Viśvedevas

Viśvedeva · viśve-deva, “all the devas”

The Viśvedevas, also called the Viśve Devāḥ or “All-Devas”, are a gaṇa (a class) of devas. They are honoured throughout the Vedic and Purāṇic tradition and are called upon especially in śrāddha, the rite for the ancestors. Their name means “devas of all worlds” or “devas belonging to the universal order”.

The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa tells that they are the ten sons of Dharma and his wife Viśvā. The Mahābhārata, in its last book, shows them as the divine source into which many great kings of the Bhārata age returned.

The Vāmana Purāṇa names the Viśvedevas in the host of the devas in many of its great accounts. They rose when Vīrabhadra entered Daksha‘s yajña, and they ate the puroḍāśa there when Bhagavān Śiva came. They marched in the middle of the deva army against the daitya Andhaka and against Bali. Bhagavān Vishṇu called on them in his blessing for Skanda. They dwell in the Sudarśana cakra, and Śukra saw them within Bhagavān Śiva. Prahlāda saw them within the infant Vāmana in Aditi‘s womb, and when Bhagavān Vāmana took his cosmic form at Bali’s yajña, the Viśvedevas had their place in it.

Birth and names

The Viśvedevas are the ten sons of Dharma through his wife Viśvā. Viśvā was one of the ten daughters of Daksha Prajāpati who were given to Dharma. Each of Dharma’s ten wives bore a particular class of beings, and Viśvā’s ten sons are the Viśvedevas.

The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa gives their names:

  1. Kratu
  2. Daksha
  3. Śrava
  4. Satya
  5. Kāla
  6. Kāma
  7. Dhuni
  8. Kuruvanta
  9. Prabhavanta
  10. Rocahana

All ten are śubha (auspicious). They are shining devas, and they are among the main gaṇas of the Vaivasvata Manvantara.

Place among the deva-gaṇas

The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa counts the Viśvedevas among the eight chief deva-gaṇas of the Vaivasvata Manvantara: the Ādityas, Vasus, Rudras, Sādhyas, Viśvedevas, Marudgaṇas, Bhṛgus and Aṅgirasas. They stand beside the Sādhyas, the twelve sons of Dharma through Sādhyā, as the hosts of devas born of Dharma.

Like the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, the twelve Ādityas, the Maruts and the Sādhyas, the Viśvedevas are a class of devas worshipped together, not a single figure. They live in svarga and attend upon Indra. In the Svargārohaṇa Parva they have a settled place there, radiant and imperishable.

Role in śrāddha

The Viśvedevas are among the main receivers of śrāddha offerings. They hold a set place in the ancestral rite beside the Pitṛ-devatās. The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa says that an offering made to the Viśvedevas at the start of the śrāddha makes sure the ancestors receive the offering in full. In this way the Viśvedevas guard the bridge between the living and the departed.

Where the Bhārata heroes went

In the Svargārohaṇa Parva, Sauti (Ugraśravas) tells the final destinies of the heroes of the great war. He names the Viśvedevas as the aṃśī, the whole into which a company of kings and Yādava chiefs merged once their karma was spent. The portion (aṃśa) of each of them returned to its source.

Those who merged into the Viśvedevas were:

Per Vāmana Purāṇa

The Vāmana Purāṇa is told by Pulastya Maharshi to Nārada Maharshi. It does not tell the birth of the Viśvedevas, but it names them, again and again, among the devas who take part in its accounts.

At Daksha’s yajña

Daksha Prajāpati held a great yajña and did not invite Bhagavān Śiva, and Satī Devī gave up her body. Vīrabhadra, lord of Śiva’s gaṇas, came to Kanakhala with the gaṇas, fought Dharma and drove him back, and entered the yajñaśālā (the hall of the yajña). As soon as they saw him enter, all the devas there stood up: the eight Vasus, the nine grahas, the twelve Ādityas headed by Indra, the eleven Rudras, the Viśvedevas, the Sādhyas, the Siddhas, Gandharvas and Kiṃpurushas, the Pannagas, the Yakshas, the birds, the Cakradharas and others.

