, Dharmeyu, Satyeyu, Prateyu and Vaneyu, the last. Ṛteyu’s son was Rantibhāra, who had three sons, Sumati, Dhruva and Apratiratha. Apratiratha’s son was Kaṇva, Kaṇva’s son was Medhātithi, and from Medhātithi came Praskaṇva and other brāhmaṇas. Sumati’s son was Raibhya, and Raibhya’s son was Dushyanta (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 20).

Dushyanta, Śakuntalā and Bharata

Dushyanta went hunting with a few soldiers and came to the āśrama of Kaṇva Maharshi. There he saw a young woman seated like Lakshmī Devī, the very ornament of the āśrama, and at once his mind was held by her. “Who are you, with eyes like lily petals?” he asked. “You have stolen my heart. It is clear to me that you are a kshatriya maiden, for the mind of those of the Pūru line never delights in adharma.” “It is true,” she answered. “I am the daughter of Viśvāmitra. Menakā left me in the forest, as Kaṇva Maharshi knows. Sit, receive our pūjā, and eat of our nīvāra rice.” “It is fitting that you, born of the Kuśika line, give such hospitality,” said the king. “The daughters of kings choose a fitting husband for themselves.” As soon as Śakuntalā consented, Dushyanta, who knew place, time and the rules of the śāstras, married her by the gāndharva vivāha, with vows made to each other, without departing from dharma. At dawn he went to his city.

When the time came, Śakuntalā bore a son, and Kaṇva Maharshi performed his jātakarma and the other saṃskāras in the forest. The boy, born of a portion of a portion of Śrī Hari, had unmatched valour and played with lions he had bound by force. Śakuntalā brought him to his father, but Dushyanta would not accept that faultless wife and son. Then, with all beings listening, a bodiless voice spoke from the sky: “The mother is only the field; the son belongs to the father, and is not different from him. Dushyanta, bear this son and do not dishonour Śakuntalā. It is the son who carries on the line who saves his father from the city of Yama. You are this child’s father; Śakuntalā speaks only the truth.” Because the voice said “bear him”, the boy was named Bharata (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 20).

Bharata’s reign and the gift of Bharadvāja

After Dushyanta died, Bharata became samrāṭ, and people on earth still sing the greatness of this king born of a portion of Śrī Hari. In his right hand was the mark of a cakra, and on his feet were lotus buds, the marks of a samrāṭ. On the bank of the Gaṅgā he performed fifty-five aśvamedha yāgas; with Dīrghatamas, son of Mamatā, as his purohita, he performed seventy-eight more on the bank of the Yamunā, a hundred and thirty-three in all. At one yajña a thousand brāhmaṇas each received from him a badva, a herd of 13,084 cows; in the rite called Mashṇāra he gave fourteen lakh great elephants, black with white tusks, adorned with gold. As men have never caught hold of svarga with their two hands and never will, so no king before or after could do what Bharata did. In his digvijaya he slew the Kirātas, Hūṇas, Yavanas, Andhras, Kaṅkas, Khaśas, Śakas and Mlecchas and the kings hostile to the Veda. When mighty rākshasas had carried off the women of the devas to Rasātala, Bharata brought them back. While he ruled, earth and svarga gave the people all they desired, and for twenty-seven thousand years his command ran in every direction. Then, seeing that lordship, wealth, power and even life itself are false, he became free of attachment, went beyond avidyā and became one with Śrī Hari, the guru of the devas.

Bharata had three dear wives, daughters of the king of Vidarbha. Of their children Bharata said, “These are not fit for me,” and the queens, fearing that he would abandon them, killed the children. As his line was becoming fruitless for want of a son, Bharata performed the yajña called Marut-stoma and worshipped the Maruts, and the Maruts, pleased, gave him Bharadvāja as his son.

Bharadvāja’s birth was this. Bṛhaspati once moved towards union with Mamatā, the pregnant wife of his brother Utathya. The child in her womb forbade him, and Bṛhaspati pronounced on that child a śāpa of blindness and let fall his seed, from which a son was born. Mamatā, fearing that her husband would abandon her, resolved to abandon this boy. Then the devas sang a śloka to her, a dialogue of the two. “Foolish one, he is born of us two (dvāja); nourish him (bhara),” said Bṛhaspati. “He is born of us two; you nourish him,” said Mamatā. So the two left the boy, and from their words he became Bharadvāja. The devas urged Mamatā not to fear, but she thought the boy fruitless and abandoned him. The Maruts nourished him, and when Bharata’s line was becoming fruitless, they gave this boy to Bharata (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 20).

Manyu and Rantideva

Manyu was the son of Bharadvāja, who is called Vitatha. Manyu had five sons: Bṛhatkshatra, Jaya, Mahāvīrya, Nara and Garga. Nara’s son was Saṅkṛti, and Saṅkṛti had two sons, Guru and Rantideva, whose fame is sung on earth, in svarga and in the other lokas.

