Pracetas, Kaṇḍu and Mārishā

This account tells how Daksha Prajāpati came to be born. It is told in the Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, in the Prathamāṃśa, Chapters 14 to 16. It joins three episodes: the tapas of the ten Pracetas in the ocean and the appearance of Bhagavān Vishṇu to them; the story of Kaṇḍu Maharshi, whose tapas was broken by the apsarā Pramloca; and the birth of Mārishā from the sweat of Pramloca as she fled. Mārishā became the wife of the Pracetas and the mother of Daksha.

The tapas of the Pracetas

Manu Svāyambhuva had a son, Priyavrata. Priyavrata had a son, Prachīna-barhish. Prachīna-barhish performed many yajñas (fire rituals) and ruled over the earth. He had ten sons, who are known together as the Pracetas. Before he left to do his own tapas, he gave them this command: “Go forth and fill the world. Fill the earth with beings, for this is the command of Brahmā.”

The Pracetas did not turn to the path of the householder. They went into the cosmic ocean and sank into its depths. There they did tapas (austerity) for ten thousand years. They meditated on Vishṇu, the supreme Brahman, who is the lord of the waters as much as the lord of the sky.

Bhagavān Vishṇu was moved by the strength and purity of their devotion. He appeared before them in the ocean in his glorious form, holding the śaṅkha (conch), the cakra (discus), the gadā (mace) and the padma (lotus). He shone like ten thousand suns, yet he was gentle to look at for those who loved him. The Pracetas were full of joy, and they made a great stotra (hymn of praise) to him.

In the stotra they called Vishṇu the one cause of all causes. They called him the ātman (self) that lives in all beings, the inner witness that speech and thought cannot reach, and the supreme light (param jyoti) that lights all things and is not lit by anything else. They called him the one beyond the three guṇas, the eternal Purusha, in whom the whole world rests like flowers strung on a thread.

Vishṇu was pleased. He blessed them, and told them to finish their duty in the world, which was to fill the earth with beings, before they turned fully to moksha (liberation). He told them that a wife named Mārishā would come to them. Through her they would father Daksha Prajāpati, who would in turn bring forth all kinds of living beings. When this work was done, they would be free.

Kaṇḍu Maharshi and Pramloca

While the Pracetas were in the ocean, the great ṛshi Kaṇḍu Maharshi was doing hard tapas in the Gandhamādana forest, on the slopes of the Himālaya. His tapas was so strong and his renunciation so complete that Indra, the king of the devas, became afraid. A ṛshi like Kaṇḍu might gain enough tapas to challenge even the rule of Svarga.

Indra called Pramloca, one of the most beautiful and gifted of the apsarās. He sent her to Gandhamādana with orders to draw Kaṇḍu away from his tapas. Pramloca came down to the forest and found the ṛshi deep in meditation. She began her art. With dance, song, her lovely form and gentle talk, she slowly drew Kaṇḍu out of his withdrawn state.

Kaṇḍu’s fire of tapas was banked down for a time by desire. He lived with Pramloca in the Gandhamādana forest. To him it seemed a short time of happiness, a few pleasant days. But when he came out of this state and looked at the world around him, he saw that 907 years had passed. The sun had gone through its cycles hundreds of times. The seasons had turned past counting. The forest had grown and changed. Almost a thousand years had melted away in what felt like a moment of pleasure.

The truth struck Kaṇḍu like a thunderbolt. He turned to Pramloca, his voice low with held-in anger: “You have robbed me. You came here as the tool of Indra’s fear, and you have stolen almost a thousand years of my tapas. Go.”

Pramloca was afraid of the force of his anger and the clearness of his sight. She turned and flew out of the forest.

The birth of Mārishā

As Pramloca fled through the forest and across the sky, something wonderful happened. Sweat shook from her limbs as she passed through the branches and leaves. The trees caught her sweat, the wind stirred it and the earth received it. From this a being began to take shape.

Mārishā was born from this, not from a mother’s womb, but with the forest itself as her source. She grew up in the forest, without human parents. She became a woman of great beauty and wisdom. She lived in the forest until the Pracetas came out of the ocean, newly blessed by Vishṇu.

Mārishā marries the Pracetas

When the ten Pracetas came out of the ocean after their tapas, Mārishā came to them in the forest. She said she wished to be their wife, the wife of all ten brothers together and not of one. This was an unusual match. But the Pracetas remembered the words of Vishṇu, that a wife would come to them and that Daksha would be born through her. They understood that this was the promise coming true.

They accepted Mārishā as their common wife. From their union, Daksha Prajāpati was born.

Daksha brings forth the creatures

Daksha Prajāpati, born of the Pracetas and Mārishā, became one of the great fathers of the living world. He took up the work of creation that his fathers had been told to do, and that they carried out through him. Daksha brought forth the creatures of the world through his many daughters. Among them were Ditī and Aditi. From the sons of Ditī come the daityas, and from the sons of Aditi come the Ādityas. These are the two great orders, asura and deva, whose struggle drives the cycles of the world’s history.

The line runs from Manu Svāyambhuva to Priyavrata, to Prachīna-barhish, to the ten Pracetas, and to Mārishā, and then to Daksha.

Sources

• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Prathamāṃśa, Chapter 14 (the tapas of the Pracetas and the appearance of Bhagavān Vishṇu)
• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Prathamāṃśa, Chapter 15 (Kaṇḍu Maharshi, Pramloca and the birth of Mārishā)
• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Prathamāṃśa, Chapter 16 (Mārishā’s marriage to the Pracetas, the birth of Daksha and his creation)