Then Bhagavān Śiva himself came into the yajñaśālā. The eight Vasus fled at the sight of Hara, and the path by which they fled became a river. The eleven Rudras left their places and fled. The Viśvedevas, the Aśvins, the Sādhyas, the Maruts, Sūrya and the Agnis ate the puroḍāśa, the rice-cake offering of the yajña.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 4–5

In the deva army

When the daitya Andhaka, son of Hiraṇyāksha, had conquered the whole earth and came near the peak of Meru, Indra (Devendra) mounted the elephant Airāvata and went out against him, and the other dikpālas followed with their armies. In the deva army the twelve Ādityas went in front and the Rudras behind. In the middle went the eight Vasus, the Viśvedevas, the Sādhyas, the Maruts, the Aśvins, and all the yakshas and vidyādharas, each on his own vāhana.

Later, when Bali, son of Virocana, set out with the rākshasas to make war on the devas, Indra mounted the chariot brought by Mātali, and the devas went out to meet the daitya armies: the Ādityas, the Vasus, the Yakshas, the Rudras, the Sādhyas, the Viśvedevas, the Aśvins, the Vidyādharas, the Rākshasas and the Pannagas, the Rājarshis, the Siddhas and many bhūtagaṇas. Some rode elephants, some horses, some went in chariots, and some mounted vimānas and bird-vāhanas.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 9, 47

In the blessing for Skanda

When Skanda had been consecrated leader of the deva armies, Devī Umā sent him to bow at the feet of Bhagavān Vishṇu. Bhagavān Vishṇu blessed him with a svastivācana, the words of blessing for well-being, so that Skanda would win victory and Mahisha would be destroyed. In it he said: “May the Viśvedevas, the Aśvins, the Rudras with śūla in hand, the Sādhyas, the Maruts, the Agnis, the Yakshas, the Piśācas, the Vasus and the Kinnaras, all of these, always help your rise (abhyudaya).”

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 32

Within Bhagavān Śiva

In the war of Andhaka against Bhagavān Śiva, Nandīśvara seized Śukra, the guru of the daityas, and brought him before Śiva, and Śiva put Śukra into his mouth and swallowed him. Held in Śiva’s belly, Śukra praised him, and Śiva bade him come out. Seeking the way out, Śukra saw within Śiva’s belly the bhuvanas (worlds) beginning with Pātāla, the oceans, all beings moving and unmoving, the Ādityas, the Rudras, the Vasus, the Viśvedevas and the rest, the hosts of yakshas, kinnaras, gandharvas and apsarases, the munis and the humans.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 43

In the Sudarśana cakra

Dharmaśīlā told her son Upamanyu how Bhagavān Vishṇu received the Sudarśana. The rākshasa Śrīdāma had carried off Lakshmī Devī, and Janārdana went to Bhagavān Śiva on the Himācala and stood on the big toe of one foot for a thousand years in tapas. Bhagavān Śiva gave him the divine Sudarśana cakra as a vara and described it: it has twelve spokes, six naves and two axles; in its spokes are the devatās, the twelve months, the twelve rāśis and the six seasons; Sūrya, Candra and Agni, Varuṇa, Śacīpati (Indra), the Viśvedevas, the Prajāpatis, Hanumān, Dhanvantari and others are in it. It is made of all the devas and was fashioned for the protection of the good.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 56

In the cosmic form of Bhagavān Vāmana

As soon as the water of the gift fell on his hand at Bali’s yajña, Bhagavān Vāmana took a form made of the whole world to cover the three worlds. Every deva had a place in that form: the Viśvedevas were in his waist, the Maruts in the vasti and the head, Manmatha in the liṅga and the Prajāpatis in the testicles.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 65

The Saro Māhātmya of the Vāmana Purāṇa also tells of Bhagavān Vāmana. When Prahlāda searched in dhyāna for Śrī Hari, there appeared to him the child Vāmana in Aditi‘s womb, and within that small infant he saw the whole universe: the Vasus, the Rudras and the Aśvins, the Maruts, the Sādhyas, the Viśvedevas and the Ādityas, and all the rest. Later, at Bali’s yajña, Vāmana showed his virāṭ form, made of all the devas. Its eyes were Candra and Sūrya, its head dyuloka, the realm of light, and its knees the Viśvedevas; in its knees, too, stood all the great yajñas and the rites of the brāhmaṇas.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 8, 10

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 5
  • Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 5
  • Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 4–5, 9, 32, 43, 47, 56, 65
  • Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 8, 10