Rantideva lived only on what came to him by chance, as the wind blows it, and gave away whatever came the moment it came. So he had nothing, and he and his whole family suffered hunger, yet he never lost his steadiness. For forty-eight days he could not get even water to drink. Then one morning he received ghee, pāyasa, halvā and water. His family was in great distress and his own body trembled with hunger and thirst. Just as he was about to eat, a brāhmaṇa came as a guest. Rantideva, who sees Śrī Hari in all beings, welcomed him and served him with śraddhā, and the brāhmaṇa ate and left. Rantideva shared the rest among his family, and as he was about to eat, a śūdra came as a guest; remembering Śrī Hari, Rantideva gave him the food. Then came another guest with dogs all around him: “O king, I and my dogs are hungry.” Rantideva honoured him too, gave him and his dogs what was left, and bowed to him.

Only enough water for one man’s thirst was left. As he was about to drink it, a butcher came and begged, “Give water to me, who live by inauspicious work.” Hearing the weariness in that piteous voice, Rantideva was pained with compassion and spoke these words, which are like amṛta: “I do not ask of Īśvara the highest state with the eight aiśvaryas, nor the moksha from which there is no return. I ask only this: that I may dwell in the hearts of all beings and bear their sorrow, so that their sorrow is removed. By giving water to this wretched creature who longs to live, all has left me: the weariness of hunger and thirst, the fatigue of the body, wretchedness, exhaustion, pain of mind, slackness of the limbs and bewilderment.” Ready himself to die of thirst, he gave the water to the butcher.

Then Brahmā and the other rulers of the three worlds, who had come to him in those forms made by the māyā of Vishṇu, granted him darśana in their own forms. Rantideva, with no attachment to saṃsāra and no thirst for any enjoyment, bowed to them and kept his mind fixed in bhakti on Bhagavān Vāsudeva alone. Because he made Īśvara alone the support of his citta, avidyā made of the three guṇas melted away in him like a dream. By the greatness of his company, those who followed him also became yogīs whose highest refuge is Nārāyaṇa (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 21).

Garga, Mahāvīrya and Hasti

Garga, son of Manyu, had a son Śini, and Śini’s son was Gārgya; though Gārgya was a kshatriya, the line that came from him became brāhmaṇas. Mahāvīrya, son of Manyu, had a son Duritakshaya, whose three sons, Trayyāruṇi, Kavi and Pushkarāruṇi, were born in a kshatriya line and attained the state of brāhmaṇas. Bṛhatkshatra, son of Manyu, had a son Hasti, who built Hastināpura. Hasti had three sons: Ajamīḍha, Dvimīḍha and Purumīḍha. Ajamīḍha’s sons, beginning with Priyamedha, became brāhmaṇas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 21).

The lines of Ajamīḍha and Dvimīḍha

Another son of Ajamīḍha was Bṛhadishu. From him the line ran Bṛhaddhanu, Bṛhatkāya, Jayadratha, Viśada and Senajit, each the son of the one before. Senajit had four sons: Rucirāśva, Dṛḍhahanu, Kāśya and Vatsa. Rucirāśva’s son was Pāra, whose sons were Pṛthusena and Nīpa; Nīpa had a hundred sons. In Kṛtvī, daughter of Śuka, Nīpa begot Brahmadatta, a yogī, who by the upadeśa of Jaigīshavya Maharshi composed a yoga śāstra. In his wife Sarasvatī, Brahmadatta had a son Vishvaksena; Vishvaksena’s son was Udaksvana, and Udaksvana’s son was Bhallāda. All these are of the line of Bṛhadishu.

Dvimīḍha’s son was Yavīnara, and from him the line ran Kṛtimān, Satyadhṛti, Dṛḍhanemi, Supārśva, Sumati, Sannatimān and Kṛti. This Kṛti received yogavidyā from Hiraṇyanābha and sang the six mantra saṃhitās called the Prācya-sāmas. Kṛti’s son was another Nīpa, and from him came Ugrāyudha, Kshemya, Suvīra, Ripuñjaya and Bahuratha. Purumīḍha, the third son of Hasti, had no offspring (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 21).

The line of Nīla and the naming of the Pañcālas

In his second wife Nalinī, Ajamīḍha had a son Nīla. From Nīla the line ran Śānti, Suśānti, Puruja, Arka and Bharmyāśva. Bharmyāśva had five sons: Mudgala, the eldest, Yavīnara, Bṛhadishu, Kāmpilya and Sañjaya. Bharmyāśva said, “My sons are surely able (alam) to protect five (pañca) lands,” and so they came to be called the Pañcālas.

From Mudgala came the brāhmaṇa gotra called Maudgalya. Mudgala had two children, a boy, Divodāsa, and a girl, Ahalyā. In Ahalyā, Gautama Maharshi begot Śatānanda. Śatānanda’s son was Satyadhṛti, skilled in dhanurveda, and Satyadhṛti’s son was Śaradvān. When Śaradvān saw Urvaśī, his seed fell on a clump of muñja grass and became an auspicious pair of children, a boy and a girl. Śantanu Mahārāja, out hunting, saw them, felt compassion, and took them and raised them. The boy is Kṛpācārya, and the girl is Kṛpī, who became the wife of Droṇācārya (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 21).

