Prācetasas and Mārisha

The Prācetasas are the ten sons of Prācīnabarhi. They did tapas (austerity) for ten thousand years under the ocean. While they were gone, trees covered the earth. When they came out, they were angry and began to burn the trees. Soma, the Moon, stopped them and gave them Mārisha, a woman born of the trees. From her, Daksha Prajāpati was born, who filled the worlds with creatures. This account is in the Poorva Bhāga of the Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa.

The line from Pṛthu to Prācīnabarhi

In the Cākshusha Manvantara, the great Manu Cākshusha came from the line of Dhruva. Pṛthu had two sons, Antardhāna and Pāvana, and the line went on from them. Antardhāna’s son was Havirdhāna, born of Śikhaṇḍinī. Havirdhāna had six sons by Āgneyī, and Aṅga was the eldest. By Sunīthā, the daughter of Mṛtyu, Aṅga had a son Vena. From Vena’s arm, when it was churned, arose Pṛthu, the first king.

Pṛthu’s son Prācīnabarhi was a great prajāpati, the protector and supporter of all beings. The tips of his darbha grass always pointed east, and this gave him his name. He did great tapas, and then he married Savarṇā, the daughter of the ocean. Savarṇā bore Prācīnabarhi ten sons. All ten were masters of dhanurveda (the science of the bow) and all were equal in strength. These ten are called the Prācetasas.

The tapas of the ten Prācetasas

All ten Prācetasas, together and of one mind, did tapas for ten thousand years, sunk in the waters of the ocean. They were bound to dharma in every part and never left the path of right conduct. They undertook this hard austerity with one mind and one aim.

Trees cover the earth

While the Prācetasas were deep in their tapas in the ocean, the trees of the earth grew without check and without any ruler. They grew with huge force. The great trees and their forests spread until they covered the whole face of the earth. They grew so thick and so tall that:

• the light of the sun could not reach the earth
• the wind (vāyu) could not blow through the leaves
• the sky itself seemed to be made of trees

For ten thousand years the people could not carry on their work and suffered from complete helplessness. All farming and all the work of society stopped. This is said to have happened in the time after the Cākshusha Manvantara, as the Vaivasvata Manvantara was about to begin.

The anger of the Prācetasas

The Prācetasas came out of their tapas in the ocean and saw this ruin. They were seized by deep anger. To set the world right, they let fire and wind (vāyu) go from their mouths. The wind tore up the trees by their roots and threw them down. The fire burned the fallen trees. A terrible vṛksha-kshaya (destruction of trees) was near. The great forests of the world were close to being wiped out.

Soma’s gift of Mārisha

A great disaster was coming. Many trees still stood, and the rest would soon die too. Then Soma, the Moon, came to where the Prācetasas stood in their anger and spoke to them:

O sons of the Prācetasas! O kings! The purpose is already done; your anger has reached its aim. Let your anger be put out. Trees will be born again on the earth; let the fire and the wind be stilled.

Soma then brought before them a woman of unmatched beauty and said:

This woman is the daughter of the trees themselves. She is the crown jewel of all womanhood in the three worlds. I knew the future, and so I carried her in my own womb. Her name is Mārisha. The trees themselves made her. She shall be your wife by dharma.

From your tejas joined together, half yours and half mine, a great Prajāpati named Daksha will be born from her. He will be equal to Agni in power. This great Daksha will raise and increase the children that your fire destroyed. He will fill the three worlds with new creation.

The marriage and the birth of Daksha

The ten Prācetasas were moved by Soma’s words. They calmed their anger and took Mārisha as their common wife by dharma. She conceived through mānasika union, union by shared intention. From this union, with a share of the tejas of the Prācetasas and a share of Soma’s own tejas, Daksha Prajāpati was born. He was born with a share (aṃśa) of Soma, and he shone with vīrya (vigour) and great tejas.

At first Daksha created by mānasa (mental) means. Later he created through maithuna (union). Through his wife and also through mental creation he made the cāracara, the moving and the unmoving world, with creatures of two feet and four feet. After that Daksha created women. He gave his daughters in these shares:

• Ten daughters to Dharma
• Twenty-seven daughters to Candra, who are the nakshatras, to order time
• Some to Kaśyapa and others, from whom came the many kinds of beings in all the worlds
• Four to Arishtanemi
• Two each to Ishuputra and Aṅgiras
• One to Kṛśāśva

In this way the sixth Manvantara, the Cākshusha, came to an end, and the seventh, the Vaivasvata, began.

The question about Daksha’s birth

The ṛshis at Naimishāraṇya asked Sūta about this. In one account Daksha is born from the prāṇa of Brahmā. Here he is the son of the Prācetasas. Sūta answered:

Creation and dissolution go on for ever among all beings. In every yuga Daksha and others like him arise and dissolve again. The learned are never confused by this. What returns in every manvantara is the same pattern: the same names, the same duties, the same order. Each rises anew in its own time, and each carries forward the eternal dharma of creation.

The Purāṇa also mentions the śāpa (a curse) of Tryambaka. Through it, Daksha was born as the son of the Prācetasas during the Cākshusha Manvantara. This is linked to the events around Satī’s humiliation at Daksha’s earlier yajña.

Sources

• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Poorva Bhāga