Aurva (Rudra)
Aurva, “the one born of the thigh”
Aurva is a Rudra, the raudra tejas that Brahmā established as master of the Śaśimaṇḍala. He is also called Dahana and Vāḍava. Bṛhaspati tells this to Devendra.
The account
In the twelfth Dvāpara of the Cākshusha manvantara, kshatriyas of the Tālajaṅgha line destroyed the brāhmaṇas of the Bhṛgu line at Kurukshetra. A brāhmaṇa’s pregnant wife, in fear, held her garbha for a hundred years by the power of tapas. The child, not bearing this, split open his mother’s thigh and came onto the earth, and by his tejas the whole world began to burn to ash.
The devas, placing Prajāpati before them, came to him in fear. By the command of the Pitṛs and the devas the boy threw that tejas into the midst of the waters. Jaladevī took the form of a mare and drank it, but pained by it she vomited it out. Brahmā came to Trikūṭa mountain and placed the tejas in the dreadful ocean below it.
Again Parameshṭhī Pitāmaha, when the Sun came into Mesha rāśi, established that raudra tejas in the form of a Rudra as master of the Śaśimaṇḍala.
The names
- Aurva, because born of the ūru (thigh)
- Dahana, because it burns the world
- Vāḍava, because it came from the mouth of the mare
That Dahana produced tejas from his own mouth, and it became famous as Kshetraśarmā in the house of a Sārasvata brāhmaṇa living at Kurukshetra.
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 12