The Pāñcāla kings

Divodāsa, son of Mudgala, had a son Mitreyu, who had four sons: Cyavana, Sudāsa, Sahadeva and Somaka. Somaka had a hundred sons; Jantu was the eldest and Pṛshata the youngest. Pṛshata’s son was Drupada, who had a daughter, Draupadī, and sons beginning with Dhṛshṭadyumna and Śikhaṇḍī. Dhṛshṭadyumna’s son was Dhṛshṭaketu. These kings of the line of Bharmyāśva are called the Pāñcālas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 22).

Kuru, and the kings of Cedi and Magadha

Ajamīḍha had another son, Ṛksha, whose son was Saṃvaraṇa. To Saṃvaraṇa, in Tapatī, the daughter of Sūrya, was born Kuru, who became lord of Kurukshetra. Kuru had four sons: Parīkshit, Sudhanu, Jahnu and Nishadhāśva.

From Sudhanu the line ran Suhotra, Cyavana, Kṛti and Uparicara Vasu. Uparicara Vasu’s sons, beginning with Bṛhadratha, Kuśāmba, Matsya, Pratyagra and Cedipa, became lords of the Cedi land; Bṛhadratha was the eldest. From Bṛhadratha one line ran Kuśāgra, Ṛshabha, Satyahita, Pushpavān and Jahu. Bṛhadratha had two wives, and the second gave birth to the two halves of one body. The mother threw them outside, and a rākshasī named Jarā, playing, picked up both pieces, saying “Live, live!”, and joined them, and the child lived. So he became Bṛhadratha’s son Jarāsandha, “the one joined by Jarā”. Jarāsandha’s son was Sahadeva, Sahadeva’s son Somāpi, and Somāpi’s son Śrutaśravas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 22).

From Jahnu to Śantanu, and Devāpi

Parīkshit, son of Kuru, had no offspring. Jahnu, son of Kuru, had a son Suratha, and from him the line ran Vidūratha, Sārvabhauma, Jayasena, Rādhika, Ayuta, Krodhana, Devātithi, Ṛshya, Dilīpa and Pratīpa, each the son of the one before. Pratīpa had three sons: Devāpi, Śantanu and Bāhlika. Devāpi gave up the kingdom that came to him from his father and went to the forest.

So Śantanu became king. In his previous birth his name was Mahābhisha. Whatever old person Śantanu touched with his two hands regained youth and, more than that, the highest peace; because he spread śānti in this way, the name Śantanu fitted him. Yet in his kingdom Parjanya, the deva of rain, did not rain on a single day for twelve years. The knowers of Brahman told Śantanu, “While your elder brother lives you are enjoying his kingdom, and so you are like a parivettā, one who marries before his elder brother. To remove that fault and bring growth to the kingdom, give it to your elder brother at once.” Śantanu went to the forest and prayed to Devāpi. But before this, Śantanu’s minister Aśmarāva, without the king’s knowledge, had sent men who taught Devāpi the pākhaṇḍa doctrine and made him fall away from the dharma of the Veda. So Devāpi spoke words reviling the Veda dharma, and by this lost his fitness to rule, and Śantanu’s fault was removed. Only then did Parjanya Deva rain in the kingdom. Devāpi dwells in Kalāpa grāma, practising yoga. When the Candra-vaṃśa perishes in the Kali yuga, Devāpi will establish it again at the start of the Kṛta yuga (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 22).

Bhīshma, Vyāsa and the sons of Vicitravīrya

Bāhlika’s son was Somadatta, who had three sons, Bhūri, Bhūriśravas and Śala. To Śantanu, in Gaṅgā, Bhīshma was born. He had conquered his mind; he was the best of the knowers of dharma, a great bhagavad-bhakta and a jñānī, the leader of heroes, who in battle won the approval even of Paraśurāma. To Śantanu, in Satyavatī, the daughter of Dāśarāja, was born Citrāṅgada, and his younger brother was Vicitravīrya. Citrāṅgada was killed by a gandharva of the same name.

In Satyavatī, through Parāśara Maharshi, Śrī Hari himself descended with his aṃśa as Vyāsa. Kṛshṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa Maharshi upheld the Vedas in the world. “From him alone I studied this Bhāgavata,” Śuka tells Parīkshit. “Passing over his disciples Paila, Vaiśampāyana and others, the revered Bādarāyaṇa taught this Bhāgavata, the essence of the Vedas and the highest of all, to me, who am free of kāma and the other faults.”

Bhīshma carried off by force from their svayaṃvara Ambikā and Ambālikā, the daughters of the king of Kāśi, and Vicitravīrya married them both. His heart was bound to them, and kshaya disease seized him and he died without offspring. At the command of his mother Satyavatī, Vyāsa begot in the wives of his brother Dhṛtarāshṭra, Pāṇḍu and Vidura. To Dhṛtarāshṭra, in Gāndhārī, a hundred sons were born, of whom Duryodhana was the eldest, and a daughter, Duśśalā (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 22).

The Pāṇḍavas, their sons and Parīkshit

Because of a śāpa, union with a woman was forbidden to Pāṇḍu. In his wife Kuntī, from Yama Dharmarāja, Vāyu Deva and Indra, were born Dharmarāja, Bhīma and Arjuna, all mahārathas; in Mādrī, from the Aśvinī Kumāras, Nakula and Sahadeva. In Draupadī the five Pāṇḍavas had five sons, “your fathers”, Śuka tells Parīkshit: Prativindhya, son of Yudhishṭhira; Śrutasena, son of Bhīma; Śrutakīrti, son of Arjuna; Śatānīka, son of Nakula; and Śrutakarmā, son of Sahadeva. They had other sons as well:

  • Dharmarāja, in Pauravī: Devaka.
  • Bhīma, in Hiḍimbā: Ghaṭotkaca; and in Kālī: Sarvagata.
  • Sahadeva, in Vijayā, daughter of Parvata: Suhotra.
  • Nakula, in Kareṇuvatī: Nimitra.
  • Arjuna, in Ulūpī: Irāvān; and in the daughter of the lord of Maṇipūra: Babhruvāhana, who by the putrikā-dharma became the son of his mother’s father.

To Arjuna, in Subhadrā, was born Abhimanyu, a hero who conquered all the atirathas, and to Abhimanyu, in Uttarā, was born Parīkshit. “When the Kurus, Duryodhana and the others, perished,” Śuka says, “you too fell into the jaws of death by the tejas of the brahmāstra loosed by Aśvatthāmā, son of Droṇa. But Śrī Kṛshṇa by his own glory freed you from death, and you live” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 22).

The kings still to come

The rest of the account of the Pūru line is told as what is still to come. Parīkshit‘s sons are Janamejaya, the eldest, Śrutasena, Bhīmasena and Ugrasena. Knowing that his father died because of Takshaka, Janamejaya will perform the sarpa-yāga and offer the serpents into its fire. He will conquer the whole earth, make Tura, son of Kavasha, his purohita, perform aśvamedhas and worship Bhagavān Śrī Hari. His son Śatānīka will receive the Veda from Yājñavalkya, the knowledge of astras from Kṛpācārya, and the knowledge of Vedic rites and of the Paramātmā from Śaunaka Maharshi. From Śatānīka the line will run Sahasrānīka, Aśvamedhaja, Asīmakṛshṇa and Nemicakra. When the Gaṅgā submerges Hastināpura, Nemicakra will live at Kauśāmbī. After him will come Citraratha, Kaviratha, Vṛshṭimān, Susheṇa Mahārāja, Sunītha, Nṛcakshu, Sukhīnala, Pariplava, Sunaya, Medhāvī, Nṛpañjaya, Dūrva, Timi, Bṛhadratha, Sudāsa, Śatānīka, Durdamana, Bahīnara, Daṇḍapāṇi, Nimi and Kshemaka Mahārāja, each the son of the one before. “So the Soma-vaṃśa, the root of the lines of the brāhmaṇas and the kshatriyas, honoured by the devas and the maharshis, has been told,” Śuka says. “In the Kali yuga it will surely come to its end with Kshemaka Mahārāja.”

Then he tells of the kings of Magadha still to come, of the line of Bṛhadratha: Sahadeva, son of Jarāsandha, then Mārjāri, Śrutaśravas, Ayutāyu, Niramitra, Sunakshatra, Bṛhatsena, Karmajit, Sṛtañjaya, Vipra, Śuci, Kshema, Suvrata, Dharmasūtra, Śama, Dyumatsena, Sumati, Subala, Sunītha, Satyajit, Viśvajit and Ripuñjaya, each the son of the one before. These kings of the line of Bṛhadratha will rule without a break for a thousand years (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 22).

In the twelfth skandha, when Parīkshit asks whose line remained on the earth after Śrī Kṛshṇa went to his own dhāma, Śuka says that Purañjaya, also called Ripuñjaya, will be the last king of the line of Bṛhadratha. His minister Śunaka will kill him and make his own son Pradyota king, and after the Pradyotanas will come the Śiśunāgas and then the Nandas. When a brāhmaṇa removes the nine Nandas from the kingdom, the Candra-vaṃśa comes to its end in the Kali yuga, and the Mauryas will rule. From Parīkshit’s birth to the coronation of Nanda, 1,115 years will pass (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 1).

The line of Anu

Anu, son of Yayāti, had three sons: Sabhānara, Cakshu and Paroksha. From Sabhānara the line ran Kālanara, Sṛñjaya, Janamejaya, Mahāśīla and Mahāmanas, each the son of the one before. Mahāmanas had two sons, Uśīnara and Titikshu. Uśīnara had four sons, Śibi, Vana, Śami and Daksha, and Śibi too had four, Vṛshādarbha, Suvīra, Madra and Kaikeya. From Titikshu the line ran Ruśadratha, Hema, Sutapas and Bali (not the daitya Bali). In the wife of Bali Mahārāja, from the maharshi Dīrghatamas, son of Utathya, were born Aṅga, Vaṅga, Kaliṅga, Suhma, Puṇḍra and Andhra, who founded six kingdoms in the east, each by his own name.

From Aṅga the line ran Khanapāna, Diviratha, Dharmaratha and Citraratha. Citraratha, who had no offspring, is also famous as Romapāda, the friend of Daśaratha, and Daśaratha gave him his daughter to raise as his own. When the rain-deva did not rain in Romapāda’s kingdom, beautiful young women went to Ṛshyaśṛṅga, son of Hariṇī and Vibhāṇḍaka. They danced before him to music and the sound of instruments, showed him their graces, embraced him, gave him gifts and brought him to the capital, and then the rains fell. Ṛshyaśṛṅga married Śāntā. He performed an ishṭi whose devatā is Indra, and by its power offspring were born to Romapāda; by that same yāga, Daśaratha, who had no sons, also had sons. Romapāda’s son was Caturaṅga, and Caturaṅga’s son Pṛthulāksha, who had three sons, Bṛhadratha, Bṛhatkarmā and Bṛhadbhānu. From Bṛhadratha the line ran Bṛhanmanas and Jayadratha, as the knowers of the Purāṇas say. To Jayadratha, in Sambhūti, was born Vijaya, and from him came Dhṛti, Dhṛtavrata, Satkarmā and Adhiratha. Adhiratha had no offspring. Kuntī Devī, while still a maiden, bore a child, put him in a box and let him go; Adhiratha, roaming on the bank of the Gaṅgā, found the child and made him his son. The son of Mahārāja Karṇa is Vṛshasena (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 23).

The lines of Druhyu and Turvasu

Druhyu’s son was Babhru, and from him the line ran Setu, Ārabdha, Gāndhāra, Dharma, Dhṛta, Durmanas and Pracetas, each the son of the one before. Pracetas had a hundred sons, who went to the north and became kings of the mlecchas.

Turvasu’s son was Vahni, and from him came Bharga, Bhānumān, Tribhānu and Karandhama, who had a great mind for dāna. Karandhama’s son Maruta had no sons and took as his son Dushyanta of the Pūru line. But Dushyanta desired the kingdom, and royal authority belonged to the Pūru line, so though Maruta had adopted him he took up again his own Paurava line (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 23).

The line of Yadu and the Haihayas

“Now I will describe the line of Yadu, the eldest son of Yayāti,” Śuka says. “This account of the line is very holy and takes away all the faults of men. The man who hears of the line of Yadu is freed from every pāpa. In this very line Bhagavān Parabrahma took a human form and descended.”

Yadu had four sons: Sahasrajit, Kroshṭu, Nala and Ripu. Sahasrajit, the eldest, had a son Śatajit, whose sons were Mahāhaya, Veṇuhaya and Haihaya. From Haihaya the line ran Dharma, Netra, Kunti, Sohañji, Mahishmān and Bhadrasena, each the son of the one before. Bhadrasena had two sons, Durmada and Dhanaka, and Dhanaka had four, Kṛtavīrya, Kṛtāgni, Kṛtavarmā and Kṛtaujas.

Kṛtavīrya’s son was Arjuna, Kārtavīryārjuna, lord of the seven khaṇḍas, who received yoga and the yoga-siddhis from Dattātreya, the aṃśa-avatāra of Śrī Hari. No king can equal him in yajña, dāna, tapas, yoga, jñāna, valour, victory and the punishing of the wicked. For eighty-five thousand years, with strength that never weakened, he enjoyed the pleasures of the six senses, and he never knew a day when his wealth was lost; for those who remember him too, the Purāṇa says, wealth is not lost. He had ten thousand sons, but in the battle with Paraśurāma only five came out alive: Jayadhvaja, Śūrasena, Vṛshabha, Madhu and Ūrjita.

Jayadhvaja’s son was Tālajaṅgha, who had a hundred sons, the Tālajaṅgha kshatriyas; their eldest was Vītihotra. Sagara Mahārāja received the Āgneyāstra from Aurva Maharshi and with it killed the Tālajaṅghas. Madhu had a hundred sons, of whom Vṛshṇi was the eldest. Because the line spread from Yadu, from Vṛshṇi and from Madhu, those born in it became famous as the Yādavas, the Vṛshṇis and the Mādhavas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 23).

Kroshṭu, Śaśabindu and Jyāmagha

From Yadu‘s son Kroshṭu the line ran Vṛjinavān, Śvāhi, Ruśaka, Citraratha and Śaśabindu, each the son of the one before. Śaśabindu was very great, a great yogī and a great enjoyer, a cakravartī who never knew defeat and who had the fourteen kinds of excellent things, beginning with the elephant, the horse and the chariot. He had ten thousand wives, and in them he begot ten thousand lakh sons, a hundred crore, of whom six were foremost, beginning with Pṛthuśravas and Pṛthukīrti. Pṛthuśravas’s son was Dharma, and Dharma’s son Uśana performed a hundred aśvamedha yāgas. Uśana’s son Rucaka had five sons: Purujit, Rukma, Rukmeshu, Pṛthu and Jyāmagha.

Jyāmagha had no children by his wife Śaibyā, yet in fear of her he took no other wife. Once, having conquered an enemy king, he brought from that king’s antaḥpura a maiden named Bhojyā, of the Bhoja line. Śaibyā saw her seated in the chariot and said in anger, “Deceiver, you have seated her in my place. Who is she?” “Your daughter-in-law,” said Jyāmagha. Śaibyā smiled: “I have no children and no co-wife. How can she be my daughter-in-law?” “O queen,” said the king, “the son who is to be born to you will marry her.” The Viśvedevas and the Pitṛ devatās approved his word. In time Śaibyā conceived and bore a fine boy, Vidarbha, who grew up and married the sādhvī Bhojyā, and so she truly became Śaibyā’s daughter-in-law (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 23).

The line of Vidarbha to Sātvata

Vidarbha had three sons by Bhojyā: Kuśa, Kratha and Romapāda, who gave joy to the Vidarbha line. From Romapāda the line ran Babhru, Kṛti, Uśika and Cedi, and to that line of Cedi belong Damaghosha, Śiśupāla and others. From Kratha the line ran Kunti, Dhṛshṭi, Nirvṛti, Daśārha, Vyoma, Jīmūta, Vikṛti, Bhīmaratha, Navaratha, Daśaratha, Śakuni, Karambhi, Devarāta, Devakshatra, Madhu, Kuruvaśa, Anu, Puruhotra, Āyu and Sātvata, each the son of the one before (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 24).

The sons of Sātvata

Sātvata had seven sons: Bhajamāna, Bhaji, Divya, Vṛshṇi, Devāvṛdha, Andhaka and Mahābhoja.

Bhajamāna had three sons by his first wife, Nimlāci, Kiṅkiṇa and Dhṛshṭi, and three by his second, Śatājit, Sahasrājit and Ayutājit.

Devāvṛdha’s son was Babhru. Of these two the elders recite two ślokas, whose meaning the text gives: “As we hear of Babhru and Devāvṛdha from afar, so they truly are when one comes near and sees them. Among men Babhru is the best, and Devāvṛdha is equal to the devas. In their line after them, fourteen thousand and sixty-five attained moksha by the power of these two alone.”

Mahābhoja too was a dharmātmā like Babhru and Devāvṛdha, and in his line arose the kings called the Bhojas.

Vṛshṇi had two sons, Sumitra and Yudhājit. Yudhājit’s sons were Śini and Anamitra. Anamitra’s son Nimna had two sons, Satrājita and Prasena. Anamitra had another son, also named Śini, whose son was Satyaka; from Satyaka the line ran Yuyudhāna, Sātyaki, Jaya, Kuṇi and Yugandhara, each the son of the one before. Anamitra had a third son, also named Vṛshṇi, whose sons were Śvaphalka and Citraratha. Śvaphalka, by his wife Gāndinī, had the famous Akrūra and twelve other renowned sons: Āsaṅga, Sārameya, Mṛdura, Mṛduvit, Giri, Dharmavṛddha, Sukarma, Kshetropeksha, Arivardhana, Śatrughna, Gandhasūda and Pratibāhu, and a younger sister, Sucīrā. Akrūra had two sons, Devavanta and Upadeva. Citraratha had many sons, Pṛthu, Vidūratha and others, all the best of the Vṛshṇi line.

Andhaka had four sons: Kukura, Bhajamāna, Śuci and Kambalabarhisha. From Kukura the line ran Vahni, Viloma, Kapotaroma and Anu, whose friend was Tumburu; then Andhaka, Dundubhi, Aridyota and Punarvasu, each the son of the one before. Punarvasu had a son, Āhuka, and a daughter, Āhutī. Āhuka had two sons, Devaka and Ugrasena. Devaka had four sons, Devavanta, Upadeva, Sudeva and Devavardhana, and seven daughters, Dhṛtadevā, Śāntidevā, Upadevā, Śrīdevā, Devarakshitā, Sahadevā and Devakī, and Vasudeva married all seven. Ugrasena had nine sons, Kaṃsa, Sunāma, Nyagrodha, Kaṅka, Śaṅku, Suhū, Rāshṭrapāla, Sṛshṭi and Tushṭimanta, and five daughters, Kaṃsā, Kaṃsavatī, Kaṅkā, Śūrabhū and Rāshṭrapālikā, who married Devabhāga and the other younger brothers of Vasudeva.

Vidūratha, son of Citraratha, had a son Śūra, and from him the line ran Bhajamāna, Śini, Svayaṃbhoja and Hṛdīka. Hṛdīka’s sons were Devabāhu, Śatadhanu and Kṛtavarmā (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 24).

Śūra, Vasudeva and their kin

The wife of Śūra, son of Devamīḍha, was Mārishā, and by her Śūra had ten spotless sons: Vasudeva, Devabhāga, Devaśravas, Ānaka, Sṛñjaya, Śyāmaka, Kaṅka, Śamīka, Vatsaka and Vṛka. Vasudeva was to be the father of Śrī Hari, and so when he was born the dundubhis and kettle-drums of the devas sounded of themselves; for this he became famous as Ānakadundubhi.

The ten brothers had five sisters: Pṛthā, Śrutadevā, Śrutakīrti, Śrutaśravā and Rājādhidevī. Śūra gave Pṛthā as a foster-daughter to his childless friend Kunti, and so she was called Kuntī. Kuntī pleased Durvāsa Maharshi by her service and received from him a vidyā for calling the devas. To test it she called Sūrya, most pure, and at that very moment Sūryadeva stood before her. Amazed, she said, “I used the vidyā only to test it. Forgive me and go.” “My darśana will not be in vain,” said Sūryadeva. “I will give you a son, and I will bless you so that no fault comes to your maidenhood.” He placed the garbha in her and went to Sūryaloka, and at once a boy was born like a second Sūrya. Afraid of the world, with great difficulty she left the boy in the waters of a river. Pāṇḍu, Parīkshit‘s great-grandfather, who showed valour for the sake of truth, married Kuntī.

Śrutadevā married Vṛddhaśarmā, king of Karūsha. Vijaya, who had received a śāpa from Sanaka and the other ṛshis, had been born as Hiraṇyāksha, son of Diti, and was born again from Śrutadevā as Dantavaktra. Śrutakīrti married Dhṛshṭaketu, king of Kekaya, and bore five sons, Santardana, Pratardana and others, the princes of Kekaya. Rājādhidevī married Jayasena, and their two sons became rulers of Avantī. Śrutaśravā married Damaghosha, king of Cedi, and her son was Śiśupāla.

The brothers of Vasudeva married the daughters of Ugrasena. Devabhāga, by Kaṃsā, had Citraketu and Bṛhadbala; Devaśravas, by Kaṃsavatī, had Suvīra and Ishumanta; Ānaka, by Kaṅkā, had Satyajit and Purujit; Sṛñjaya, by Rāshṭrapālikā, had Vṛsha, Durmarshaṇa and others; and Śyāmaka, by Śūrabhū, had Harikeśa and Hiraṇyāksha. Vatsaka, by the apsarā Miśrakeśī, had Vṛka and others, and this Vṛka, by Durvārkshī, had Taksha, Pushkara, Śāla and others. Śamīka, by Sudāminī, had Sumitra, Arjunapāla and others, and Kaṅka, by Karṇikā, had Ṛtadhāma and Jaya (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 24).

Vasudeva’s wives and sons, and the birth of Śrī Hari

Vasudeva‘s wives were Pauravī, Rohiṇī, Bhadrā, Madirā, Rocanā, Ilā, Devakī and others, and Devakī was the chief of them.

  • By Rohiṇī: Bala, Gada, Sāraṇa, Durmada, Vipula, Dhruva, Kṛta and others.
  • By Pauravī: twelve sons, Bhūta the eldest, Subhadra, Bhadravāha, Durmada, Bhadra and others.
  • By Madirā: Nanda, Upananda, Kṛtaka, Śūra and others.
  • By Kausalyā, that is Bhadrā: one son, Keśī, who gave joy to the line.
  • By Rocanā: Hasta, Hemāṅgada and others; and by Ilā, Uruvalka and other leading Yādavas.
  • By Dhṛtadevā: one son, Vipṛshṇa.
  • By Śāntidevā: Śrama, Pratiśruta and others.
  • By Upadevā: ten kings, Kalpavarsha the eldest.
  • By Śrīdevā: six sons, Vasu, Haṃsa, Suvaṃśa and others.
  • By Devarakshitā: nine sons, Gada and others.
  • By Sahadevā: eight sons, Puruviśruta and others, as the Vasus were born to Dharma himself.

By Devakī, generous Vasudeva begot eight sons, counting Śrī Hari: Kīrtimanta, Susheṇa, Bhadrasena, Ṛju, Sammardana, Bhadra and Balarāma, the avatāra of Śesha. “O Parīkshit Mahārāja,” Śuka says, “to Devakī and Vasudeva Śrī Hari himself was born as the eighth son.” They also had a daughter, Subhadrā, “that great puṇyātmā, your father’s mother” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 24).

Why Śrī Hari came in this line

Whenever dharma declines in this world and pāpa grows, Śrī Hari, Jagannātha, himself takes avatāra. He is beyond prakṛti, pure awareness, dwelling in all beings as their ātmā. He takes avatāra by his own māyā-śakti and performs his līlās; there is no other cause, such as past karma, for his birth or his acts. By the play of his māyā the jīva is born, lives and dies, and it is his grace that removes that māyā and brings a man to him. When rākshasas were born as kings, gathered armies of many akshauhiṇīs and became a burden on Bhūmi, Śrī Hari set out to lighten that burden.

The līlās that Śrī Hari, the slayer of the rākshasa Madhu, performed together with Balarāma, the avatāra of Saṅkarshaṇa, such as swallowing the forest fire, the leaders of the devas cannot imagine even in the mind. He spread his most pure kīrti to bless the bhaktas who would be born in the Kali yuga; for those who sing it, it removes suffering of body, grief of mind and ajñāna. His fame, amṛta to the ears of the good, is itself a great tīrtha: one who sips from it even once, with the ear as the cupped palms, washes away the bond of karma. The Bhojas, Vṛshṇis, Andhakas, Madhus, Śūrasenas, Daśārhas, Kurus, Sṛñjayas and Pāṇḍus ceaselessly praised his līlās.

With glances full of love and generous words spoken with a smile, his form beautiful in every limb, Śrī Kṛshṇa delighted the world of men with his līlās of valour. His cheeks shone with makara-shaped earrings, and his face was radiant with a playful smile. Men and women who drank in that face with their eyes were never satisfied, and they were angry with King Nimi for bringing the blink into the eyes. Purushottama was born in his own form and then took a human form. He left his father’s house, which was a prison, went to Nanda‘s Gokula and made its welfare grow. He took many wives and begot hundreds of sons by them. He worshipped himself through kratus and gave renown to the Vedic path that is his own. Through the quarrel born within the Kuru line he had the wicked who burdened the earth slain in battle, destroyed the armies of the great kings by his glances alone, and proclaimed the victory of Arjuna. Then he taught Uddhava the supreme truth and went to his own dhāma, Vaikuṇṭha (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 24).

Śrī Kṛshṇa’s sons and the line of Vajra

Each of Śrī Kṛshṇa‘s queens bore him ten sons, none less than their father in form and every quality. The sons of the eight chief queens were:

By Rohiṇī, one of the sixteen thousand, he had Dīptimān and others. The mothers of his children numbered more than sixteen thousand, and their sons and grandsons were in crores (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 61).

Of these sons, eighteen mahārathas won wide fame: Pradyumna, Aniruddha (a grandson), Dīptimān, Bhānu, Sāmba, Madhu, Bṛhadbhānu, Citrabhānu, Vṛka, Aruṇa, Pushkara, Vedabāhu, Śrutadeva, Sunandana, Citrabāhu, Virūpa, Kavi and Nyagrodha. Rukmiṇī’s eldest son Pradyumna resembled his father. He married the daughter of Rukmī, Rukmavatī, and their son was Aniruddha, born in the city of Bhojakaṭa, who had the strength of ten thousand elephants. Aniruddha married the daughter of Rukmī’s son, and their son was Vajra. When the Yadu-vaṃśa was destroyed on account of the musala, Vajra alone remained. From Vajra the line ran Pratibāhu, Subāhu, Śāntasena and Śatasena, each the son of the one before. In this vaṃśa no one was born poor, without many children, short-lived, of little valour or without devotion to brāhmaṇas. The number of those born in the Yadu-vaṃśa cannot be fixed even in thousands of years: Śuka has heard that the ācāryas who taught its boys numbered three crore eighty-eight lakh, and in the kingdom of Ugrasena alone there were ten lakh crore people. The rākshasas who had died in the devāsura war were born as men and oppressed the people; to punish them Śrī Hari commanded the devas to be born in the Yadu-vaṃśa, and their clans, such as the Vṛshṇis and Andhakas, numbered a hundred and one. All the Yādavas followed Śrī Kṛshṇa’s command and flourished, and with their minds fixed on him they forgot even their own bodies (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapters 61, 90).

When Yudhishṭhira left the kingdom, he crowned Parīkshit in Hastināpura as emperor and in the same way crowned Vajra, son of Aniruddha, at Mathurā as lord of the Śūrasena land (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 15). In the eleventh skandha, after the Yādavas were slain, Arjuna took the women, children and old people who remained to Indraprastha and there had Vajra crowned (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 31).

Sources

  • Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 12–13, 274–278, 383
  • Garuḍa Purāṇa, Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapters 139 and 140
  • Vāyu Purāṇa, Uttarārdha (second half), Chapters 2 and 3
  • Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 22–23
  • Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapters 60 and 65–71
  • Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 74
  • Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Pūrṇa Kāṇḍa, Chapters 1–4
  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 15; Skandha 9, Chapters 1, 14–24; Skandha 10, Chapters 61, 90; Skandha 11, Chapter 31; Skandha 12, Chapters 1, 12